Does anyone here just have a masonry fireplace?

Is that basically a masonry heater. All that stone gets hot?

 

Since Scotty posted his pics Ill do mine. Its not as cool as his but here its is. This first pic is the fireplace in a framhouse up the road that was getting torn down. The owner let me remove the stones to put in mine when I remodeled. I disassembled it piece by piece,put it on pallets and took home til I needed them. This is a pic of it done before the shelves were built. It wasnt exactly the same but you can see the similar pattern. I had a headstone company put my initial and year we remodeled on a scrap from a headstone and put it where the light was.
Here is a pic after we were settled back in.

 

LOL. I had the idea but it took many people and a loan from the bank to do it all. I added 10 feet to the livingroom so I had my Stepfather dig the basement and footer out. Hired the local cement contractor, hired the local bricklayer to do the block then do the chimney. Then had my friends Dad,whos a retired mason, put the stones up with my help. Then had a carpenter build the shelves,Im not that good with whittling wood.
As for the Rookie part that was my CB handle when I started driving trucks and I think no matter what I do Ive got alot to learn. Thanks for the compliments though!

 

Whoa! Scotty and Rookie, you guys really outdid yourselves. Both of those look great and to do a lot of the work yourselves... I'm not on that level yet. This is what I'm working with now. If we do anything it'd be just adding an insert, although she did mention a big built-in bookshelf thing when we first moved in...

 

In another 3.5 months, you'll be able to have another fire.

 

If I open the windows and start a fire now, I'd bet I could draw air from outside and cool the house off. Sort of like a whole house fan, only not.

 

I'd bet it would do that without a fire as long as the home's inside air was warmer than the inside of the chimney. Open the chimney damper and let her rip. Of course you'll have to be good with the occasional bat and bird that decide to move it. Maybe that fire's a good idea...

 

My home has two masonary fireplaces, living room and bsement. The basement one has what was once called a 'heat-a-lator' warms the basement great. I installed a fireplace crane in the basement one from Lemee's Boston. My wife and I are really enjoying learning to cook over a fire in the basement ala 18th century. Great on cold winter nights with nice red wine, and dinner over the fire.

On a more pratical note, I use a pre EPA wood/coal stove to heat my shop where I run my chainsaw business.

 

I've had it with humidity. I can't wait till we can all just let 'er rip in the fall. My humidistat shows indoor humidity in the 50 - 60 % range even with A/C on. In winter, I'm fighting to keep it over 20 %. That's the difference between 75 degrees and miserable in summer and 75 and comfortable in January.

 

It is amazing how humidity effects our comfort level, in different temps.

 

That's probably how people can live in Phoenix and not die. 85 degrees and very humid may be worse than 105 and bone dry.

 

With the little one we've only used it twice, both times after he went to bed. The basement work should be finished in the next couple of months and the old stove is down there. Hopefully I'm burning wood by Feb...

 

If I had my way, we'd have a wood stove and an open fireplace. Watching the secondaries is nice, but I'd much rather sit in front of and watch an open fire.

I really like the old hand forged stuff and all things primitive for that matter. I found this piece recently. I don't think it's very old, but the craftsmanship is excellent. The handle goes from solid to tube with the seam forged together. Love the crudeness of it.

 

My MIL has what she calls a "Russian fireplace" in her home. I remember it from when my wife and I were dating and I would come over, never took interest in it then. I remember it as a red brick wall about 10' by 3' with an access door to the burn chamber on one end and a chimney on the other. On the chimney end there is also a hearth that has a wood stove that I think is using the same flue as the Russian fireplace. I haven't been in the house in probably 20 years, my MIL is a nice lady but she has become a hoarder since my wife and I married and my in-laws divorced, my wife doesn't even go in the house much anymore. I've asked my FIL about the Russian fireplace, he built it himself along with the rest of the house. He said he only used it a handful of times, said it would "blow you out of the house" because of the heat production. He didn't really want to talk about it much, the divorce was bitter. I'd love to get in the house and check it out someday.

 

The key to those was alot of radiating mass and the flue gas being redirected as many times as possible to release energy. I think those are very cool.

 

I love fireplaces. Our next home will hopefully have a living room fireplace and an outdoor wood boiler.

Scotty Im always in awe of how beautiful and classy your hearth is. Rookie yours looks great too.