Fireplace in CM

[neilrob]

Right now, a fireplace seems like the last thing I would want. However, a couple of months ago it would have come in very handy! So I decided to have one installed to be ready for next winter.

In truth, although I expect it to be useful, it is mainly an exercise in nostalgia, since the houses I grew up in always had fireplaces. If anyone else wants one, for function or nostalgia, PM me and I'll put you in touch with the contractor.

[augustwest]

Doesn't look like fire brick inside

[NancyL]

Don't you live in a condo?

[Trujillo]

However, a couple of months ago it would have come in very handy!

Yes, for two whole days and nights.

Why not buy a plastic one with fluttery red lights for flames? They do sell such things.

[anto]

Getting ready for Santa next Christmas ?

[ttthailand]

There are a few programs on Netflix with burning logs. You can hear the crackle and see the wood burning. Shut off the lights, burn a few candles, and open a nice bottle of wine. All without the mess or expense. Maybe not exactly the same but good for condo life

[NancyL]

You don't even have to subscribe to Netflix. Plenty of burning log videos on YouTube. But, they wouldn't have done much to warm up the place during those three or four nasty cold days in January:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fYL_qiDYf0

[neilrob]

Doesn't look like fire brick inside

It is granite---better than firebrick

[neilrob]

You don't even have to subscribe to Netflix. Plenty of burning log videos on YouTube. But, they wouldn't have done much to warm up the place during those three or four nasty cold days in January:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fYL_qiDYf0

Hi Nancy,

No, I don't live in a condo---I own condos at NKP. but do not live there. I agree with you that a video would not have done much to warm up the place. At my house, which is surrounded by trees and therefore quite cool (which is a good thing at this time of year), there were a few weeks last winter when a fireplace would have been useful.

However, much more important, no one could possibly be nostalgic for a video---who would want to watch a bad fake! I am nostalgic for the real thing.

Cheers, Neil

Edited March 25, 2016 by neilrob

[pgrahmm]

Time to go out & fell - round - split - season & stack a few cords of firewood....

Ah - those were the days.....

Brought in 6-9 cords a year.....

Edited March 25, 2016 by pgrahmm

[pgrahmm]

Hope he's got it angled - flued - and dampened correctly for you....

Can't be too many around here that are well versed in fireplace & chimney construction.....

[pgrahmm]

Dale here: I'm not claiming any particular rocket stove expertise, but I can assure you that granite is unsuitable as a replacement for firebrick.

I have cracked granite into thousands of little pieces just by using it as a campfire surround and I've seen it completely crumble after a barn fire. It would do the same thing in the extreme heat of a rocket stove.

Firebrick are manufactured by breaking up fired clay into thousands of little pieces and then compressing these pieces together with fresh clay to make a brick. When this new brick heats and cools it acts like thousands of little bricks so that it doesn't fracture as one unit. Granite on the other hand will act as a single unit and it will break up. Also fired clay can handle higher temperatures than granite can.

If you go into craigslist or any of those other resale sites there are probably lots of free firebricks from demolished chimneys. I give away several tons of them every year.

Be careful burning.....

Edited March 25, 2016 by pgrahmm

[CMBob]

..... I'm not claiming any particular rocket stove expertise, but I can assure you that granite is unsuitable as a replacement for firebrick.

Agree totally....and I'm equally doubtful that the mortar (or whatever they used) in the joints will be able to handle the heat. OP, presuming your photos show a real fireplace and you actually intend to burn in it, please be very careful.

Edited March 26, 2016 by CMBob

[Dante99]

A friend put one in his new CM house about 9 years ago. Used it once or twice a year for the kids for the first few years then it sat unused and still sits unused.

[CNXBKKMAN]

You don't even have to subscribe to Netflix. Plenty of burning log videos on YouTube. But, they wouldn't have done much to warm up the place during those three or four nasty cold days in January:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fYL_qiDYf0

I stayed at the Luxor Las Vegas last November. It was cold at night about 7 'c. Coming back to the room and putting the burning log channel on the big flat screen was bizarrely very pleasant.

[ilostmypassword]

I tried using granite as a pizza stone in my oven. It cracked after the first bake. What I learned later is that sometimes granite will be okay, other times not. But that was for an oven. A fireplace gets a lot hotter. Have you tested it yet?

[northernjohn]

I don't think many people understand the word nostalgia.

I feel it would be nice but is beyond my means as I live in a condo and have no desire to live in a house.

But it would be nice. One winter we heated are whole house with one and a lot of trees that we had to get rid off.

I even enjoyed the cutting and splitting of the wood.

[slipperylobster]

We just sit outside, as the neighbors are always burning wood. Not quite as cozy as indoors,

[opalred]

i built one in my home some years ago after spending many cold winters here

maybe 2mnts ayear but last few years only had a few weeks of cold

but great to sit in front of wood fire

iwas a builder granite will explode on high heat

just stack clay bricks in front of granite at bottom where high heat will be

cheers allan

[HaleySabai]

Nice, what about a metal mesh for the front cover?

The problem here is finding wood..good clean burning wood. Tamarind or longan burns clean and hot and is maybe the closest thing to cedar,spruce or birch in terms of making a nice fire. Difficult to find,snapped up very quickly for the making of commercial charcoal. The pine available at higher elevations is very smokey, as is mango. Our neighbor recently cut (to re-shoot) all his aging longan trees and sold the considerable amount of wood to one guy for 800b per. truck load, I couldn't even get a load out of him at double offer, the wood was all spoken for.

Good Luck (with the granite) and enjoy those (imaginary) frosty evenings next winter.

Edited March 26, 2016 by HaleySabai

[slipperylobster]

A wood burning stove would be nice...and pellets. Fireplaces and chimneys...seems like a bit mod to the house.

[arunsakda]

Sitting beside the fire feels warm and all but if not engineered properly even the nice enclosed wood burning stoves literally

suck the heat out of the house.

Edited March 27, 2016 by arunsakda

[pgrahmm]

Sitting beside the fire feels warm and all but if not engineered properly even the nice enclosed wood burning stoves literally

suck the heat out of the house.

They can - my house in the Sierras had an effectively simple system....Small fans over the doorways took the heat at the top of the room and distributed down the halls to the other rooms & and small fans above the doorways.....

Once you settled in and had a burner (all night log) and the vents adjusted for slow draw on the stove the house stayed pretty nice....

[MadMac]

They have these fake ones I think in Global. You could also install a flatscreen, in warm days just connect a XBOX or Playstation

[cyberfarang]

Looks dangerous. Is there a chimney? How are the fumes expelled? And there are hanging curtains right next to it. The curtain on the right all ready seems to have caught fire.

[jollyrog]

This is from the 'Truth or not' category from a Thai guy 12 years ago........In 2004 I bought a 2 story house built in year 2000. It had a nice fireplace and chimney as did most of the larger homes in the moo baan. I looked up the chimney and there was no flue or damper. As everyone knows with out those devices the heat generated is going straight up and out. The Thai guy gave me the answer. It all began before electric fans and air conditioning.

First it is 'STATUS'........The chimney is a way of telling everyone who passes by you have wealth.

Second........On a real hot humid summer day all windows and doors would be closed; a small fire would be built in the fire place which would draw the humidity and heat from inside the house and up the chimney.

Makes sense to me and the mantle gives us a place to display our wedding photo and my urn when the time comes.

[neilrob]

I’m posting a follow up because I’ve now had a chance to use the fireplace several times during this cool and surprisingly rainy season (although I must admit that my use of it has been more for reasons of nostalgia than necessity) . But mainly because my last post attracted a number of strangely gloomy posts suggesting the fireplace would not work or would collapse immediately I lit a fire. One poster (post #25) even seemed to disbelieve in the very existence of a chimney and wanted to know where the smoke would go! So I want to update the record. I’m pleased to say that it works very well, it puts out a nice amount of heat and there was no damage from a total of more than a dozen hours of use. And, yes, it does have a chimney! I’ve attached a photo of it in use.

The rock facing is not of course structural. The actual structure of the hearth is a six inch thick block of well reinforced concrete. The chimney is of double walled brick construction. The hearth and chimney are both very wide and deep---about twice as wide and twice as deep as the grate. So the walls of the chimney are not normally in direct contact with the fire in the grate and show no signs of any damage whatsoever (let alone collapsing as some posters seemed to imagine would happen…) They hardly even show any significant smoke markings. The hearth directly under the grate gets very hot of course. However the only evidence of this is some insignificant flaking of the surface of the decorative rock facing. The second photo shows it after a total of more than a dozen hours of use.

If any other Thaivisa members are suffering from nostalgia at this  wintry time of year and would like to put in a fireplace, then PM me about whom to contact.