Diy wood fireplaces

The wood fireplace is the center with an open fire chamber which bears decorative and heating function. Fireplaces with wood heating are recommended to be built in private houses and cottages, since it is almost impossible to obtain permission to build a fireplace in a residential high-rise building. The construction of the fireplace takes a lot of time and requires significant financial costs.

In this article we will talk about how to make a wood-burning fireplace with your own hands, give drawings, photos and video instructions.

It is necessary to build a structure in compliance with fire and technical safety standards.

Preparatory work

To begin the construction of a wood-burning fireplace, it is necessary to carefully design the project. It is necessary to draw up at least an ordinary drawing, which will further help in the process of erection of this device, as well as come in handy during the calculation of the required amount of consumable, general construction and finishing materials.

First of all, you should decide on the location of the wood fireplace in the room.

The best place to build a wood-burning fireplace is the supporting front or internal wall or the angle at which the two bearing walls intersect.

Most importantly, do not place the hearth in a place that is blown through by a draft or near a flight of stairs. It is undesirable to build it also in front of window openings.

Next, you should determine the size of the structure. The size of the hearth depends on the relationship of its parameters to the volume of the room. In order for the wood-burning fireplace not to cause the smoke of the room and to have good heat dissipation, it is necessary to carefully calculate the ratio between the width of the portal, the height of the firebox and the depth of the firebox.

Design features

The design of the fireplace consists of a chimney and a firebox. Do not make the firebox too deep. If you do not follow these rules, there will not be enough heat in the room. Inside the fireplace, where the firebox is connected to the chimney, a gas threshold is established. Its function is to prevent the flow of air entering the fireplace, and prevent sparks from escaping from the furnace. Thanks to the regulation of the air flow, which is carried out by this threshold, soot and smoke will not enter the room.

The width of the threshold design in accordance with the width of the chimney, or do a little more. It will be enough to exceed 1-2 cm. The gas threshold should not narrow the chimney, in order to avoid smoke, it is erected strictly horizontally.

Wood fireplaces have a relatively weak burden. Therefore, caps are installed above them, in which smoke accumulates in order to bring it out after a while.

Construction technology

First you need to build the base of a wood fireplace, i.e. build a foundation for it. To do this, prepare a pit with a depth of approximately 50-60 cm, and line the bottom with a layer of gravel. Sand is poured over gravel (crushed stone) and cement solution is poured on top. The base is made below the floor level at approximately 10 cm.

The foundation base of the fireplace can not be tied to the foundation of the house to avoid cracking the structure during precipitation and further operation.

Before building a fireplace, between the foundation of the house and the base of the fireplace lay two insulating layers of roofing material.

The brickwork of a wood-burning fireplace is made of high-quality refractory bricks using a trowel, be sure to soak the stone in the water beforehand (at least for a day). The solution for the arrangement of the firebox and smoke box, which is made of clay and sand, is leveled with a hand, and then they wipe off the excess, making the masonry surface more even and smooth. In order to achieve an even slope of the rear wall, the screen is embedded in it in advance, and the arches of the hearth are laid out of bricks using a stepped overlap.

Chimney shelf, as one of the main elements of the external design of the fireplace, can be laid out in various shapes or made of various materials. It must be remembered that it must be protected in advance from excessive heat by adding additional layers of stone, brick or concrete to the design of the fireplace.

Since it is not easy to make a wood-burning fireplace by yourself, you should constantly stick to the compiled drawing. To make the hearth durable and durable, you need to keep track of the horizontal position of the masonry, the geometry of the angles and the proportionality of the dimensions. In the decoration of the fireplace, you can use natural and artificial facing materials: marble, dolomite, ceramics or granite. In a more traditional version, so popular today as the country style or the Mediterranean style, the exterior finish can be left in the form of brickwork or just be carefully plastered and painted.

By following these recommendations, you can quickly and efficiently set up a reliable and durable wood-burning fireplace in your home.

Video

The process of creating a wood fireplace is described in detail in the following video:

You will also be interested to know about the process of creating stoves, fireplaces:

Blueprints

Thanks to these drawings, you can imagine the design of fireplaces that will help you to build them without outside help: