First post here on byggahus after many years of reading I hope I'm writing a comprehensible post.
We have a brick wall in the middle of the house that contains two fireplaces. One is very small facing the dining room and on the other side (from the dining room), a larger one facing the living room. They are not located in the same position in the brick wall but are placed a bit apart from each other and have their own damper but go up into the same chimney.
The large opening has the dimensions W 87cm, depth 40cm (+19cm hood) and height 67cm.
The small opening has the dimensions W 52cm, height 39.5cm, depth 42cm.
We would like to get more heat from these and are thinking about installing inserts that match the style of the house. We are thinking they should not protrude outside the wall but just be as large a glass as possible flush with the brick.
The brick wall is 66cm thick.
The challenges we see are twofold.
1. The smaller opening towards the dining room is very small, making it difficult to install an insert that isn't custom-made (and even if custom-made, there's very little glass area to enjoy the fire through).
2. Both openings are shallow. 42cm in the fireplace towards the dining room and 40cm in the living room (adding 19cm plastered hood).
QUESTIONS for all experts on the forum......
1. What possibilities are there to enlarge holes in brick walls in general, and more specifically for us (from what can be seen in the pictures) in terms of width, height, and depth?
We would like to install a Contura i5 in the small hole. It needs a hole 48cm tall, 55cm wide, and 45cm deep.
2. Are there any large inserts that would fit in the large hole? I've searched like crazy and can't find a perfect solution. If you were to use the extra depth of the hood, you have a depth of 59cm.
In the large fireplace, I would probably have found a small, perhaps used, stove and placed it in the opening. Builds more vertically than an insert does.
We are probably quite sure that we don't want anything on legs in the holes except that it should feel more custom-built. We understand your thought and we have pondered on it....
edit: I'm going to start looking for used items anyway! We previously found a really nice used stove for the summer cabin at a really good price.
Scanspis has a few more models that might fit in your opening with some adjustments (chisel and drill!)
They removed the bricks around, drilled and hacked them away, plastered, and installed the stove. All in one day. However, our fireplace was somewhat deeper so that was not an issue.
This is how it looks now:
Like a modern flat-screen TV! It provides good radiant heat right in front of the glass, but it's a bit tricky to burn. It's easy for smoke to come in if you open it and the wood isn't completely burned. You can't open and add more while it flames, then the flames and smoke turn inward into the room because the opening is so large. Also, it easily soots up the glass if you turn down the damper a bit, it has to be burned hard to keep the glass clean.
But despite a few objections, we love our stove insert, don't regret for a second that we installed it as it's used every night in winter!
In the small stove, there may be a layer of fireproof brick; if there is, it can be knocked away if you have an insert. In the cottage, we did this and made room for a small Keddy insert. If you want to get some heat effect from it, you need to ensure that you can circulate the air around the insert and out into the room.
Thank you for the very interesting response! Especially good since it was very similar to our situation! I missed something happening in the thread because I thought I had email notifications on.
We have also looked at a DSA75 for the larger opening. Nice, but it's a pity it's tricky to fire it. We have had a Handöl in the summer house, and it has been great to use for firing, only sooting on the glass with the damper set very low...
I have now started chiseling out the fireproof bricks, and it has gone well. Just like you enlarged by taking out the bricks framing the opening, we want to do the same. Then we will have room for a Contura i6 with a cast iron front that fits well with the house's style. Completely straight door.
What I wonder is how the craftsmen were able to remove the upper part of the bricks? I have two horizontal reinforcement bars there that I suspect carry the forces from above so it doesn't collapse. Can these be cut and the reinforcement placed higher up? The question is whether one can temporarily be without this reinforcement when removing the upper frame and then insert new reinforcement a row up. Or must the structure be supported in some other way during the work? If so, how is this done?
Picture of the challenge where reinforcement carries at the top of the hole. How do you enlarge upwards without it collapsing while moving the reinforcement?!
Picture of the challenge where the reinforcement is carrying off at the top of the hole. How do you enlarge upwards without it collapsing while moving the reinforcement?!
Dusting off this thread that's a few years old!
I'm facing the same problem as your last post in the thread, removing the top row of bricks but there are rebar that seem to be holding it all up.
I am facing the same problem as your last post in the thread, to remove the upper row of bricks but there are rebar that seem to support the whole thing.
Did you solve it in any way? 😊
Hi! Slow response. Now I'm back home again. After some thought, the craftsman removed the rebar without relief. Then he installed some other variant a row of stones up. Hope that helped! Good luck!
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Vi vill skicka notiser för ämnen du bevakar och händelser som berör dig.
I hope I'm writing a comprehensible post.
