7 Clean Sweeps for Fireplaces
With natural gas and propane prices continuing to rise, you'll likely be looking to the old fireplace this winter to help cut your home-heating bills. But before you spark up the logs, take heed that fireplaces and chimneys are involved in 42 ... [... more]
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Easy Mantel Makeover
Cover up the ends of the bricks on both sides of the firebox with slate tiles cut 35/8 in. wide. Use a rubber mallet to firmly set the slate into the mortar. Thin cardboard strips act as tile spacers. Press the tiles into the thinset mortar above ... [... more]
This Old House |
Good Wood Fires
Before you succumb to your primal urges and set even a single log ablaze, be certain you've taken the steps required to make the fires you start this season as successful—and safe—as possible. Mark Schaub, of Chimney Savers in Hillsborough, New ... [... more]
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How to Install A Mantel: Overview
Lifting the mantel can be a challenge, but it's easily assembled and attached to the wall The stockings are hung by the chimney, but who cares? That mantel they're strung from is a joke. Its boring profile may have looked pretty festive dressed ... [... more]
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How to Tile a Hearth: Overview
Why is it that the mantel always gets all the attention? Sure, it flaunts the grand shelf, the carved legs—it's the frame around the flames. But mantels come and go. It's the hearth that's always been there, an ornate buffer between the fire and ... [... more]
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How to Install Glass Fireplace Doors : Overview
But, be warned: frames are heavy and doors can scratch if you're not careful. A cozy fire on a cold night is a delight. But it loses its charm when you must wait for it to burn out before heading to bed. A wood fire left untended isn't safe. ... [... more]
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Clean Heat
The first time Brenda Flick fired up a pellet stove was on a cold winter's day in 2005. And her life hasn't been the same since. Within a year, she had quit her job, rented some retail space, and started selling them herself. "I knew it was the ... [... more]
This Old House |
Get More Heat from Your Fireplace and Wood Stove
Wood pellets pack a lot of punch in a small package. Made of compressed sawdust, they burn cleaner than traditional firewood. That's because they contain less moisture—typically between 3 and 8 percent compared with 20 to 50 percent for firewood. ... [... more]
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Installing a New Mantel
The design of the mantel—the decorative frame around the stone or brick surrounding the firebox—should harmonize with the style of your house. In a traditional setting, it might have additional woodwork, called an overmantel, above the shelf (see ... [... more]
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Carved for the Hearth
Vintage mantels are typically sold "as is," with peeling paint and crackled varnish. The fireplace was long ago rendered obsolete as a primary home heating source, yet it remains a favorite gathering place. A flickering fire—wood or even gas—is [... more]
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One Hot Fireplace
Early one morning, supplier Jeff McNear and I left a brick yard in San Rafael and headed for San Francisco to watch the This Old House crew shoot the construction of a Rumford fireplace in a 1906 Arts and Crafts-style church. The Rumford ... [... more]
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Comfortable Construction: Temporary Heat in a Cold Climate
One of the challenges of winter construction, at least here in brutal New England, is temporary heat. How do you give the workers some relief from the cold while parts of the building have no windows? How do you heat the building without choking ... [... more]
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