River rock chimney

[revid]

Just built my log cabin and now want to start on my river rock chimney for my wood stove. Anyone here ever make a rock chimney?

[Don P]

I call Ed,


 

 
This had a flue tile inside a block core that was heavily rebarred and poured solid then the stone with brick ties and more reinforcement. He said I was making him lay rock in a bird cage  :D

We did cover the glass!

For the interior fireplace I fabbed a blast gate to close off the outside air intake to the interior. Check out, I think chapter 10 in the codebook for details. Footing, most of the old ones didn't have a big or thick enough footing, spread that load out on a thick, heavily reinforced snowshoe.

[Tom King]

I've done a number of them.  We have an abandoned Granite quarry on our place.  I used stone from there to build several, over the 33 years that I built new spec houses.

I stopped building new houses in 2007, didn't want to have one on the market in 2008, and have been working on 18th, and 19th Century houses since then.  I've redone some old stonework, to match the original, and am getting ready to rebuild a whole basement foundation under a 1798 house.

What is the question/questions?

Not only the best manufacturer of tools, but Trow & Holden has a bunch of worthwhile videos on youtube.    https://trowandholden.com/

Their tools are mostly for cutting stone.  Not sure of the type of river rock you have available.  Mostly it will require finding the right stone for the right spot, but there is always some cutting needed.

[nopoint]

Need a large stable footing! Your chimney will be heavy! Also make sure to leave space around your flue if using clay tile. Bedding in the tile tightly will crack it. Should mention, I am no expert just do some repair work occasionally on chimneys and stone work and these are my observations

[revid]

Thanks guys for the info. I was planning on laying a slab down first that will be on bedrock! Then pouring / building up to floor level. Then starting from there with chimney so footing will be good and not an issue.Was thinking about 6"clay liner and building chimney around that . Was wondering about grout/ cement  mixture?

[whiskers]

chimneys need inspecting and cleaning, an outside cleanout access and tilt away spark arrester/trim cover helps with both. you might want to think about future ladder placement. 
will the damper be in the chimney or stove pipe?
outside combustion air?
the thimble and flue should be equal or larger than any stove pipe that will ever be attached. you might consider 8" which is common with larger stoves. 
 
check local codes for finish height,  here it's 2' above any combustables within 10'.

[Crusarius]

I highly recommend a steel pipe for chimney. 

I have been to too many chimney fires with those old clay tile chimneys. 

The creosote starts to buildup in the cracks and leaches out. Then when it starts to burn the fire creeps into the walls of the house.

Typically they start out small but there have been many times we end up cutting half of the house off of the chimney to get the fire out.

Plus running a brush through a steel chimney is a very easy task. Simple preventative maintenance. Alot of times when one of those end up on fire the fire puts itself out by the time we get there.

[Tom King]

All the 18th, and 19th Century houses that I've worked on, around here, have the flue stacks out away from the house.  I think it was a mistake to get away from this design.

They just have a single thickness of bricks all the way up above any shoulders, and these are the houses that haven't burned down yet.  You know they burned a Lot of wood in those fireplaces.

Those houses were built mainly for staying cool in hot weather, so you know they had to throw wood to those fireplaces when it got cold.


The one to the right in this picture rises 5 feet above the ridge.  The one on the back is not finished yet.  Hurricane Hazel blew the tops off of the two chimneys to the left.  We had rebuilt the one to the left.

[ShapingGrain]

Very interesting, I have never seen this design before.

[Tom King]

There's more room between the stack, and the house than it looks like in that picture.  That chimney is 43 feet tall.  I'm not sure when they stopped building them like that, but I have no doubt they were like that for the obvious reason.

[Tom King]

In Colonial times, in Philadelphia, you were required to have your chimneys cleaned every month.  If they had been swept, and still caught fire, the chimney sweep paid the fine.  If it caught fire, and you hadn't had them swept, you paid the fine.

[Ed_K]

 After a chimney fire at our house the clay tile cracked real bad so I broke it all up and cleaned it out and replaced it with a stainless flue. I clean my chimney every month to 6 weeks. When we had the fire it had gone 2 months cause I was to sick to get up on the roof. We built a lookout tower to get in the attic and have a ladder to climb an walk onto the peak.