Fireplace/Masonry Q's and A's

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Off-center Fireplace Love is blind! Wife & I fell in love with a 3-year old home on an acre of land. After moving in, we found that either the Fireplace is off center, or the windows are. Window on one side is 2" from the mantel, 6" on the other side. How expensive to fix this problem? Or, do we hide it with curtains? Of course, that won't hide the same sight on the outside of the house! Cover the difference with drapery on the inside of the house. This is about your only recourse without spending an exhorbedent amount of money and headaches. Architects are not INTERIOR Designers and often balance windows and such with the EXTERIOR of a home and not the interior. Had a few instances worse then yours in some clients homes. I wondered where they heck their brains were that day.

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I will give you the worse instance I say. Two story house....bay window first floor, master bedroom above, 21' wall. To balance the upstairs windows with the downstairs bay they installed two small windows that matched the center bay window 2" apart right where a bed would be placed in the upstairs bedroom. INSTEAD they could have placed two windows further apart to compliment the bay underneath but used the two outer sides of the bay instead.

Raising the hearth

I have a hearth by the fireplace that is made of marble and is flush with the carpet. I would like raise the hearth. What type of materials would I need, and how would I construct it?

Usually the hearth base is poured level with the floor and out under the wall to cantilever the weight. Now if this has been done and your firebox is high enough to allow raising the hearth you can lay block to form for height and face with whatever material you prefer.

Fireplace

We installed two Heatilator(Brand) fireplaces in our home more than twenty years ago. The Chimney caps have long since gone with the wind. The local stores do not seem to carry this brand any longer. Is this company still in business?

It would appear that they are very much in business. Their website is at the url below and there phone number and address is1-800-843-2848 or via U.S. Mail at Heatilator
1915 West Saunders St.
Mt. Pleasant, IA 52641
http://www.heatilator.com/index.html"

 

BRICK HEARTH

I WANT TO LAY BRICK FOR A WOOD STOVE HEARTH. THE FLOOR SPACE IS ABOUT 5'X 5' I'VE NEVER DONE THIS WORK BEFORE. I CATCH ON QUICKLY.

Never having laid brick before is not really a big problem when laying hearth brick. It may take longer but you should be able to do the job. The first thing you have to determine is if the floor in the area is stable and strong enough to hold the brick. Normal brick with the holes weigh an average of 3# apiece paver brick 4# the 5 x 5 area will take 175 laid normally (about 525#) with pavers 112.5 (about 450#) these numbers do not include mortar or the weight of your stove so add for them when decideing if you are in the load range of the floor. When you start to lay the brick I would build a frame 5'x5'and 2 5/8" high for pavers 4" for regular brick mark the sides of the frame every 4" for pavers every 2 5/8"for reg.

This will keep your brick sq. and you can level your brick by using a 2x4 and mallet or hammer.If you can level them without this a string line is all that is needed.The spacing marks will allow for your joints. I would use type O mortar but you may have trouble finding it. If you want to mix it yourself the mixture is 1 part portland 2 parts hydrated lime 9 parts sand. Type N will work but it is not as elastic as type O and may crack more from the heating and cooling caused by the stove.

Because you have not done this before I suggest you lay the brick in a bed of mortar and don't worry about buttering each brick. Once the brick are in place bag the grout in between the brick and finish the joints with a concave jointer.

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