Please tell me about this 1950 fireplace
I’ve been planning toward building a new home but a coworker said I just had to check out this older house for sale.It’s on a two acre lot,next to a beautiful ravine.I have a few questions and if anybody could help me out I’d really appreciate it.The first question I have is about fireplaces .There is a fireplace in the basement and one in the living room.Both have metal fireboxes.I’ve never seen anything but firebrick in a fireplace,can these be usable or are they just for looks? If not good enough could they be rebuilt with firebrick?Realtor says the owners haven’t used them much in recent years because they go to Florida for winters.These seem to have ducts built in that come out at 4′ , like a heat circulating system.No gas lines,so it’s not a 50’s era gas fireplace.
The house has the most bizarre feature I’ve ever seen in a home.A Bomb Shelter.Re-inforced concrete walls in the basement corner,sink and toilet,shelves,hot water fintube zone.When I pulled up to the house,4 degrees F.,I noticed a manhole cover by the back steps,completely thawed of all ice and snow.I thought maybe a cistern cover,but I thought even though the ground’s warmer it shouldn’t have melted the snow off this cover.Later I find that just outside the basement wall is the bomb shelter exit under this lid.There’s a special jack in the corner to lift the lid from inside.I could make it through the Apocalypse!
Barry
Replies
Sounds like standard 50's Atomic Furnace construction. Thoes pesky North Korean are building them now...........
Do you think they're using that f---ing knotty pine paneling too? I HATE that!
Makes great kindling! I stripped a whole house of that stuff almost 30 years ago. Used it for years for miscellaneous stuff. In short lengths it was way better than what passes for clear now. A trip through the planer and new wood, smelled great too.
Joe H
Barry, sounds like those fireplaces are the early heatalator units. Mildly insulated. If what I'm thinking of, woodburners. The idea was that hot air would circulate out of those vents. I'm used to seeing a pair of lower intake vents. I don't know if you could layup firebrick inside w/o putzing with the firebox size restraints. With doors, these were at best OK heat producers. Early versions of fireplace inserts.
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Remodeling Contractor just outside the Glass City.
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Sounds similar to our fireplace, built in 1952 when the living room addition was done. Brick fireplace with metal firebox inside, but because there is an abandoned exterior cleanout on ours, I suspect the metal firebox on ours was added later, and might have firebrick behind it.
There are four metal grilles on the front of our fireplace, two at the bottom and two about 4' up, on either side of the firebox. They do not open into the firebox. As the fire burns the ducts get warm and the air inside rises out the top, and cold air at the floor is then sucked in and warmed on its way out.
It works surprisingly well for being so low-tech - it can overheat the room quickly if we're not careful.
"A completed home is a listed home."
Barry
I have a fireplace that has a metal firebox, my house was built in 1974 in N.E.Pa.
there are 4 air registers that are bricked into the face of the fireplace 2 on each side.supposedly there is an airchamber surrounding the metal firebox and as the firebox heats up it radiates warm air into the room.
You have to be carefull though because my framing around the fireplace caught fire once, firedept had to come and put it out. The original builder framed right up to the firebox and years and years of using the fireplace had dried the wood out to the extent that it lowered the temperature that wood caches fire and presto.
One cold march day I had the fire going for about 18 hours,it eventually died and then as we were going to bed i turned off the lights and you could see glowing inside the air registers,which as i said before were placed outside the firebox, so i called the fire co. they came and soon as they opened up the wall it flared up.
take heed
These seem to have ducts built in that come out at 4' , like a heat circulating system.No gas lines,so it's not a 50's era gas fireplace.
Do you mean like 4" deep ribs running vertically at the back of the firebox? I see them from time to time in NW Ohio in that era house.
Check out the ribs closely for any burn through - if there are holes, you could pick up large anounts of CO from the fire and circulate it into the hosue.
With any fireplace, get a class II fireplace inspection from a good fireplace inspector or certicified chimney sweep.
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"I may have said the same thing before... But my explanation, I am sure, will always be different." Oscar Wilde
Thanks everybody.The set-up sounds identical to Lisa's.If I do buy it,I'm sure I'll have a ton more questions.