Redneck chimney extension

I have been trying to figure out a free way to make my chimney taller. I was given some return air ducting a while back and it is going to get the job. I have been reworking it a bit. It wont be pretty but it should be fine for holding the liner up. The chimney is on the less traveled side of the house too so it won't get much attention. I also got the liner ordered today. I was torn between Running a T or just running the liner right into the back of the stove. I decided to go with out the T. I can always add one later and this will save me 200 bucks for now. It should also eliminate a few more places for the draft to suck air other than the stove, giving me more reliability hopefully.

Grout is done

I had to go out of town for a week but my super awesome wife finished up the grout for me.

Stove Test Fit

Tile is almost all down.

We had another work evening after work. We put in another 5-6 hours. We got all the front done except 2 little pieces on the the left. We will finish up the sides tonight. They should be pretty easy. There are no real small cuts to make and they should be the same all the way up. Then we may start the grout. It sounds like slate is a bit harder to grout than other tile...figures. We should be able to unload the stove tonight too.

Stove is here.

Well we went to pick up the stove yesterday. I took a phone pic but I guess I didn't get it saved. We put it in the back of the 4runner with a forklift, and just scooted it the rest of the way. It is still setting in the back. I am waiting for my Brother in law to come over and help me unload it. More pics then.

The eternal tiling project...

This tiling project is taking much much much longer than I ever expected. We have spent about 12-15 hours on this so far. The first time we got started we did not realize the slate tiles were all a different size. So we had to take them all down. The next day we sorted them into sizes so that helped a bunch. Then there is the problem of cutting these. The slate just wants to split. So cutting all these little tiny pieces is almost impossible. I am using a grinder with a hitachi wet/dry diamond blade. It cuts fine but the tile just splits. So for each small piece, you have to cut about 3 tiles until you get a piece of slate that is strong enough. Its coming though. I am hoping we can finish tomorrow but I wont put any money on it. Then hopefully we can grout on friday. The stove shop called and said the stove is in. We will be picking that up today. I leave on monday for the Show for work so I really want to have the tile done and the stove setting in place so all I have to do is the chimney when I get back. I only have a week and a half to get the chimney together before the academy starts and I don't want this project looming over my head.

Everything is Rolling Now.

Like I said yesterday the wife pitched in picked up the tile. I found it at Creative Associates. I was looking for some 6x6 darker colored natural looking tile. I had looked at lowes and home depot but was not to thrilled with the prices. I went to Creative Associates and I found some slate 4x4 and 3x6 tile for 1.75 a sq foot. I thought that was pretty good especially for slate. I sent my wife out to check it out and she approved and bought it. I had the hardibacker ready to go so I mixed up some thinset and stuck the small piece down inside the fire place. It went pretty smooth but I used more thinset that I thought I would have to. My wife had taped off around the big piece of hardibacker so we dumped the rest of the thinset out and she set to work spreading it out while I went and mixed some more up. I accidentally mixed up way to much this time though. We finished spreading it out for the big piece of hardibacker then laid it down. I put in a bunch of screws for the part that was on the wood. I think it should stay no problem. Since we had gobs of thinset left, I decided we could use it to fill some of the joints in the brick. Hopefully it will allow us to use less when we go to lay the tile and I wont have to buy another bag of the stuff. After that job we un-boxed about 3/4 of the tile. it was really dusty so we thought we should wash it down a bit bit so the dust didn't prevent it from sticking. I am not sure if it will make a difference or not but it couldn't hurt.

Another good day

I got a few more little things done yesterday. The first thing I did was crawl up on the roof and got some more measurements.That is for a different post though. I cut the corners of the hardibacker and got the final trimming done so it is ready to be stuck down. I went by the tile store and scoped things out. My super awesome wife picked the slate tile up today. I also got the stove ordered. It should be here next week so I want to have the tile done by then.

More Progress

I actually got a lot done today. I finished stripping the paint off the fireplace and then I got the hardibacker cut pretty close to size. The small back piece is good. I still need to decide on my exact dimensions of the large front piece though. I found out the manual was a bit misleading when it came to the size of the jotul f100. Apparently the legs on the stove are actually 16 inches apart. That is going to put me at 34 inches out from the front of the fire place. The peice of hardibacker comes at in at 36. So is it worth cutting those 2 inches out? Also will it look better to angle the corners of the hearth or leave it straight? I also need to decide if what tile to go with. That is going to have an impact on how big the angles are if I do go that route. Decisions... diecisions...