The
Structo-lite plastering
(stuccoing?) is complete and I don't mind telling you I don't know what to
think. I really really liked the bricks, but with the small and annoying smoke
leaks in the mortar, this was the option Dan went with. The second test fire
confirmed it was a good choice because thanks to better sealing of the thermal mass, the smoke by-pass, and improvement #4, the stove
worked beautifully!
Improvement #4 was to enlarge the built-in damper in the firebox door. It just
wasn't large enough for a good air flow to get the fire started.
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| Our firebox door. Photo from Masonry Heater Project |
The slots on the bottom are the damper, with the cute knob to adjust the air intake. For our particular type of stove, this air intake needs an area of 2 & 3/8 square inches. The original door damper was less than 2 square inches and so the fire had trouble catching. Dan enlarged the air slots to the required specs and that made a big difference.
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| The photo's a little dark but hopefully you can see the difference. |
For our 2nd test fire, better initial air flow made it easier to get the fire going.
My challenge now is the aesthetics of the thing. The plaster is off-white,
which looks brighter compared to my pale gold walls. Off-white is a nice
neutral color, but in my mind it needs to coordinate with it's color environment to its best advantage. I'm seriously re-thinking my living room color scheme!
That's one thing I'm contemplating. The other is the solidness of the color.
The subtle color variations in the brick gave the stove visual texture which
is gone now. So that's the other thing I'm thinking about. The thing is,
aesthetics is highly subjective. So there is no right or wrong, it's just a
matter of what one likes.
The most important thing is that the problems we had have now been addressed and the stove is functioning as it should. It burns more efficiently with very little ash left in the firebox afterward, and the thermal mass retains and radiates the heat beautifully.
While I decide how to address the visuals in the living room, Dan is in the planning stage for finishing the back of the stove and rebuilding the closet in the front bedroom.
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| Finishing the wall and remodeling the closet will be two separate projects. |
We have our indoor winter projects cut out for us.
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