Autumn is a beautiful time of year. Summer heat turns into cooler temperatures and less humidity. Trees show off fall colors in all their glory. Autumn is also the time to prepare for winter and if your home has a working fireplace now is the time to prepare it for winter use. I’ll review these steps later but I would like to mention a couple overlooked items first.
First, there are three fireplace/chimney components
The ash dump pit is under the fireplace (fire box) floor. The ash dump sits on the fireplace floor and generally is a louvered grate (trap door) with a lever that opens and closes as needed. The standard opening is 4 inches by 8 inches but the trap door looks bigger since it has a wide flange that fits over the opening. The ash dump pit is directly below the fireplace floor. On some homes there is a clean out door on the exterior wall just behind the fireplace on the chimney wall. In older homes
The fireplace mantel goes by several names, grumpy, sneezy, doc, oh oh, wrong story. The mantel is also known as the mantel piece, mantel shelf and chimney piece. In addition, the mantel can include the surround and can extend upwards to the ceiling. Stone circles in the middle of a primitive dwelling constituted the first form of a fireplace. Then in medieval times
Chase – Our first fireplace component is the chase. Chase is a a construction term meaning a framed space through which a flue, duct or conduit passes. The chimney chase includes the extension of the chimney above the roof line. It’s purpose is to direct heat and smoke away from the roof.
Chimney Chase Cover
I -Early Use. Three major divisions of earth history are Cosmological, Geological and Anthropological/Archaeological.
The Cosmological time period includes the big bang event 13.8 billion years ago and the subsequent creation of the universe.
The Geological time periods include the origin and evolution of the earth from about 4.5 billion years ago. Geological time periods are the Eon, Era, Period and Epoch. The Cenozoic Era is from about 65 million years ago to the present. The Tertiary Period is from from about 65 million years to about 1.8 million years ago. The Quatenary Period is from about 1.8 million years ago to the present. The Pliocene Epoch is from about 5.3 to 1.8 million years ago. The Pleistocene Epoch is from about 1.8 million years ago to 8,000 years ago. Finally, the Holocene Epoch is from about 8,000 years ago to the present.
The Anthropological/Archeological time periods
Your Fireplace Damper. What is a damper? If you use your damper will 20 gallons of water mysteriously drop into your fireplace to extinguish the flames? No. Actually a damper is the open or close switch for your flue. The handle is usually just above and inside the fireplace. The handle is like a lever that turns the damper to the vertical open position and the horizontal or closed position. Damper open allows