Henrys’ Outdoor Fire
My client squashed two wheel barrows trying to do this.
Big rocks in the walls - Big rocks in the ground
Now we’ve finished the area, we can leave it for about a year while we do some other stuff
LET’S START WITH SOME BIG ROCKS
November 2011. A time before hard hats and flouro vests - not any more buddy!
Make it strong
We’re going to leave these rocks to settle for a while
HILTI POWER TOOLS ARE THE GREATEST!
And now the real fun begins
Set neatly inlayed into the 18 ton structure
The Fire Box
Hollowing out was dusty, loud and very freakin hot
Each brick numbered and pre-assembled
Then re-assembled
Pieces for the smoke chamber
Build a form for the arch and lay the bricks
And now for a cunning plan
The Chimney Base
The Devil is in the Details!
…And get a look at something finished
My mate Josh is a master fabricator.
What he can’t do with metal aint worth doin’
So putting togeather a stainless steel gather with a flu mount was a piece of cake.
With the gather in place we can work on the second arch
Dismantle the form so we can get on with the chimney outer…
Almost there…
THE CHIMNEY
Starting off with heat proofing and re-inforcing
The rocks in the wall in the background weigh, on average, 1-3 tons
The flu is in and we’re building the chimney, re-inforcing as we go
After a year in the making we are finally
FINISHED
Fire faom heat-protects the limestone arch whilst providing a flexable barrier between the arch and the weight of the chimney
After a year to settle, these heavy rocks can be re-inforced without the risk of cracking from movement.
Heavy rocks on this scale come with a completely different rule book to conventional masonry.
So do my methods work?
The Kaikoura earthquake hit this area hard.
About 20 minutes drive from here, there were houses flattened.
I came to check over the site a few days after and found the largest separation crack to be about 4mm
A few finishing touches
The box you see on the right is the outlet for a drain from the back of the fire box to a soak pit
