Fireplace Surround Ideas How to Choose a Good Wood Fireplace Surround YouTube

Ancient fire pits were sometimes constructed in the ground, in caves, or in the middle of a hut or home. Evidence of prehistoric, man-made fires exists on all five inhabited continents. The drawback of early indoor fire pits was that they generated hazardous or annoying smoke inside the dwelling.Fire pits grown into elevated hearths in buildings, but ventilation smoke depended on open windows or openings in roofs. The great hall typically needed a centrally situated hearth, where an open flame burned with the smoke climbing into the port in the roof. Louvers were developed throughout the Middle Ages to allow the roof vents to be coated so snow and rain would not enter.

Also during the Middle Ages, smoke canopies were invented to prevent smoke from spreading through a room and vent it out via a wall or roof. These could be placed against stone walls, instead of taking up the center of the room, and this enabled smaller chambers to be warmed.Chimneys were invented in northern Europe in the 11th or 12th centuries and largely fixed the problem of fumes, more faithfully venting smoke outside. They made it possible to provide the fireplace a draft, and also made it possible to place fireplaces in numerous rooms in buildings conveniently. They did not come into general usage immediately, however, since they were more expensive to develop and maintain.

Benjamin Franklin developed a convection chamber for the fireplace which greatly enhanced the efficiency of fireplaces and wood stoves. In addition, he improved the airflow by pulling air from a basement and venting a longer place at the top. At the later 18th century, Count Rumford made a fireplace using a tall, shallow firebox that has been better at drawing up the smoke and from the building. The shallow design improved greatly the amount of radiant heat projected into the space. Rumford's design is the basis for modern fireplaces.

The Aesthetic movement of the 1870s and 1880s took to a more conventional spectra based on rock and deflected unnecessary ornamentation. Rather it depended on simple layouts with small unnecessary ornamentation. In the 1890s the Aesthetic movement gave way to the Arts and Crafts movement, where the emphasis was still placed on supplying quality stone. Stone fireplaces now were a symbol of wealth, which to a degree remains the notion today.A fireplace is a structure made from brick, stone or metal designed to contain a fire. Fireplaces are used for its relaxing ambiance that they create and for heating a room. Modern fireplaces change in heat efficiency, depending on the design.

Historically they have been utilized for heating a dwelling, cooking, and heating water for domestic and laundry uses.

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On the exterior there is frequently a corbeled brick crown, in which the casting courses of brick function as a drip route to keep rainwater from running down the exterior walls. A hood, cap, or shroud serves to keep rainwater out of the exterior of the chimney; rain in the chimney is a much greater difficulty in chimneys lined with impervious flue tiles or metallic liners compared with the standard masonry chimney, which soaks up all but the rain. A few chimneys have a spark arrestor integrated into the crown or cap.

Organizations such as the United States Environmental Protection Agency and the Washington Department of Ecology warn that, according to different studies, fireplaces could pose a significant health threat. The EPA writes"Smoke may smell great, but it is not good for you.

Types of fireplacesArtificial fireplaces are made out of sheet glass or metal flame boxes.Electric fireplaces could be built-in replacements for either wood or gas or retrofit with log inserts or electric fireboxes.

Masonry and prefabricated fireplaces can be fueled by wood, natural gas, biomass and gas fuel sources. In the USA, some states and local counties have laws restricting these kinds of fireplaces. There are also air quality control problems because of the amount of moisture they discharge in the room atmosphere, and oxygen sensor and carbon monoxide sensors are safety essentials. Direct vent fireplaces are fueled by either liquid propane or natural gas. They are completely sealed from the area that's heated, and port all exhaust gasses to the outside of the structure.

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AccessoriesA wide assortment of accessories are used with fireplaces, ranging between countries, regions, and historical periods. For the interior, common in current Western cultures comprise grates, fireguards, log boxes, andirons, bark baskets, and fire dogs, all which cradle fuel and accelerate burning. A grate (or flame grate) is a framework, usually of iron bars, to maintain fuel for a fire. Heavy metal firebacks are sometimes used to capture and re-radiate heat, to protect the back of the fireplace, and as decoration. Fenders are low metallic frames placed before the fireplace to include embers, soot and ash. For fireplace tending, tools include pokers, bellows, tongs, shovels, brushes and instrument racks.

Over time, the purpose of fireplaces has transformed from one of requirement to one of interest. Early ones were more fire pits compared to contemporary fireplaces. They were used for heat on cold days and nights, as well as for cooking. They also functioned as a gathering place within the house. These fire pits were generally centered within a space, allowing more people to gather around it.

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Fireplace Mantels and Surrounds

Many defects were found in early fireplace designs. The most famous fireplace designers of this period were the Adam Brothers. They perfected a style of fireplace design which has been used for generations. It had been smaller, more brightly colored, with a emphasis on the quality of the substances used in their construction, instead of their dimensions.

From the 1800s most new fireplaces were composed of 2 parts, the surround as well as the insert. The surround comprised of the mantlepiece and sides supports, typically in wood, marble or granite. The fit was where the fire burned, and was constructed of cast iron often backed with ornamental tiles. In addition to providing warmth, the fireplaces of the Victorian age were believed to bring a cozy ambiance into homes.

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Some fireplace components incorporate a blower which transports more of the fireplace's heat to the atmosphere via convection, resulting in a more evenly heated area and a lower heating load. Fireplace efficiency is also increased by means of a fireback, a sheet of metal which sits behind the fire and reflects heat back into the room. Firebacks are traditionally made from cast iron, but are also made from stainless steel. Efficiency is a complicated notion although with open hearth fireplaces. Most efficacy tests consider just the effect of heating of the atmosphere. An open fireplace is not, and never was, intended to warm the air. The best way to gauge the output signal of a fireplace is in case you detect you're turning the thermostat down or up.

Most older fireplaces have a relatively low efficiency score. Standard, contemporary, weatherproof masonry fireplaces still possess an efficiency rating of at least 80% (legal minimum necessity for example in Salzburg/Austria). To improve efficiency, fireplaces can also be altered by adding special heavy fireboxes developed to burn much cleaner and can reach efficiencies as high as 80% in heating the air. These altered fireplaces are usually equipped with a large fire window, allowing an efficient heating system in two phases. During the first phase the first heat is offered through a big glass while the flame is burning. In this time the construction, constructed of refractory bricks, absorbs the heat. This warmth is then evenly radiated for several hours during the next phase. Masonry fireplaces without a glass fire window only offer heat radiated from the surface. Based on temperatures 1 to 2 daily firings are enough to guarantee a constant room temperature.fireplace surround ideas