DIY Fireplace Mantel The Idea Room

Ancient fire pits were sometimes built in the ground, in caves, or in the center of a hut or home. Evidence of ancient, man-made fires is present on all five inhabited continents. The drawback of premature indoor fire pits was that they generated toxic and/or annoying smoke inside the house.Fire pits grown into elevated hearths in structures, but venting smoke relied on open windows or holes in roofs. The great hall typically needed a centrally located hearth, where a open flame burned with all the smoke rising to the port in the roof. Louvers were developed during the Middle Ages to enable the roof vents to be coated so rain and snow would not enter.

Also throughout the Middle Ages, smoke canopies were invented to stop smoke from dispersing a room and vent it out through a wall or roof. These can be put against stone walls, rather than taking up the middle of the space, and this allowed smaller chambers to be heated.Chimneys were invented in northern Europe from the 11th or 12th centuries and mostly fixed the problem of fumes, more reliably venting smoke out. They made it feasible to give the fireplace a draft, and also made it feasible to put fireplaces in numerous rooms in buildings conveniently. They didn't come into general use immediately, however, as they were expensive to develop and maintain.

Benjamin Franklin developed a convection chamber for the fireplace that greatly improved the efficiency of fireplaces and wood stoves. He also improved the airflow by pulling air from a cellar and venting a longer area on very 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 out of the building. The shallow design improved greatly the amount of radiant warmth projected to the room. Rumford's layout is the foundation for modern fireplaces.

Instead it depended on simple designs with small unnecessary ornamentation. From the 1890s the Aesthetic movement gave way into the Arts and Crafts movement, where the emphasis was still placed on supplying quality gems. Stone fireplaces at this time were a sign of prosperity, which to some degree is still the notion today.A fireplace is a construction made of brick, stone or metal designed to contain a fire. Fireplaces are utilized for the relaxing ambiance they create and for heating a space. Modern fireplaces vary in heat efficacy, based upon the design.

Historically they were used for heating a dwelling, cooking, and heating water for laundry and domestic uses.

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On the exterior there is frequently a corbeled brick crown, where the casting courses of brick act as a drip route to keep rainwater from running down the exterior walls. A cap, hood, or shroud functions to keep rainwater out of the outside of the chimney; rain at the chimney is a much larger problem in chimneys lined with impervious flue tiles or metal liners than with the traditional masonry chimney, which soaks up all but the most violent rain. A few chimneys have a spark arrestor integrated into the cap or crown.

The EPA writes"Smoke may smell good, but it is not great for you.

Types of fireplacesArtificial fireplaces are made with sheet glass or metal flame boxes.Electric fireplaces could be built-in replacements for wood or gas or retrofit with log inserts or electrical fireboxes.A few types are, wall mounted electric fireplaces, electric fireplace stoves, electric mantel fireplaces and fixed or free standing electric fireplaces.

In the United States, several states and local counties have laws limiting these kinds of fireplaces. Additionally, there are air quality management issues because of the quantity of moisture that they discharge into the room air, and oxygen sensor and carbon monoxide sensors are safety essentials. Direct vent fireplaces have been fueled by either liquid propane or natural gas. They are completely sealed from the area that's heated, and vent all exhaust gasses to the exterior of the structure.

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AccessoriesFor the inside, common in recent Western civilizations include grates, fireguards, log boxes, andirons, bark baskets, and fire puppies, all of which cradle gas and quicken burning. A grate (or fire grate) is a framework, usually of iron bars, to maintain fuel for a fire. Heavy metallic 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 in front of the fireplace to include embers, soot and ash. For fireplace tending, tools include pokers, bellows, tongs, shovels, brushes and tool racks.

Over time, the purpose of fireplaces has changed from one of requirement to one of interest. Early ones were fire pits compared to contemporary fireplaces. They were used for heat on chilly days and nights, in addition to for cooking. They also served as a gathering place within the home. These fire pits were usually centered within a room, allowing more people to collect around it.

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Many defects were found in early fireplace designs. Along with the Industrial Revolution, came large scale housing developments, requiring a standardization of fireplaces. The most renowned fireplace designers of this period were the Adam Brothers. They perfected a kind of fireplace design which was used for generations. It had been smaller, more brightly lit, with a emphasis on the quality of the materials used in their construction, as opposed to their size.

From the 1800s newest fireplaces were composed of 2 parts, the surround as well as the insert. The encircle comprised of the mantlepiece and sides affirms, typically in wood, granite or marble. The fit was fire burnt, and was built of cast iron frequently backed with decorative tiles. As well as providing heat, the fireplaces of the Victorian age were believed to bring a cozy ambiance into houses.

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Some fireplace components incorporate a blower which transfers more of the fireplace's heat to the atmosphere via convection, resulting in a more evenly heated area and a decrease heating load. Fireplace efficiency can also be enhanced by means of a fireback, a sheet of metal which sits behind the flame and reflects heat back into the room. Firebacks are traditionally produced from cast iron, but are also manufactured from stainless steel. Efficiency is a complex notion though with open hearth fireplaces. Most efficacy tests consider just the effect of heating of the air. An open fireplace is not, and never was, designed to warm the air. A fireplace with a fireback is a radiant heater, and has done so since the 15th century. The ideal way to estimate the output signal of a fireplace is if you detect you are turning the thermostat down or up.

Most elderly fireplaces have a relatively low efficiency score. Standard, modern, wood-burning masonry fireplaces though have 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 cleaner and may reach efficiencies as large as 80 percent in heating the atmosphere. These modified fireplaces are often equipped with a massive fire window, enabling an efficient heating process in two phases. During the first stage the first heat is provided through a big glass window while the flame is burning. During this time period the structure, built of refractory bricks, absorbs the heat. This heat is then evenly radiated for several hours during the next stage. Masonry fireplaces with no glass fire window just provide heat radiated from its surface. Depending on outside temperatures 1 to 2 daily firings are sufficient to ensure a constant room temperature.fireplace mantle