Fireplaces

PHOTOS BY ROB BENCHLEY Above: Made with reclaimed granite and stone without any visible mortar, this fireplace is described as "a work of art" by its owner.

The days are becoming shorter and there is a noticeable chill in the air. It is the season of the fireplace - a time to gather bundles of kindling, set a chunky backlog behind a pile of well-dried timbers and let the glow and crackle of the blaze soothe and warm you.

Few home features captivate the spirit as fireplaces Tdo, not only by providing the comfort of heat but in the way they entice people to poke and rearrange the burning logs, add more wood to prolong the experience and to sit near one another and share the romantic allure of a roaring fire on a crisp autumn evening.

"I think fireplaces are great," said residential designer Brook Meerbergen. "I think it's pretty simple - fireplaces symbolize the traditional home more than anything else in the home. They are a great source of comfort and light and along with the kitchen, have the greatest ability to draw people together. There are people who like fireplaces and there are people who like television. I am one of the people who prefer a fireplace. It is a place for conversation and for fellowship."

The window in the chimney is recessed within this archway.

Fireplaces do represent a substantial investment because of all the masonry labor involved and the fact that the majority of materials used must be brought over from the mainland. While a fireplace does not have to be huge or fancy to offer the same pleasure as an elaborate design, because it is frequently the focal point of a room, it is worthwhile to investigate designs that are unique or of visually interesting and attractive stone and stone and wood combinations.

Meerbergen created a very unusual feature in one island home by incorporating a window in the chimney, an idea inspired by a historic chimney at The Wade Cottages in Siasconset. Working with master mason Paul Davis, a crank-open window was installed in the chimney where it extends through a second floor bathroom. From the outside, the window is recessed within an archway and using some tricky craftsmanship, a waterfall effect was developed utilizing runoff from the roof.

Left: The floor of this hearth is made with stones collected from island beaches

"It's nice to have windows in bathrooms, but to have the space I wanted up there the bathrooms had to be in a central corridor of the building, so it made sense to do that [window through the chimney]," he explained. "There were some challenges, and one of them was getting the water off the roof because it is a double gable roof."

Davis said they decided to install a copper "scupper," or gutter, allowing the roof water to flow through the chimney rather than down and directly against the exterior brick. The water comes out from a small opening and cascades past the window set back into the archway.

"It's a piece of work, believe me," said Davis, who began doing masonry in 1968 and has been on Nantucket since 1993. "I had a couple meltdowns on it, but I finished it. I made it work."

This home has two fireplaces with a double flue within a single chimney stack. The separate flues were bent in the chimney to pass on either side of the window, so the window glass is entirely unaffected by heat or soot.

PHOTOS BY ROB BENCHLEY This window in the chimney is an unusual feature inspired by a historic chimney at Wade cottages. Rain is collected on the roof and then cascades down the chimney by the window.

"Paul was quite masterful getting the flues around the archway. It was a head scratcher, for sure," said Meerbergen. "I see the process as a team operation for the design and mechanics."

Davis, who says that he "can put a fireplace in your back pocket if you want it," likes all stone for fireplaces. His most recent work on Tuckernuck involved gathering rocks from that island's beaches and scraping off the barnacles so they could be used for the interior fireplace facing. Another outdoor fireplace he worked on incorporates Goshen stone, a material he had never used before that is becoming increasingly popular because it contains a quantity of colorful, shiny flecks of mica.

Davis also favors "true" cobblestones such as those on Main Street which can be left rounded or chiseled, and rose granite, a pink granite from Georgia.

A fireplace of sealed stone and granite designed and built by Michael Craddock.

"I look for colors when I'm building something and for shapes. I like pink granite because it's almost impervious to markings. You don't want a soft stone around a chimney because it won't last — it will crack and absorb soot and creosote you can't get out," said Davis, explaining that the most common soft stones are limestone and marble. "They do such marvelous things with granite now and there is a composite that is impervious to heat and stains."

Michael Craddock is usually called by architects or masons to do the interior faces of fireplaces, but not long ago he was invited to do four fireplaces, one outdoors, by a homeowner who had seen his work. The homeowner calls the finished fireplaces "works of art." All three interior fireplaces are different, with the largest in the home's main room. It reaches about 28-feet high where it then goes through the ceiling and is made of fieldstone and reclaimed granite with no visible mortar. It has two large granite legs that support its granite mantel.

"Each year I grow more and more, fireplace-wise," said Craddock.

The home's other two fireplaces, which are on their own separate, interior chimneys, feature a basic design with a single piece of granite for the mantel, and the third has two old, granite posts at the outside corners of the firebox opening and a granite mantel.

Craddock favors using round cobblestones for the fireplace facade combined with irregular pieces of natural granite. "They are unique and they complement one another." He also has recently used rectangular pieces of bluestone in random lengths and varying sizes of the purpleish Quincy granite. "Handsome" is the word Craddock uses to describe other fireplace facades he has built of antique, reclaimed brick.

"I like the stone part of it," he said. "To make it tight without mortar showing is a craft. That's what I enjoy doing."

In his own home, Craddock built a gas log fireplace that contains a flue and damper in case the house is sold one day and its subsequent owner wants to burn wood.

"For me, it's easier [to have a gas log] because it throws off heat, it looks like a real fireplace and it's easier with little kids because it is on and off quickly," said Craddock. "These days you can have a real fireplace with a gas pilot to make it easier to start the fire. It's like a gas grill but it burns wood.

"The fireplace is cozy," he added. "It's a nice feel and I use mine nine or 10 months of the year. It's a nice end to an evening, and on stormy days it has a nice crackle. It's just enjoyable."

To Davis, the design of a fireplace is far more essential that its appearance. He said a Rumford firebox can be built with or without a damper. Its characterizing quality is its shallowness, and its walls may be constructed straight or slanted. Rumfords send out a lot of heat, but because they are shallow they are also prone to sending smoke into the room. A Donnelly design has a sloped back and sides angling towards the room. Although it provides the same heat projection as a Rumford, it has a deeper box and does not tend to emit smoke.

Regardless of which firebox design is chosen, Davis said an important element is crafting it so that the volume of air entering the firebox is exceeded by twothirds of the air volume coming into the chimney stack.

"It's an atmospheric condition," he explained. "You either increase the size of the flue or reduce the size of the firebox in direct proportion to the height of the stack."

He also said unless conditions are prohibitive, the chimney should always be kept within the structure. "Keep the chimney inside the house because it becomes a source of radiant heat," he said. "A chimney outside has to be heated up before you get the heat you want inside the house."

He noted that one of the most efficient systems is to have a fireplace in the basement because that, coupled with the chimney's rise through the house, will heat your first floor and deliver residual warmth to the second story.

"The ideal application for a chimney is a wood stove in the basement and a fireplace on the first floor," Davis emphasized. "Wood stoves are very efficient. They provide radiant heat and you don't have all the warmth going into the chimney."

Besides the transfixing effect of a blazing wood fire, it is handy to have a fireplace if the power goes out on cold days and nights. Fireplaces, however, are not without their drawbacks. For one thing, if you still have a decent burn going when it is bedtime, you cannot close the damper, which will let in cold air during the night. Some people install a small opening called an ash dump in the floor of their firebox where cool ashes can be swept into a chute to the chimney base for disposal instead of hauling the material outside. This is not usable when a fire is still hot.

Also, because whether or not the damper is closed, fireplaces draw heat from within the house up the chimney, they are not considered good primary heat sources. Some people block the firebox opening with a wooden panel, while others stuff pillows or insulation into the chimney beneath the damper when they are not using the fireplace with frequency. While the latter method may be effective, it is not recommended because you must remember to remove those pillows and insulation before lighting the next fire.

For most people, the drawbacks to fireplaces do not outweigh their pleasures and the physical and psychological warmth they provide in a home.

"[A fireplace] is not necessarily going to keep your pipes from freezing, but it's more enjoyable when that happens," said Meerbergen. "Living with a fireplace is a lifestyle choice. The people who choose that lifestyle choose it because it does symbolize the home." I