hello I'm Lee um I'm a Mason and uh I
want to show you step by step how to
build a fireplace we going to build it
right here on this
pad this fireplace uh calls for a 42 in
opening which we got a 42in damper right
here so the first thing I'm going to do
is Mark exactly where the fireplace is
going to go and uh make the size of it
to fit this
damper
next step is what I've done here is
built a solid pad for the start of my
fire box floor which will be out of fire
breaking I'll show you here in a little
bit but what I've done is built it high
enough to where the Hearth will come up
about this High about high enough to sit
on and uh like I said now it's ready for
the fire
brick right now I'm laying the floor of
the fire uh box itself and U what we use
is is a fire brick this is a fire brick
now these fire brick are real hot and
what I mean by hot that they're a real
dry brick and they're hard to lay when
they're this dry so if you step up here
L and shine in what we do is is uh soak
them in water for a few
seconds as you can see they they boil in
there and they're soaking up that water
and it makes them a lot easier to
lay so after you've l laid it after
you've gotten it
wet what I've done is is laid a brick on
each side lay this out the way you want
it and uh keep these bonds straight
right here you can see a mark right
there that I've got and a mark right
here that I've got and I've laid those
two end ones and then I level them
off with a level just like this all the
way across where it stays level as you
go on both
sides then I pull that string there cuz
that Sav level work you can just follow
the
string and uh it should all be leveled
what I do is I just put some mud down
here for this brick right
here put a little bit and uh let me
remind you this mud needs to be kind of
on the Wet
Side even though these are wet they're
still hard to lay cuz they're still a
little bit dry they'll still soak up
that water so what I do is I butter one
side we call it buttering butter one
side
and then put on a head joint just like
that and just put it in here and take
your
time squeeze it against this next one
here got to have a hammer ready uh it
makes it a little easier with a hammer
just tap it down you want it flush on
this side and to the line on that side
you don't want to be touching your line
cuz it'll start getting off a little bit
you stay away from your string just a
little bit just like that remove the mud
and you're ready to lay the next one do
the whole floor just like
that well I've uh finished laying the
fire box floor now to clean up those
motar joints what we what I always use
is a u anchor bolt or it's called A J
bolt it's like that and use the round
Edge on it what you want to do is just
go over all these joints just like
this just like
that then when you're through striking
all the motor joints you take a dry
piece of carpet and go over it and see
all these smears on here it takes all
those smears off of it cleans it up real
good makes it into a nice uh brick
fireplace floor right
there this fireplace calls for 42in
opening and so for a 42in opening you
need a 42in damper which we have right
here so on my fireplace floor what I do
is find
Center and half of 42 is
21 so you just put your uh rot on 21
here in the center make a Mark here and
a mark on 42 so now you have 42 on this
Mark because we're fixing to build the
fire uh the fire walls on both sides
what I've done is made a little template
just a little bit out of square it
doesn't really matter matter how much of
an angle about like that's it's real
good so what I do is I put this on the
straight edge this along with here and
find my
mark and what I'll do is is make my mark
all the way back and then I'll turn it
over and do the same thing on this side
now both angles are the
same as you can see I've started my
firewall on one side of course there'll
be two of them one on the other side but
uh as you can see the uh back wall is
starting to curve a little bit and uh
what that does is the fire will catch
that back wall and curve up and shoot up
the flu liner so you don't have any
smoke coming in your house so to get
that curve um I've made a
template and you need a curve pretty
close to like this it doesn't have to be
exactly like this uh and you can make
this from 20 in to 27 to 30 in deep
however uh it depends on how big of a
firebox you want and approximately 30 in
tall and what I do is I'll I'll lay this
course here and then put my
template which flush right here and
flush right
here then I'll take a
brick lay it right
here like I want it and make a mark
right there and that's my next cut you
just continue that all the way
up okay now that we have our two side
firewalls done we're working on the back
firewall now to do that um all you do is
follow what you've done here with your
brick wall and just come on around and
remember to leave a
uh space for a mud joint right here and
right here on these then you fill those
in as you go up which I'll show you
right here
just fill that in just like that as you
go up and uh when you're laying these
take your time if you have to lay one
brick at a time and level it it's better
to do that and uh than it is to have to
tear it back down and redo but just take
your time I can't stress that
enough all right I've got all three
firewalls built up next step was to put
this uh uh damper on there toward the
front of the Firebox and what I did in
the back here is I lay them all up until
a a brick will reach standing up to the
damper and then you lay all those across
it'll catch the
damper and now we're ready to lay brick
all the way around the
Firebox
what I'm doing here is I'm making a
double wall around this fire box that
I've already
built the inside wall is going to
eventually be for this flu line right
here what I'm going to do is keep
running this inner wall right here and
then start stepping in until I'm the
size of this flu liner and then I can
set the flu liner on
there now since this is going to be a
rock fireplace I've done this hour wall
right here which you want to keep pretty
straight uh so you can have something to
measure off of to keep your rock going
straight up and down and what I've done
every now and then is put these wall
ties in here that'll tie the brick to
the Rock keep it a lot stronger and keep
it from ever moving now around here in
front you want to be
sure to keep this this wall that's not
going to be seen flush with this fire
box right here because eventually we're
going to lay Rock on the outside of this
right here and you don't want nothing in
the way of your rock and again keep your
wall ties coming up and and so you can
tie your rock to your Bridge brick
work it's really important to keep your
brick wall real straight because that's
how straight your rock's going to be
according to what you've done with your
brick work now to do that what I do is
build both Corners up and then run a
string in the middle and I'll show you
how to run one course
here spread the mud
first like that you want to butter your
brick just like that push it up against
that one cut off the mud that while you
know your flush right
here and
again like
that and we're tailing out three brick
right here is plenty
good now what you want to do
first first thing you want to do is
level
just like that look at your bubble it
needs to come down
here there it is it's level right there
now the next thing is is to Plum to Plum
which is vertical both
sides I'm going to keep this straight
Plum this
in it's like that bubbles in the middle
going straight up and then after that
you want a straight
edge from in to in and then you just
continue that on up and keep stair
stepping up until you run out of room as
you Breck around your Firebox you need
to plug in your hole on top of your
Firebox as well and to do that I've come
up and crossed over it with a piece of
angle iron so I can Bridge across it and
continue this on up and every day after
you get through working it's wi check
your damper make sure it still opens and
closes a lot of times M will get in
there and you find out the next day you
can't open it so check it every day when
you're
done now what I've done with the inside
of this fireplace of course none of this
shows but a lot of chimneys will go
straight up but this particular
fireplace has a step step in then the
chimney gets smaller so what I've done
up there is is make a mark with a
straight edge in a level to figure out
where that wall is going to be when I
get that high so to lay Rock you're
going to have to have something to lay
rock on that's what these two walls are
for this wall here is for the back wall
when when you start seeing it I'll start
laying rock on it but you got to have
something to set your rock on when you
get that high now this here I started
wrapping that Firebox and stepping my
brick in and keep stepping it in because
we're going to be putting a flu liner on
there here in just a
minute if you look inside here you can
see kind of how I've stepped it all
in the front side of the Firebox above
the damper I started stepping in but I
kept the back wall straight up so if it
ever
rains now we've got uh everything pretty
well caught up in here of course we'll
keep stacking our flu liners up and I'm
running two petitions on both sides of
flu liner to stabilize the flu liner
because it's going to go real tall up
there now I have the back wall for my
the back of my chimney and I have the
two side walls for the two sides of my
chimney as it steps in now we're ready
to go down and lay
Rock now you're going to have to run a
string down from your corners for your
rock work down there in order to do that
I've made a jig here got to just two bys
you can see just a one to set on top of
the brick one to go on one side of the
brick and one to go on the other and
I've measured out 5 in both ways here
and all this does is slip on your brick
wall just like that and you weight it
down with a rock or
something and you just pull a string
down from this all the way down to your
first
Rod what happened oh