Ain't no leaks in my roof!

September 19, 2007 (4:59am)

63º F, Rain, SE Wind, 4 mph.

Good morning,

Ain’t no leaks in my roof! The chimney is complete and the rains came yesterday about supper time. No leaks of any kind! Hooray! Finished putting up the last section of the chimney, braced it, and put on the cap - all finished. It even looks vertical.

Actually the last parts of the construction were rather easy and went together rather well. The cap is a much better one than the last one I put on a chimney, at FISKLAND 10 years ago. This one has a piece of ½” hardware cloth like screen around the opening as a fire arrester and to keep the birds out. I tried to make one similar to it for the one at FISKLAND, but I never was able to get it right for some reason. Anywho, it is a good deal. I made the braces, 2, from a couple lengths of ½” electrical conduit about 5' long. They really stiffened things up a great deal. I think it will take a pretty good sized wind to cause any major problems now.

Thought I would include a couple of pictures of the work. The first is the “before” with the damaged and leaning chimney without a cap (finding two dead birds in the woodstove. The second picture is about half way through the project, with a temporary cap (5 gallon plastic bucket). And the completed project with the new, straight, capped, and safe chimney. The maple tree in the background will be about one-third that size very shortly as there is a triple fork near the base, with two of them already starting to split off. More firewood and hope to save the tree.

Margriet cleaned our little woodstove and we brought it in. We have moved it about 4' from where it normally sits, to allow me to work on raising the floor and putting in the ceramic tile. We put a sheet of concrete tile backer on the floor under the woodstove and probably will need to put one behind it for the time being. Really don’t want to start any fires here - except in the woodstove! The new location for the woodstove really messes up our decor de-box in here.

I didn’t succeed at putting up the stove pipe though. The other thing we left at FISKLAND (I knew there was something else in the bag with the seal tape we left at FISKLAND, but could not remember what) was the stovepipe crimper I bought. The stove pipe would not join, as the crimped end is not crimped enough. I did get one section together, after a lot of redesigning of the ends and grunting, but not the rest. Have to wait until the crimper gets here. I also have a damper to put in the bottom section of pipe. That should keep a bit of warm air in the Hobbit Hus when the fire isn’t burning. I also am trying to find a 5" to 6" reducer. All I can find is adapters for heating ducts and that will not work - burn out in a hurry. They look ugly too!

The wind really whistles through the entrance/woodshed/lean-to on this house. It really sounds like a gale force wind outside, when in reality it just a brisk blow. I kind of like the sound, but Margriet doesn’t. Reminds me some of deer camp or the house in Weyauwega, out in the open, in some of the severe snowstorms we had there years ago. As things progress here, that problem should be eliminated as I tighten up the lean-to some. Not the first thing on my 2-DO list however.

The plan is to head to FISKLAND today - finally - since the chimney opening is filled and rain tight. It should be pretty much a flying trip. Back tomorrow. Crimper is the main thing we want to bring back.

Time to get a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,

Chris <><