If you’re looking for a beautiful, fuel efficient heat source that works even when the power is out, then a masonry heater is an excellent choice.

Here in Cascadia, we’re increasingly aware that a major earthquake will likely disrupt the power grid for an extended amount of time.  Therefore, when we recently remodeled our home we decided to compliment our existing electrical heating system with a wood fired masonry heater.

Why wood?  It’s low-tech, easy to store, renewable and locally available. We use the discarded slab wood from a local sawmill.  It’s easy to split and cut to length and makes for an efficient use of a waste product.

Why a masonry heater?  Unlike most wood burning appliances, masonry heaters are exceptionally clean burning and fuel efficient.  They use intelligent design rather than brute force to heat your home.  The principle is to burn a small hot fire quickly and then store the heat within stone or masonry.  The slow release of energy from the mass provides steady even heat for the duration of the day.  In practical terms, this means that one fire in the morning and evening will comfortably heat your home. The flywheel effect of heating your house intermittently conserves a lot of wood. Overall, we use less than 2 cords each year to heat our home … and we have a retrofitted 1940’s cottage with 2×4 walls. A modern home could be significantly more efficient.

The drawback to most masonry heaters is their size.  Some of them are positively huge!  Our house is relatively small and needed a solution that was scaled appropriately.  After a fair bit of research, we settled on the Tulikivi.  It’s a Finnish design that utilizes soapstone as its thermal mass.  Soapstone is incredibly dense and can, therefore, store a vast amount of heat within a small footprint.  We contacted the west coast distributor:  Alaska Masonry Heat and they helped us fine-tune our selection.  Ultimately, we decided on the TU-1000T

Planning

As an architect, I enjoyed the planning process, but also found it challenging.  The fit was complex.  The fireplace was designed to center on the entry door but was also centered on an angled wall relative to the Living Room.  The flue pipe needed to precisely align with the second floor wall above, but steer clear of a structural beam passing through the area.  Finally, a ship’s ladder staggered through the cavity behind the fireplace to access the loft with a whole list of its own constraints.  Once everything was accounted for, there was about ½” of tolerance to make everything work. That meant the planning needed to be spot on.

The guides and resources available were a little hit and miss. For instance, in Europe, they use “Foam Glass” for their details (which isn’t available here in the US). Gradually I pieced together a set of materials from both metric and imperial sources, photos from other installations, and conversations with the distributor that helped me understand how everything was intended to go together.   

Design

We decided to elevate the fireplace about 6″ off the floor. That provided a nice visual base for the Tulikivi and allowed an even number of chimney surround blocks to meet the ceiling. It also aligned the bench tops with the stone coursing at the ergonomically correct height of ±18″ above the floor. The benches add some overflow seating to our modest living room and a “hot seat” if you want to get close to the stone on a cold night. They also serve to contain the wood storage beneath them.

Here’s a layout of the plan showing the fireplace in relationship with the hearth, benches, walls and the beam above. The stair has been omitted for clarity.

Here’s a partial section showing the transition from the foundation through the floor system upwards to the second floor.

Installation

Masonry heaters are heavy, so they need to be supported by a dedicated foundation or a carefully engineered solution. We located ours on the first floor where we were able to cut a hole in the floor and install a new CMU support structure and concrete footing in the crawlspace. Our intention is to have the unit survive a decent earthquake, so we didn’t skimp on reinforcing.

The Tulikivi kit is precisely machined, so it was important to get the base perfectly level. The conduit sticking up out of the corner provides power access to the interior of the unit for heating cables. The cables are an optional extra and allow the mass to function as an radiant heater during long absences. We wanted to have this option available to us, but would advise against it – as we’ve yet to use it.

Here’s what the project looked like prior to the arrival of the fireplace. As you can see, the concrete slab is in and the conduit has been trimmed flush to the surface. The chimney flue is in and ready for connection at the top of the unit.

The fireplace comes as a palletized kit with all of the pieces precut and ready for assembly. Isaac, our master mason made the trip up from Oregon to do the assembly. As I recall, he had already built over a hundred of these before tackling ours and after watching the assembly process over the next few days, I came to appreciate how much practice and skill was required. This isn’t a DIY level job. Hire a professional if you’re planning to go this route.

In order to build the unit tight to the wall, a heat shield was required. We built it out of lengths of hat channel, metal drywall bead and sheet metal panels. The end result is three stacked 1″ cavities that all allow air to flow convectively from the bottom to the top. This protects the wall from heat build up and circulates the heat up and out into the room.

Slots are milled into the sides of the blocks in the photo above. During assembly, these receive metal tabs that mechanically connect the blocks to one another. In addition, a very thin layer of high strength stone “glue” is applied to the joints. It’s composed of soapstone dust and a liquid bonding agent which imparts exceptional strength.

Here you can see the unit going together. Isaac used our fireplace to train Marinko Kordich (a local mason) on the particulars of the assembly.

Here’s a cut-away view of the base layer. The cavity in the center will ultimately house the ash pan. The round holes cut into the side blocks will receive removable plugs for cleaning. Some ash residue can settle into the base of the interior baffles (where the flue gasses are routed prior to exiting the top of the chimney) and need to be vacuumed out once a year.

Here’s the unit mostly assembled.

And here’s a view with the benches under construction. Steel angle was fastened to the walls and then mortised into the soapstone slabs for a nearly invisible installation. You can see the damper installed at the top left. It’s fully open when the fireplace is in use and closed when it is not (to prevent the escape of heat up the flue). Unlike most wood stoves, the airflow is not reduced to burn the wood slowly. That results in poor combustion and a lot of pollution. As the stone collects the heat for distribution later, the fire is encouraged to burn hot and fast. A side benefit of this strategy is that it also keeps the glass clean and dramatically reduces soot buildup in the chimney.

Originally, we had planned a simple steel plate hearth for the front of the fireplace but we quickly noticed how much gear was needed: newspaper, lighters, clean up tools, etc. So, we decided to evolve the hearth into a piece of functional art. We enlisted the aid of Jeff Holtby (an exceptional craftsman and blacksmith) who came up with the idea of retractable finger pulls modeled on the action of a flute. When depressed, these provide easy access to the floor box below. Otherwise, they form a flush surface and prevent embers from dropping into the box below. As an added safety measure, we treated the box with a fire proof solution. The last bit was tiling over the concrete base with soapstone to make everything match.

Here you can see the final effect with everything complete. The grain in the stone feeds the imagination. Sometimes I feel like I’m looking at the surface of Jupiter. That is when I’m not mesmerized by the simple beauty of the fire itself.

A ships ladder is a great option for ascending between floors when little space is available. We built this alternating tread stair in our own home to access a yoga and meditation loft. It tucks into a modest 24″ wide cavity formerly inhabited by a hall closet.

The stringers and treads are fashioned from hand selected 2×12 fir framing lumber while the risers are built out of 1×12 fir lumber. The entire stair was glued and screwed together in the loft above and then lowered into place as a single unit.

After experimenting with a variety of geometries, we found 60° to be the sweet spot for the stair. It’s compact and space saving, and provides natural ergonomic movement. Above that pitch and you may find your knees colliding with the upper treads on the ascent.

Originally, we had planned to install a handrail, but after we used it a number of times, we found that it was ergonomically more comfortable to go down frontwards than backwards. In that position, due to the steepness of the descent, it feels safer and more natural to brace off of the walls than to try and grip a railing. Please note, this stair was built during a time when it was exempt from code requirements. For the most part, these stairs are now regulated and handrails are generally required.

Speaking of the walls, the dark blue paneling makes for a nice aesthetic compliment to the natural tones of the fir. The paneling is cedar that Matthew salvaged from one of his client’s remodel projects. It was in OK condition, but came in short lengths and had the dated look of material from the 1970’s. Our desire was to apply a finish that revealed the natural grain of the wood, blend in the more distressed parts and give it a more contemporary feel.

After some experimentation we came up with a fairly easy solution:

The material already had a clear finish on it, so rather than trying to strip it off, sand it, and re-apply a new finish, we went with a simpler approach. We cleaned the boards and then wiped on a very thin coat of dark blue latex paint. The clear finish prevented the paint from soaking into and saturating the wood resulting in a washed effect. However, the paint left behind a rough texture on the boards which wasn’t pleasant to touch. We solved that by lightly scrubbing the boards with steel wool. The result was a beautiful honed finish that feels smooth and polished.

If you’re wanting to build beautiful stone walls for your landscape  – urbanite rocks!  “Urbanite,” better known as waste concrete, is plentiful; lasts pretty much forever; is easy to work with and in most cases … it’s free!  Surprisingly, few people take advantage of this great material.

Urbanite replaces our need for stone or new concrete blocks – the primary materials used for landscape walls.  Stone requires mining and often has to be transported great distances.  Concrete is an energy hog.  Its fabrication accounts for 5% of our global emissions. Reducing our need for new material and making good use of what we have makes ecological sense.    If you’re concerned there may not be enough of this for your needs, don’t be.  Our rapidly changing environments create more of the stuff every year.  It’s rock-bottom price should give you a pretty good idea of the ratio of supply to demand.

We’ve seen some installations of this material that were  … ahem… aesthetically challenged, so we decided to collaborate with Hector Santos, a professional stone mason and sculptor.  We wanted to bypass the learning curve and see what was really possible.  It was a great decision.  Hector brought a wealth of knowledge and stone craft to the process and patiently shared how those techniques could be adapted to urbanite for a beautiful result.

Here’s an account of our journey and what we learned:

We stopped by the local landscape yard to pick up some materials.  As you can see – we had plenty to choose from.  This pile is about half an acre in size and more kept showing up every day.  The yard owners were extremely generous and allowed us to take as much as we wanted.

Most waste concrete is from concrete slabs and measures about 3″-5″ thick. We sought out material that was relatively uniform (flat on both sides), free of reinforcing and manageable for 1-2 people to transport.  We tried to bring home a variety of thicknesses (to add interest to the wall) and were lucky enough to find some scrap slate shingles (good for shims) and some round rocks – which added some artistic interest here and there.

In all it took us about eight trips.  With the supply yard close by, that allowed us to use up each load as we went and end the project with very little left over.

We decided to build two sets of walls.  The first – a carefully dressed and tapered barrier between the Cargo Shed and the parking area.  Its purpose: to enclose a pair of rain garden which slow and filter the road runoff prior to releasing it into a bioswale.  The second set of walls would be conventional retaining walls for the landscape beds.  These were much easier to build, so for the purpose of this post, we’re going to focus on the free-standing elements.

To start, we excavated a shallow footing (ideally about 12″ deep) and filled it with crushed rock (free of binder).  Eliminating the binder allows the footing to drain water easily.  Hector prefers a heavier ballast rock for this application, but we found the 1-1/4″ rock to work quite well.  The footing needs to extend beyond the footprint of the wall (for stability).

We utilized a rotary laser mounted to a tripod for uniform leveling of the wall. This is an important detail as having a level top really helps to give the wall a finished appearance.

Elsewhere on our property, we’ve used recycled gin bottles as landscape lights.  Carrying the theme one step further, we integrated them into the structure of the wall at even intervals.  The square nature of the bottle compliments the blocky urbanite and the aqua color adds a little interest.  At night, these are illuminated to a soft glow by low voltage LED lamps.

In this photo, you can see the rebar stakes that Hector used for consistent alignment of the sloped wall.  The strings are moved up as the wall courses higher.  Round stones are added here and there for whimsy and artistic value.  When needed, they can be cut or flattened with a diamond blade on a 4″ grinder.

Blocks are laid out to lap onto other blocks below i.e. joints do not align vertically through the wall.  For a dry-stacked wall, this ensures structural integrity and reduces settling.  Block heights are randomized to avoid a coursed or “layer cake” look.  Mortar (Type “S”) was used only where round rocks were used, to stabilize the top cap, or where the blocks weren’t able to penetrate at least 8″ into the wall interior.  The bottles are laid loose in the wall in fitted slots – so that they can be removed for light bulb access.

Perhaps the most important step in making a professional looking wall is to take the time to shape the blocks.  This is where Hector’s experience really came through.  Most people rely on fitting stones together, but for a tightly jointed wall, shaping is necessary.  It’s actually not that hard and can be done with just a few tools:

To trim a block, scribe a line with a diamond bladed grinder.  The cut relieves the surface tension and helps the block to break along that edge.  This can be done to the top and bottom surfaces for better control.  Then, using a cold chisel and a hammer, whack along the kerf until the block breaks.  It takes some practice.  The deeper the kerf, the more likely the block is to break along that joint.

To give the concrete a more uniform appearance (resembling stone), we chiseled the exposed face of the smoother blocks.  That may sound hard, but it actually goes pretty fast.  We would cut a shallow kerf about 3/8″ from the face of the block on the top and then spall off the face.  We elected not to do this for the landscape walls and it still looked OK, but this attention to detail really results in a higher quality finish.

Another technique we employed was splitting the larger pieces into smaller chunks.  This was done with “feathers and wedges.”  Basically, you drill holes (with a roto hammer) evenly along a slot cut into the top surface.  The holes are about half the depth of the material.  You then insert steel wedges and L-shaped “feathers” and pound away.  The goal is to drive the wedges in at the same rate so that even pressure results until … presto the block snaps in two.  This whole process takes about five minutes and can quickly turn a large unwieldy slab into smaller useful pieces.

If you’re feeling lucky and want to try a faster method, you can try just cutting a deep groove on the top and bottom of a block and whacking the slot with a cold chisel.  If the combined cuts are about 2/3 of the block depth, this tends to work pretty well.  Less than that and you’ll need some luck.

If you do this professionally, or just happen to love tools, then a concrete wet-saw makes quick work of block shaping. Here’s a picture with Hector unleashing its might on a corner block.  It should go without saying that safety gear is essential.

In our case, we wanted an architectural wall reminiscent of the CCC era masons.  Their work is still in service in our local parks and is testament to the longevity of this type of construction.  Toward that end, we felt it was worth a little more effort for something that will be around a long … long time.  Hector likes to say that “stone is forever” … and in the context of our lifetimes, that’s a very true statement.

Here’s a picture of Hector and Matthew sitting atop the finished wall.  Optimal sitting height is about 18 inches.  While the ground slopes along the wall length, it averages about that height.

Natural color variation in the urbanite adds interest.  Some of our material must have come from a boat ramp as barnacles have encrusted the surface.  It just blends in … until you study it closely and then you’re like “Hey Wait a Minute!?”

I love it when architecture reveals more to us the deeper we look.

Here’s a few parting images. The first shows the whole assembly in the early morning.  For the rain garden, Sarah complimented the native reeds with dogwood, iris, juncus, camas lily and gunnera.  The background wall steps slightly where the higher parking lot wall meets the lower path wall.  Visually, the two flow into one another.

The latter image shows the landscape wall along the path.  Here, the back side of the urbanite is buried into the soil, so uneven pieces are easy to fit into the wall assembly.  Gravel is backfilled behind the blocks for stability and drainage.

If you decide to use urbanite on your next project, send us a photo … we would love to see what you come up with.  If you’re nearby and want a skilled artist to help you realize your vision, give Hector a call.  He’s currently plying his skills in Vermont, but is willing to make the journey west during the long cold New England winters.

Over the years, we’ve been a strong advocate for living roofs.  Their beautiful form graces many of our projects as well as our home and office.

The appeal is many-fold:  Living roofs replace the ecology disturbed by buildings by moving it upward – to the roof level.  There, planted roofs provide habitat, carbon sequestration and oxygen. They reduce and filter stormwater.  They extend the life of roof coverings (up to 2x) by shielding them from UV, environmental wear, and extreme temperature.  Plants add a dynamic element as well.  They change with time and seasons and the resulting beauty provides considerable psychological benefit.  We like the way that they help to connect us to the natural world.  During migrations, we often find flocks of birds resting on our roof as they take a break before flying on.

We’ve explored many different ways to build a living roof and finally had the opportunity to utilize Blooming Nursery’s Greenfeathers system.  It’s by far the quickest installation that we’ve seen and the result is a completely grown in roof – all in the course of a day!  The secret is  in planning ahead.

The Greenfeathers system is a series of modular 1’x2′ trays that are pre-grown at the nursery.  The designer specifies the right plant mix (based upon climate, sun exposure, aesthetic requirements, drought tolerance, etc).  The nursery then grows the flats ahead of time at their facility.  Hence the planning ahead –  it takes several months to grow the plants to maturity.  Once they are ready, the flats are delivered and ready for installation.

Installation is fast.  The roof we planted was a few hundred square feet and took about half a day.

The principles for installation are simple:

1. Start with a professionally installed, fully waterproof membrane roof
2. Add a complimentary layer of material to protect the membrane from puncture during installation.  In our case, we used a second layer of loose laid TPO roofing (ballasted by the planted roof materials).
3. Use drain rock around the perimeter, scuppers, drains, and building edges where you don’t want plant materials to deteriorate other parts of the building such as cladding or trim.
4. Install the plant trays in a tightly fit configuration (measure the roof ahead of time and plan your layout).
5. Remove the edge liners from the trays.  This will allow the plants and soil media to blend together between trays so that the roof can grow together into one densely grown mat.
6. Water in the roof deeply and intermittently as recommended until the plants are established.

While at first blush, the system seems more expensive than other DIY installations, it may in fact be cheaper (especially for smaller roofs).  Finding and procuring good roof soil can be difficult and time consuming – as can finding an adequate supply of plants suited to your roof. If you are planning well in advance, you may be able to coordinate with other projects in your area and thereby share the delivery cost.

Speed is a big advantage with this system.  By having fully grown in plants, the roof soil is never exposed to weed seed – which virtually eliminates the likelihood of invasive plants establishing themselves on your roof.  Dandelions and other aggressive interlopers can put strain on your waterproofing membrane, so keeping them at bay is important.  Since roofing soils are not exposed for any length of time, they don’t need to be protected from erosion.  Further, the grown in materials are suitable for steeper roof installations (where baffles would be required to keep soil from sloughing off the roof).  Finally, installing fully mature plants means instant benefits:  Stormwater retention, oxygen production … you name it!

One consideration we weighed was the additional plastic prevalent in the trays that are installed with the plants.  Upon reflection, we realized that virtually the same amount of plastic is used for tray delivery at nurseries where the plants are grown, delivered and sold.  So, unless you are installing plugs or cuttings the resulting embodied energy is about the same.  The benefit of this system is that the installed trays do act as a root stop barrier and will facilitate the removal and replacement of the plant materials if and when the roof membrane needs to be replaced.

Overall, we were quite pleased with the experience.  Designing far enough ahead of time, we were able to choose just the plants that we wanted (rather than the ones commercially available at the time).  The speed of installation was a huge plus … and the satisfaction of seeing a complete roof after only a few short hours was priceless.