Chimney work has begun . . .

Two months ago, we began to work on the chimney/fireplaces.  Located between the front/living room and the middle room in the back addition, the chimney takes up 3 ft x 4 ft of space from the first floor all the way through the second floor, capped by a brick top.  Made of large field stones at the base, it has smaller field stone up to the brick just below the roofline.  There are two fireplaces back to back and two separate flues to the top.  The fireboxes are both very shallow.

The brick top needs to be rebuilt, and we want to have working fireplaces.  Our contractor had several people look at the chimney, and it was determined unusable for today's safety standards.  We should either sleeve the flues or rebuild.  There was concern about the age of the chimney and whether it was structurally sound.  We decided to rebuild.  A difficult decision since this is the original chimney.

When the mason began to dismantle the stonework, we learned that this was constructed of field stone and red clay.  No mortar.  We have mixed feelings.  Local stone with red clay is a very early method of chimney construction in the southern mountain areas.  This chimney was old.  And it has stood there all these years until now.  We strive to be sensitive to the history of this house, taking care to make the least invasive changes for modern living.  We believe that in the end a rebuilt traditional chimney is the right decision due to genuine safety concerns for us and the house itself.

We have saved all the stone from the chimney.  Along with the saved stone from the foundation, we plan to build a stone wall incorporating the old field stone.