My mother in law lived in a log cabin as a child. The cabin had the chimney in the middle and was open to two rooms. Cabin is still standing and is in good shape.
We have built the chimneys on the inside since medieval times (1400s) here in Scandinavia. Mostly in aim to preserve any heat (it's cold here) but also from tradition. :)
The house was built around the fireplace and tradition in Scandinavia say that you should be able to take a walk around it. Although trough several rooms. The Children ran in a circle until someone had enough.
In Finland common people lived in so called smoke huts from the medieval times until to the beginning of the 20th century. Smoke huts did not have chimneys at all. When the stove was heated all the smoke gathered inside and it had to be aired out afterwards. Those houses were completely black from inside. Behind the link there is a Finnish smoke hut that serves as a museum: www.janakkala.fi/laurinmaki/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2016/09/IMG_6601.jpg
My father built the house I grew up in back in 1979/1980, and the house is primarily heated by a woodstove with an internal cinder block and tile lined chimney. He said that the reason for building it internally prevented the chimney from getting too cold or having a large differential temperature between the outside and inside, reducing condensation of flue gases and reducing the build up of creosote (which if not cleaned off can cause chimney fires). We clean the chimney each year at the start of the season (woodstove runs constantly from Thanksgiving to ~ mid-March), and we don't see much creosote buildup at all. Anecdotally, we think an internal chimney is safer.
@@mikatamminen2786Not that I'm aware, no. Some Scotch, some eastern European (Polish, maybe Ukrainian?). Really just European mutts as best I can tell, so maybe Finn is in there too. I haven't run an Ancestry and don't plan to.
Thanks Noah! This was the first video I've seen from you and I was impressed there was no clickbait, or waiting for info, or bullshit. You got right into talking about the awesome external chimney. I learned a lot and you have a new subscriber. Thanks for sharing your knowledge!
Thank you! I do like to mention my course offerings in some of these videos... but.. I always make it the last thing on the video... I don't want to ever be "salesy"... but I do like to let folks know that I offer comprehensive courses too.
@@HandmadeHouseswithNoahBradley those are completelly acceptable. you could do it more often and nobody noticed. greetings from finland, winterwonderland.
Good information. Some of the old farms here in Ga still have the original house the was build many years ago. The Chimney being on the outside. Heartpine lumber proly sawn right there on the farm, still remains so beautiful. Ive seen a few with Chimneys in the middle of the house with a fire box on both sides. The kitchen would have a small Chimney one the outside with a stove pipe hole about head high, for the Woodstove. Some kitchens were built away from the house with a walk way. Grandma said it kept the house from getting so hot in the summer. Also in case of fire maybe it wouldnt get to the main living area.
As a brick and stone Mason of 35 years of chimney building experienc, it is a hell of a lot easier to build a chimney up an exterior wall than through the middle of the house. Scaffolding can be erected directly off the ground all the way to the top of the chimney (minimum 15' but I have gone as high as 54'). Material can be delivered to outside scaffold by forklift tractor or by hand and improvised hoisting system much easier than having to pass materials mostly by hand up through various levels of a house. Floors of the house aren't in the way of the masons and they can work with scaffold boards adjusted to optimal heights; interior scaffolds necessitate working above your head or reaching down below your feet through an opening in the floor which you had just previously used to pass up and stockpile tons of materials needed for the subsequent story's section of the chimney requiring extra temporary structural support for the overloaded floor or ceiling on which the material sits. An interior chimney presents a challenge to building a safe scaffold on a steep pitched roof and problems getting materials up the roof to the scaffold. Also roofs and floors need to be protected from mortar droppings and brick or stone fragments as many times they (the floors, walls, or roofs) are finished or nearly finished surfaces. These things simply fall to the ground and are easily cleaned up after construction when everything is done off an exterior scaffold.
@@jaywoods7322 I would have loved to build it first as soon as the foundation was in but everywhere I went, Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Northern Virginia, Louisiana, Mayland, and Mississippi the builders insist on getting the framers and the roofers in first and ignore your protests even when you offer to do the job considerably cheaper if they let you go first. One of their excuses is that you won't get the chimney built right to fit through the house and receive the flashing at the roof line as though you're too stupid to figure it out from the plan drawings. After much pleading and explaining, I could usually but not always persuade them to hold off on the section of roof around the chimney so that I could build the scaffold off the last story floor up through the ceiling joist and roof rafters before the roofers finished. The roofers cried a lot about this because they wanted to slam dunk the whole job without having to come back for a loser of a day piddling around finishing the roof and flashing the chimney. They usually didn't get as much respect as the framers; the framers always got what they wanted. When they refused and the roof was already complete, we usually had to nail into the roof (not too bad with wood shingles, asphalt shingles a bit more trouble to avoid leaks, and with metal roofing almost impossible). Then, as though you can lay brick without dropping one spec of mortar which stains the roof you have to cover with plastic or felt paper to protect the roof. Experienced builders understood that mortar stains on a wood roof disappear after 6 months but they don't want to wait 6 months to sell it to their buyers that don't understand it. On asphalt a little muriatic acid will do wonders if the aggregate in the shingles doesn't change color from it. Then if you don't slip and fall off the roof while you're building veneer Jack's off the 2x4's you had to nail into the roof, you might finish the chimney before OSHA sees what a Jake leg scaffold you're working from. I have occasionally been able to erect scaffold frames up the near side of the house, extend long scaffold boards to the roof, then build another scaffold over those boards, use long boards again over to the roof, and repeat the process in a stairstep fashion until you get to where the chimney is located. This is using $5000 worth of scaffold to do $300 worth of work. Pretty dumb when all you have to do is like you say. Let the Mason go first.
@@markenge9348 Your building experience is from a very different time period. Imagine you arrive at your land with a wife and mabe a kid or two. The first shelter you build is for your 2 horses or oxen and a cow or 2, because if they are not in good shape your all done. You spend the first winter or 2 sleeping with the the critters and while it may be a bit stinky they put off a fair amount of heat, good thing because with the hay around you could not have any fire inside, cooking was done outside. When you get some time to build a house, the plans you speak of would be scratched, full size in the dirt with a stick, no contractors no inspectors and no OSHA, you could build it any way you liked because if it fell down you only had to look into a bucket of water to find who was to blame.
Early fireplace hearths were so much more wide and deep so one could swing their pots in and out and also so the popping embers didn't land inside your home. Luved your ending narrative Noah. Your so right, it is the asthetics and engineering. They are magnificently beautiful. From a new subscriber. I really enjoy your channel. Thank you for sharing.
I lived in a colonial house in New Hampshire built in 1770 with five fireplaces (one in each room) and a beehive oven all in a central three flue monsterous chimney. It still had the original single pane windows......and it was cold! Of course we had a woodstove inserted into the main fireplace but on -20*F windy nights it was a struggle to maintain 50* F. Thanks for the video.
Here in Canada many homes/cottages have a massive stone fireplace in the center of the house, there is a ton of lost radiant heat lost to a fireplace on the outside of the home, esp at -40c. As well, the Russian stove is a fireplace central to the home and it heats a home in -70
Wow, that’s what I’m searching for, examples of fireplaces in the middle of the home. Never seen that even here in Canada. Makes more sense than a chimney on the exterior wall of the house. Like you said, -20? Ya. Keep that heat inside!
An exterior chimney is exposed to the cold air outside the cabin. During times of no fire in the fireplace, the chimney itself becomes cold and thus the air in side the chimney is also cold. That, in turn, leads to downdrafts (air flowing DOWNWARD in the flue instead of updrafts). It gets a bit smoky in the cabin getting that downdraft to turn around and create an updraft to expel smoke from a newly lit fire. One good reason to keep the chimney in the interior of the structure... along with benefiting from greater heat retention (the chimney is a thermal mass heated by the fire which stays warm after the fire extinguishes).
Also thre chimnrey as it cools down doesn´t draw when used again as the built up moisture makes a gas lock plus also makes a chimney more fragile and soots so chimney fires are constant. Overhere in Finland it would be even forbidden to build a s.c. american chimney nowadays. Emission and safety regulations would make it impossible.
An exterior chimney reduces the need for flashing around a roof penetration, and if it starts to shift or lean over time, it is more apparent and can can be taken apart and rebuilt without disrupting the houses structure. On land that is rarely surveyed to depth structures shift and dense stone structures shift more than distributed timber ones. A well built chimney incorporating a simple modern design element, a heating exchanging firebox liner wastes very little energy heating the mass of the chimney compared to the heat lost through traditional ventilation of an interior centrally located fireplace.
One more reason for an outside Chimney, is because settlers built their homesteads in stages, while clearing land, stacking rocks, and drying logs for building, all while still living in and out of the Conestoga Wagon in which they travelled. They would continue to cook outdoors, until after the Harvest, where they could use the money from the sale of the Crops to buy Cement for building the Chimney, the Fireplace/Oven, Metal Hinges for a real door, (instead of maybe a heavy woolen blanket they had been using for a door), and real glass for windows. All of these things would be added after the Harvest, with Winter on the way, so the Chimney was built onto an already constructed Cabin, with one, or maybe no windows, and one door. It was easier to add the Chimney on to the end of the Cabin, and put the Fireplace/Oven on the end wall, where a space had been left for that purpose. This told to me by my Father, who was born to a Farming Family, in a "Little House On The Prairie" in North Dakota, and lived there in the late 1920's, moved to and was raised in Minnesota, in a home that originally had a dirt floor. The very first homes of many people were Grass or Turf homes called "Soddy's". This also allowed for additions to be made to the home, on the other side of the Chimney, which would leave the Fireplace and Chimney in the middle of the home.
Thank you so much for that info. It really puts the puzzle together, gives me a much better picture of it. I work on old buildings on farms and such , stone mason , so I’m always trying to imagine it in the beginning
The chimney looks great Noah ...... and for all the right reasons ......... you do a great job & are very inspirational . Will send you pictures of our first attempt before too long .
I grew up w/a wood/coal stove (mountains in NW Spain)...never saw a wooden house until I came to Amerika in the late 60s....or a house w/the chimney outside....the chimney itself provided a lot of heat.....
Its a beautiful little cabin with a beautiful view of the chimney. It makes ot look so homey and cozy. Id love to know how you bult your cabin if you ever feel like Doing another video
The truth is that the chimney catches fire it can be pushed over and fall away from the house! And in the southern United States we often had a separate kitchen in a attached room separated from the main house by a breezeway in the older homes built pre air conditioning if you see a older home what is often assumed to be a laundry room is in fact the original kitchen!
My grandfather did exactly that back around 1940, he had to chop a hole through the roof of a c. 1800 house with ridge beam, and the first blow of the axe, hit a rafter in the dark and the head came back and knocked him in the head and he almost passed out, luckily it was a single bit axe and he would never touch a double bit axe after that, saying it could have killed him especially with the house on fire. He saved the house, and his landlord only bitched about the damage and said its as well insured anyways.
Handmade House...; I subscribed to your channel here. I am a retired code certified home inspector and long time home renovator... I can always learn something new :-)
@@HandmadeHouseswithNoahBradley Scandinavians and other northern people have been building them inside for centuries so as not to waste all the thermal mass and our homes are dry. You just have to know what you're doing. As for cooking in summer most have outside stone or cob ovens
In the far north country, below zero *F temps wreck havoc with the construction and maintenance of chimneys on the outside of a house. In the past, it was a hazard but these days -- if you can afford the higher maintenance -- there is no reason you can't have one. Except that it's a waste of recoverable heat. :)
Many Colonial Salt Box & Cape Cod houses built during the 1600s had a broad central chimney--- open front & back onto kitchen and living room--- a particularly cozy set up. I have seen pictures of historic log cabins with this large central fireplace---: those usually also have porches the full length of the building: a passive solar design like the Salt Box. There's a tavern in Montana with 3 logs to a wall (Western Red Cedar/bark on), and photos of pioneer cabins in Ohio with 3 tulip poplar to a wall.
Allowed for external air and ash clean out opening. Open in winter to eliminate drawing cold air into house through door and cracks. Closed in summer allowing cool air to be drawn in through door and windows.
For those citing European houses with interior chimneys, it's worth pointing out that those cultures were far more established in masonry given the long history of European nations. Even small communities in Europe had local masonry supply, skill and materials because they had been doing it for centuries before the American continent was first settled. In most cases, rural cabins in North America during the 17th and 18th centuries were very isolated and built by people with very limited financial means and they had to use local materials for their homes. Those materials had to be quarried and hauled manually. In addition to felling local timber, they had to rely on stones and rocks from either streams or rocky hillsides. This made for crude chimney building and, as the author mentioned, they were not always air tight. Anyone who has ever mortared a rock wall or true rock chimney knows how challenging it is - and that's using modern caulking guns and air extruders.
Chimneys show in Europe in the 1100's and they had a huge impact on interior rooms in castles becoming smaller. It's right up there with glass on how much it impacts interior design. The Indian's settled the America's over 27,000 years ago, and from Spainish descriptions their cities were as good as anything in Europe.
The Brits built a huge chimney block of red brick in the middle of the house, kitchen dining and food prep on one side and sleeping room(s) on the other. The huge mass of warm brick kept the house warm all night. Log cabins are small and cold. There was no room for a decent chimney block with fireplaces on both sides.
Sorry I missed the 4 names you used to say at the end of the video. ;-) But thanks for the video's I'm so interested that I almost can't wait for the instructional videos for construction. It is good to learn patients
I've been working on some ideas lately on how to demonstrate more, while I'm still in this preparatory phase of my next home... look for that in future episodes. Thank you for your patience!
The New England style of chimney vs. the frontier style of chimney always made sense to me from a resource management perspective. In New England, which was the first-settled part of the country (and thus had the highest population density from the earliest time) labor was abundant (more people around) but firewood was more expensive (more demand.) So building a large chimney in the center of the house made good sense; the entire chimney served as a ceramic mass heater, making very efficient use of expensive firewood (or coal.) For those on the wild frontier they were in the opposite situation - labor was scarce (only the settler's family, with nearest neighbors often miles away,) but wood was comparatively plentiful and everywhere. To build a chimney in the center of the house would require a significantly bigger house to get the same amount of usable interior space (high labor cost) and the benefits (fuel efficiency) is not really needed. And then there were ancillary benefits (a chimney supported by the building doesn't need to be as heavy as a self-supporting one, like a central fireplace,) and of course your note about being able to pull the chimney down with a horse-team to save the building from a structure fire. It all makes perfect sense when you think about it!
The chimney also identifies which of the buildings is the HOUSE, as opposed to a shed, barn, or stable. The cabin with the chimney is where the people are.
In New France and until the beginning of the 20th century chimneys were built on the inside of the house. Either right in the middle, or adorning an exterior walls. Sometimes there would be one chimney on each exterior wall if the house was large enough.
I'm from Reading PA. And hour from Philadelphia. You see a lot of old home that had summer kitchens just behind the house. A tiny cabin with a big fireplace. Only one room. And what looks like a bread oven built into the chimney.
the three family homes from 1800 to 1850 all had interior ones one house both ends and center but all northern ny.a large stone one inside looks great.
My mother’s house, built in 1900, was part of a terrace row. All chimneys were on the wall connecting to the house next door. At roof level there were two stacks each with four flues. Four on our side and four on next door side. She also had another chimney at the back with two flues - kitchen and bedroom. But still not on exterior wall. My house built in 1970 had the chimneys at one side near the corner. Frankly useless as the room (lounge) was always over-heated. My plan was to move the hearth and wood stove to nearer middle of the house. It never happened as too much structural change involved (doors in the way etc).
Hi noah. We ve decided to have a wood burner on inside but love that chimney. Our solution, build the chimney but have the fireplace on the outside so we can enjoy those crisp autumn evenings. The question is, how thick might the inner stone layer have to be to not char the logs on the inside? If that makes sense. Maybe you have some experience with this or could help us find a safe solution. Thanks.
I'm not exactly certain if I understand the question James... but I can say that building codes and building inspectors will prevent anything from being built that will prevent charring. And if you are in one of those areas that doesn't require permits and inspections... congratulations!... but... with regard to building fireplaces and chimneys it's a good idea to comply with these standards anyway for safety sake.
I want to build a chimney like that and I have a question: which side of a house? The prevalent wind direction is from the west followed by from northwest and from the north. South wall seems to have the most advantages because the smoke and sparks will not be pushed on the roof and the walls of chimney will be warmed up by the sun diminishing backdraft.
It makes common sense to keep them towards the outside.... Though, there are many chimneys that are built within the house, as you said, more so the upper east coast.
I live in rural Mississippi and I own Seven Acres that has Loblolly yellowpine matured between 16 and 20 in in diameter. I have probably about 2,000 of these trees to choose from. I don't have any heavy machinery and everything I would do I would have to do by hand and by wench. I only have one person to help me in that's my wife. We have no family and no friends here. I am intimidated. However I am strong I'm a hard worker and I am a brick and block Mason. I'm having a hard time pulling the trigger. Do you believe Loblolly yellow pine is sufficient for building a log home? I enjoy your videos and I will continue to watch them. My intimidation is still getting the best of me
Good video, makes sense that if you had a chimney fire to pull the chimney over. Much easer to rebuild the chimney in January than rebuild your house. I think Happy is talking about Russian Stoves . there are some cool you tube about them.
The chimney and the building were erected at different times. As far as design goes, it was easily added to the side of an existing building. I have doubts to whether beauty or space-saving had much to do with it.
A chimney can be appreciated on the inside of a home where it can give of heat after the fire is out and it will last much longer since it is not exposed to freeze/thaw cycles. Mainly we have double insulated chimney pipe now because labor costs for stone and brick work are too high. My masonry chimney is in the middle of my house and I will be building a rocket/batch mass heater for maximum efficiency.
Better question: Why do so many houses built before 1950 on back have the 2 little windows on either side of the chimney, like yours (and mine)? Thanks!!!
am reading now "Little house in the prairie" and I had not could get why Pa had done chimney outside. now I have figured out. But I want to know why he used saplings from the wood, which he plastered them with mud, and he build wals on the top of chimney . I have a doubt about protection of fire wood with mud. When I was a child I did wood coal from wood stick and mud in the fire. I think it would be destroy after short time, is not it?
What is a good exterior base dimension for a chimney. I think I read or heard you say 6ft wide at the base, is that correct? And how do you determine the fireplace width inside? thanks, Laura
Laura, it seems almost all chimneys in my area are 6ft by 3ft. A nice touch on a lot of vintage chimneys is a flared bottom where the chimney will come out of the ground 7ft by 3and a half feet and then at about a foot high will quickly taper in. I make the fireplace as wide as I can within the confines of the chimney that is built.
Thank you for the info. I believe I read that about the fireplaces/chimneys on your handmade houses website but wanted to confirm. I have been taken notes and trying to get as much info. as possible before we start building. I don't like to rush into anything and especially be uninformed. You continue to be a big help, thanks again!!!
A downdraft woodfire could draw air from outdoors to feed the fire. The smoke would be pulled down to a smoke channel (K'ang) underneath the ground to a smoke shed, where meats could be smoke preserved. Then again, the hot smoke could be channeled underneath a Scandinavian hottub😃
Mr. Bradley, Did you build the chimney on the cabin as well? I have a older home, and the exterior of the chimney is cinder blocks. I was thinking/wanting to cover it with stone just like yours. Do you have any videos, recommendations, etc. on how to build that chimney? If so I would greatly appreciate it. Thank you for your time, Jason
Yes this chimney was built by me/my crew. If you want to cover your block chimney with stone, then I would recommend my Stone Mason Academy, which goes through how to lay and cut stone and spends some time on "veneer", although in your case it would be authentic veneer rather than glue-on stuff.
@@HandmadeHouseswithNoahBradley the rock I would be using is from off the property! My cabin (family’s) I live in has that exact same style. It was made from the underpinnings of old tobacco barns. Is your course hands on, or online?
@@HandmadeHouseswithNoahBradley basically I want to do another 1 like it. The chimney in our cabin was built when I was a kid. So I only remember the basics of it.
Did houses in a mountainous setting like this have any grass in the yard? I ask that question as someone who grew up with a milk cow roaming in the yard.
Grass doesn't like to grow in heavily wooded areas. Thanks for sharing! Love the idea of a cow roaming the yard. I was fortunate to experience cows growing up... but they would be quickly in trouble if spotted in the yard.
Cows need a lot of grass. Unless you had a huge farm with an enormous lawn, I'll bet that milk cow mostly ate hay, not grass, and you didn't play much in the cows' yard. Goats would do better within a predator free mountains wooded area than cows, and produce more milk and meat per pound of forage than cows.
A few years ago I set up one there... but it never went anywhere and I felt a bit like a round peg in a world of square holes... perhaps I should look into that more (when I find the time).
Many settlers built cabins with few or no nails, let alone roofing flashing required to keep an interior chimney from leaking. They were centrally located in the ridge of the roof to reduce the amount of accumulated water passing by that could cause leaks. A chimney located lower on the roof would also require a cricket to prevent it from leaking, and would be suseptible to ice dam leakage.
@@brianblithe2271 a cricket is a triangular metal roof flashing for a chimney to divert the water from leaking into the back edge of a chimney where it meets the roof at an acute angle.
Early American colonial homes prior to the American Revolution in the Northeast had Center chimneys to utilize the heat as much as possible. During the federal period many homes started putting the chimneys on the outside primarily for fire protection. It was about survival in the early days.
There are other obvious reasons. First it saves space inside the house since a chimney is quite voluminous. Second, it is harder to waterproof the contour of the chimney on the roof!
