Wooden Fireplace filler issues

[virgilns]

Hi I'm new to this forum, so Hello and hope everyone is well

As a bit of an introduction I'm a keen DIYer which includes a good bit of woodwork. Garage is my workshop and have the usual tools - portable saw table, routers and DIY table, bench top jointer, drill press etc.

I'd say I'm quite handy but not hugely experienced (maybe hence my problem here…) and most things i build are a totally new venture for me…so always on the first part of the learning curve!

So I built a wooden fireplace surround for our new lounge…7kw wood burning stove. Looked great when i first fitted it just before Christmas but after a few fires, the filler near the heat source started to blister, expand and 'pop' either where i've pinned the trim pieces on or filled any screw holes with a 2 part epoxy filler.

I'd post a pic but don't seem to have permissions (yet?)

I'd love to know if there's a special way of filling wood for use in high heat environments??

Many thanks,

Virgil

 

[Steve Maskery]

Hi Virgil
Welcome to the forum.

Personally I doubt that it is the filler that has expanded, I think it is much more likely that the wood has shrunk as it has dried out. I think I would simply sand dowwn the resultant bumps and refinish.

Your surround is far enough away from the fire, isn't it? There are regs about it, but I forget what they are.

S

 

[cedarwood]

Fairly sure the regs say no combustible material within 18 inches

just found this

Deciding how much room to leave around the woodburner is influenced by two main factors:

1. The law

Building regulations dictate that your stove must be positioned at least 450mm (18in) from combustible materials.

If your stove is being placed within 300mm of a wall, and will sit on a hearth that abuts a wall, then the wall must be non-combustible to at least 300mm above the appliance and 1.2m above the hearth.

If you’re using uninsulated flue pipe, it must be three-times the outside diameter of the pipe away from combustible materials and one-and-a-half-times the diameter away from non-combustible materials.

There is no legal restriction on how close you can place the stove to a non-combustible surface, such as brick. However, that might be restricted by…

 

[virgilns]

Thanks Guys.

yep - it's far enough away - depends on the size of fire etc, but its clear enough, but it still obviously gets hot…

Will try sanding back and re painting, but it's a pain as it was a nice super smooth spray finish and now it'll be brush strokes galore :-(

is there any way of post in pics on this forum?

 

[lurker]

Try a small foam roller, they are also cheap enough to chuck away rather than clean