N80
Super Member
I built a small log cabin kit on my property almost 20 years ago. Built it myself along with friends and family. We did not have the money to have a fireplace put it. We now have the money to do it and finally found a contractor to do the job. He has been utterly unreliable. He was contracted in July of 2021 to finish the job before last Christmas. By Christmas he had not even started. It sounds like he had some legitimate family issues so we kept hanging on. New deadline was April 1. He had had brick and cinder block delivered and had expanded the previous footing but then nothing else happened for weeks. He never communicated with us. Rarely answered texts and calls We finally fired him after 8 months of frustration. Waiting for what's left of our down payment which was half the total cost, up front.
This is in a rural area. There are no local contractors who want a job like this. In fact, there are no contractors at all who will do it. Most won't answer phone calls at all. I understand they are building new homes like crazy and a project like this is a waste of time.
Now I have a footing and several thousand dollars worth of brick on the ground and don't know what to do.
So I'm trying to work out in my head how much of this I can do myself including hiring masons. What follows are some questions to help me sort this out:
1. The original plan was to cut the wall where the fireplace goes from floor to roof. In other words, from the inside you'd see the brick chimney all the way to the ceiling. I am hesitant to take this approach if I'm going to do the carpentry side of things myself. I have seen pictures of log cabins where you see the fireplace and brick up to the mantle but from there up it is the original log walls. That means the chimney is almost entirely on the outside and it means I'd only have to cut the hole the size of the fireplace rather than all the way up through the ceiling. The logs are 6" thick so the firebox would have to be set back nearly that full 6". The chimney would be entirely external and would only go through the roof at the eaves. Is this possible? The original cabin plans do not show a lot of detail for the fireplace but it looks like the chimney is entirely external on the plans. If so it seems like a much more approachable job for me to do myself.
2. If this is possible and I did the demo work of opening up the wall for the fireplace and the eave for the chimney it means that I would have to contract with the masons myself. Is this possible? If so what do I need to know involving that interaction? None of the fireplace components have been purchased yet. In other words, flue pipes, metal flue cap, ash clean out door, fire brick etc. Would I need to order those things or would the masons do that part?
3. How much do the masons do? I understand that they would build the fireplace and chimney but would they do stuff like building the base of the hearth? Or would I need to be there to do that while they were there?
4. The contractor we fired suggested that masons are hard to deal with. Is this generally true or just him making excuses. Traditionally most masons around here tended to be black which is no problem but from what I hear almost all are Hispanic now. No problem with that _except_ I do not speak English. If that is the case would that be a deal breaker if I'm trying to act as my own contractor?
Any and all advice much appreciated.
This is in a rural area. There are no local contractors who want a job like this. In fact, there are no contractors at all who will do it. Most won't answer phone calls at all. I understand they are building new homes like crazy and a project like this is a waste of time.
Now I have a footing and several thousand dollars worth of brick on the ground and don't know what to do.
So I'm trying to work out in my head how much of this I can do myself including hiring masons. What follows are some questions to help me sort this out:
1. The original plan was to cut the wall where the fireplace goes from floor to roof. In other words, from the inside you'd see the brick chimney all the way to the ceiling. I am hesitant to take this approach if I'm going to do the carpentry side of things myself. I have seen pictures of log cabins where you see the fireplace and brick up to the mantle but from there up it is the original log walls. That means the chimney is almost entirely on the outside and it means I'd only have to cut the hole the size of the fireplace rather than all the way up through the ceiling. The logs are 6" thick so the firebox would have to be set back nearly that full 6". The chimney would be entirely external and would only go through the roof at the eaves. Is this possible? The original cabin plans do not show a lot of detail for the fireplace but it looks like the chimney is entirely external on the plans. If so it seems like a much more approachable job for me to do myself.
2. If this is possible and I did the demo work of opening up the wall for the fireplace and the eave for the chimney it means that I would have to contract with the masons myself. Is this possible? If so what do I need to know involving that interaction? None of the fireplace components have been purchased yet. In other words, flue pipes, metal flue cap, ash clean out door, fire brick etc. Would I need to order those things or would the masons do that part?
3. How much do the masons do? I understand that they would build the fireplace and chimney but would they do stuff like building the base of the hearth? Or would I need to be there to do that while they were there?
4. The contractor we fired suggested that masons are hard to deal with. Is this generally true or just him making excuses. Traditionally most masons around here tended to be black which is no problem but from what I hear almost all are Hispanic now. No problem with that _except_ I do not speak English. If that is the case would that be a deal breaker if I'm trying to act as my own contractor?
Any and all advice much appreciated.
