So happy New Year guys. Now, have a guess where I am? I'm back at Swarkestone. I waited at
Derwent Mouth lock and the River Trent went up, and up, and up, and up
and then I had a Canal & River Trust notice indicating that the flood gates at Newark
were closing, to protect the town of Newark and I was worried that the gates would do
the same at Shardlow and once they're closed you can't open them, because they'll lock
them.
They're purely there to protect Shardlow so, I turned around and I've headed back to Swarkestone.
This is a protected canal here. The river will never get up this high. I've moored a
little tiny bit of a different place because the towpath was very muddy back in the main
area of Swarkestone.
But it's not here, well, not as much anyway. This boat here belongs to the Mad Hatter's.
She makes all sorts of hats. She attends a lot of shows around the country and she's
busy beavering away in there, making hats for this season. I've added a link to her
Facebook group in the description below.
So I'm up here for the foreseeable future, so I thought I'd crack on with inside. The
fireplace has been going obviously for the last year but I need to start finalising the
area around the back of it and round the side. Lots and lots of rules and regs regarding
fireplaces, especially on new installs.
It's just all about radiant heat and heat transfer and that sort of thing. So, that's
what I'm going to be discussing today. Behind the fire, I’ve built the frame of a bulkhead.
This separates the bathroom with the main living area. Instead of just a sheet of oak
faced ply, I wanted a frame to support the sink on one side and have a solid base to
fit the panels surrounding the fire.
The fire is a Morso Squirrel 1410 and I detailed its install in episode 3. It’s proved to
be a very good buy and keeps the boat at a nice level of warmth, 24 hours a day, if I
need it to. I’ve burnt both coal and wood on it and I can get a good 4 to 5 days from
a single 25kg bag of coal.
As this is a new install I needed to do quite a lot of research regarding how to safely
build around the fire and be within the law. I found a very good, easy to understand pdf
made by Soliftec. I have included a link to it, in the description below and it details
distances for insulation boards and for around fires.
The information is taken from the BSI Standards Publication BS 8511:2010. It is the code of
practice for the installation of solid fuel heating and cooking appliances in a small craft.
If you were to buy this outright it has a bit of a hefty price tag of £198. However,
However, I was fortunate enough to have a good friend who being a University student, could download
it from their site.
The fire sits on a hearth made by the guys at Kings Lock Chandlery in Middlewich. It’s
there to protect the boats flooring from both radiant heat and also things falling out,
when you open the fire door. In the BSI document, depending on how high the upstanding is around
the hearth, or if you have one, there is a minimum distance the edge needs to be from
the appliance.
Mine has a 30mm up-stand and has 160mm in front of the fire, which is well within the
regulations. When I fit the final flooring in the seating area, the hearth will be cleaned
up and painted.
I am using Super ISOL Calcium Silicate boards to insulate both behind and to the side of
the fire. They’re available in a range of different sizes and thicknesses and are a
whitish colour.
It has the texture of chalk or plaster and is made from limestone and diatomaceous
earth, which is a siliceous sedimentary rock.
The regulations for installing boards of 0.1 watts per meter-kelvin should have a minimum
thickness of 25mm and a distance at the rear of 120mm and the side of 110mm. There should
also be an air gap of 20mm.
In a sort of belt and braces approach, I’ve purchased boards of 40mm in thickness which
have a watts per meter-kelvin value of 0.1. The distance at the rear is 160mm and the
side of 420mm. I am not installing panelling behind any of the boards, so there will be
an air gap of 45mm in the bulkhead and 35mm on the sides. The boards will go up both walls
250mm higher than the top of the stove.
Although the boards are said to be harmless when cutting. I didn’t want
to discover, in years to come that they actually were, like people dealing with asbestos did.
So, whilst cutting I wore a face mask suitable for asbestos removal, plaster, silica and
stone dusts. Whilst I cut the boards and for around an hour afterwards, Molly was forced
to sit and wait out on the bow of Alice.
I cut the boards using a standard wood blade in a jigsaw. I took it slow to reduce the
amount of dust in the air and it was quite easy to cut. I placed the bulkhead boards
on first and screwed them in place using some 75mm screws directly into the bulkhead. In
the bottom left corner, I cut a small access hole for some plumbing. I fitted the side
panels on the sloping hull against the rear panels and it doubled up in the corner. I
fitted these in place using smaller 60mm screws as I didn’t have the same depth behind.
As the screws were thinner, I added a washer on the end to hold the boards securely and
stop the boards popping off in years to come. All the screws were counter sunk ready for
tiling.
I’ve decided to use these 44cm square tiles. They are porcelain and unlike ceramic, can
withstand the excessive heat around the fire. I will fit them at a later date with a heat
resistant flexible adhesive and grout.
I lit the fire and after a night of warming up, I got it at a high ‘open all the doors
and windows temperature’ the following morning for some testing. The temperature at the metal
rear of the fire is around 440 degrees Celsius. On the front of the board its around 143 Celsius.
The ambient temperature is a sweltering 31 Celsius inside Alice during my testing. You can see the boards
are doing their job, as the temperature on the rear of the board is 37 degrees Celsius.
If you’re installing a fire yourself, I’d strongly advise you to read through, and follow
the BSI document. Your fire will likely differ from mine so you’ll need to research for
your own specifications. I realise I have much thicker and greater
distances than the minimum required but as I often keep the fire lit for sometimes, weeks
at a time, including at night. I wanted to ensure that Molly and I were safe.
Please do leave a comment below and if you like this video, please give it a thumbs up.
Until next time, see ya later.