024Appleton Outdoor Fireplace - Part 2

posted by Jeff on March 7th, 2009

The rest of the 2008 landscaping season was a lot busier than we thought it’d be - we ended up running out of working weather before we finished the work we had on our schedule for the year.  This also meant that a good many things, like this landscape blog, weren’t kept current through the late summer, fall and winter.

But we’re looking forward to spring and with that I thought I’d provide a few updates, including information about the outdoor fireplace project we completed in mid-summer last season.  But first, a picture of the completed work:

All told, there was approximately 30 tons of crushed limestone placed under the retaining walls and pavers for this patio!  As you might be able to see in this picture, our fireplaces and fire pits are always lined with fire brick - it’s the best material for reflecting and evenly dissipating heat, reducing the expansion and contraction of the materials outside of the fire brick, which can lead to the beginnings of breakdown of those materials.

On of the trickier parts of this project really had nothing to do with the fireplace.  It had to do with the lights (see those small, dark triangles along the seat wall?).  But first, another picture:

A good deal of planning has to go into installing low voltage wiring in and through a retaining wall or seat wall, pre-cutting grooves for the wire to sit inside, mapping out the exact locations of the lights long before you ever connect the first bulb, as well as fishing what feels like miles of thick gauge wire through small holes on concrete blocks.  In the picture below, we’ve hollowed out just enough of a block to make the connections to the fixture (seen mounted to the outside of the block).

In the end this Appleton client had an outdoor entertainment space that would feel warm and comfortable from early Spring until the chill of Fall.

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