Wood Stove Stonework

The much anticipated stonework for the walls around the wood stove has begun! Yuko's brother Shigeru located a huge piece of lava from Mount Fuji on a job site and gave it to us. Our stone cutter sliced it into slabs of varying thicknesses and this is going to be the back walls behind the wood stove. They will absorb a good amount of heat and radiate it back out for hours after the stove cools. The mason who has been subcontracted to lay the stone is awesome! He has done many noteworthy projects, most impressive is when he installed marble in the residence of the Prime Minister. We are counting on him to do a great job!

Step 1: A layer of grout over the concrete blocks and fireproof board.In accordance with Japanese Fire department regulations the 3 inch concrete block bust be filled with concrete and rebar, then installed leaving a 1 inch air gap between the blocks and the fireproof wallboard. Our mantle will also be Mount Fuji lava and is being cut now. It will be installed on top of the blocks in this picture.
To achieve the 3-D effect we are using black grout and the slabs of lava have been cut in various thicknesses.

Close-up of the stone. It looks somewhat like soft pumice but is very hard!
Event the overhead smoke containment wall (Japanese Fire Regs) is being done in lava. The actual ceiling will be done in black sheet metal over the fireproof board. We wanted a copper ceiling but cannot have it due to fire regs, but that is another story in itself!