Harman wood stove fire brick repair.

Have you ever looked into your wood stove and said out loud, “Oh oh!”. Well, I had this bucktoothed stove looking back at me back on the end of November.

Had to wait most of the day for the stove to cool down, then clean it out and start some exploratory disassembly and see what’s going on.

The fire brick liner in this Harman Oakwood stove is made up of 5 parts. One on each side which actually just stand in place. In behind each of these side pieces is a piece of really fragile material. Reminds me of a piece of asbestos, but I don’t think it is. Hope not anyway. So if you have to remove these yourself, remove the side brick and the asbestos-like material together and set aside.

The rear of the fire box is three pieces. The centre piece just fits in place. The pieces on either side are kept in place with a piece of metal at the top (screwed in place with a very short bolt), and some metal pieces at the floor of the fire box.

Upon inspection of the break, it looks clean and fits back together snug. Now its to find a material to cement it back together.

I ended up going to a local mason, Francis Arsenault (SouthRiverStone.com). Francis was very helpful and offered me some CPD that he thought should do the job. I never heard of it before, but if a mason tells me it works, I’ll take him at his word.

A little bit of mixing to get the cement smooth.

Then plan the repair. Find a flat surface where the brick can set for a day or two undisturbed.

The instructions said not to apply too thick a layer so that’s what I did. yes! I read the instructions first. Imagine! Spread maybe 1/8 or 1/16 inch thickness layer of cement.

Then simply press them together and leave it alone to cure.

I gave it 2 full days to cure and then reassembled the stove. The stove is working good once again and the break has remained intact.

Another job off the to-do list.

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