Do-it-yourself brick potbelly stove for a summer residence: how to cover the stove

You can cover the potbelly stove with bricks yourself by choosing the desired scheme and calculating the consumption of materials. The masonry mixture can be purchased ready-made or prepared independently using cement and sand (cement can also be replaced with clay). Drawings of the classic design, as well as step-by-step construction instructions, can be found in this article.

Drawings and selection of materials

Before you figure out how to cover a potbelly stove with bricks, you need to select materials and calculate the quantity. First of all, a brick is selected; it must be solid and withstand high temperatures. Only fire-resistant ceramic blocks are suitable for lining the firebox area and smoke exhaust ducts.

As for the base, frost-resistant materials are needed here, so fireclay bricks are used. Moreover, in both cases they must be solid, have good heat capacity and heat transfer.

Instructions on how to line a potbelly stove with bricks in a dacha require preliminary drawing up of a drawing - a masonry diagram. Depending on this, you can calculate the number of rows and the blocks themselves of the required sizes. You can take this sketch as a basis.

A row layout diagram allows you to understand how to properly line a potbelly stove with bricks. For a classic design, you will need 95 bricks (of which 60 are ceramic refractory and 35 are fireclay). Standard dimensions 250*120*65 mm.

If you correctly imagine how to cover a potbelly stove with bricks, you can calculate the amount of mortar and other materials:

• dry mixture for preparing the solution 123 kg (standard consumption 470 kg per cubic meter, masonry volume 0.26 cubic meters, thereforemu 0.26*470 = 123 kg);
• cast iron grate (grid bars);
• cast iron hob (stove);
• metal sheets 4 mm thick, 1200 mm long and 600 mm wide;
• set of electrodes for welding.

To fulfill all the conditions of the instructions on how to cover a potbelly stove with bricks with your own hands, you will need the following available tools:

• building level;
• trowel;
• Master OK;
• plumb line;
• roulette;
• welding machine;
• Bulgarian.

Step-by-step instruction

A potbelly stove made of brick for a dacha is laid with your own hands in several stages. Work begins with preparing a solution, which is easier to make from a ready-made mixture sold in 25 kg bags. Next, they carry out the masonry according to the chosen scheme, install the door, grates and hob, after which the bricks are dried and (if desired) sheathed with metal.

Preparation of the solution

You can line a potbelly stove with bricks yourself using a ready-made mixture, which is of high quality, but is quite expensive. If this option does not work, you can prepare the solution yourself from cement and sand in a ratio of 1:4. You can also use clay and sand in an approximate ratio of 2:1. In this case, the exact ratio is more difficult to indicate, since much depends on the characteristics of the raw material.

Moreover, you need to understand whether the potbelly stove can be covered with bricks so that the structure is durable. To do this, you should check the quality of the clay:

1. Roll into a rope with a small thickness of 1-1.5 cm.
2. Wrap this rope around a rolling pin with a diameter of 5 cm.
3. Pull the tourniquet slightly, increasing its length by about 20%.
4. If it stretches harder and does not break, the masonry will shrink greatly over time due to constant exposure to heat. If the clay breaks almost immediately, the solution will crumble into small fragments after drying.

Next, they begin to prepare the masonry mixture to cover the potbelly stove with bricks with their own hands, as in the photo. If you use a ready-made composition, it is diluted according to the instructions. If made on the basis of cement and sand, water is added to them until the consistency of thick sour cream is obtained. You can check by applying the mixture to the top side of the brick and placing it at a 45 degree angle. Normally, the solution should not flow from the surface.

If you plan to line the potbelly stove with clay-based bricks, you need to wash it, as well as the sand. The instructions are:

1. Pour sand into burlap.
2. Rinse under moderate pressure of cold water until clear liquid flows out (without cloudiness).
3. Next, the clay is washed in the same way.
4. Then it is placed in a large container and completely filled with water, and allowed to stand for a day.
5. After this, the water is drained through burlap (or through a sieve with cells no larger than 1.5 mm).
6. The process is repeated several times until the consistency of the clay resembles toothpaste.
7. Combine clay and sand in a 2:1 ratio and mix with a drill with a mixer attachment for several minutes.

Masonry

A potbelly stove, lined with brick, is placed in several rows, like other similar structures. When the solution is ready, it is recommended to start working immediately so that it does not harden. The step-by-step instructions are as follows:

1. The first row of bricks is placed on the cleaned surface, as shown in the photo (without mortar). Determine the correct location according to the building level.
2. The next step in the instructions on how to cover a potbelly stove with bricks at your dacha with your own hands is to install the door leading to the combustion chamber. It can be temporarily secured with wire and wrapped with asbestos cord.
3. Next, lay a new row in exactly the same order. Fireclay bricks, which are frost-resistant, are used. Grate bars are mounted on top of the ash pit.
4. The next (third) row is placed on a spoon. The back surface, which is adjacent to the wall, is installed mechanically, without the use of a mixture (knockout brick).
5. The next rows are laid out in the same way, alternating spoons with beds. Moreover, it is important not to confuse which brick to cover the potbelly stove with. As already mentioned, fireclay blocks are used for the base, and fire-resistant ceramic blocks are used for the firebox and chimney.
6. The top row above the fire door should completely cover it and end 13 cm higher, as shown in the photo of a potbelly stove lined with brick.
7. The subsequent rows are built in the same way, gradually moving the blocks back. The asbestos cord is fixed - then the surface of the hob is placed on it.
8. Next next to the hob, they begin to form a chimney. A pipe made of aluminum or tin is used as a smoke exhaust duct. You should not take heavy products - because of them, the strength of the masonry is reduced.
9. When they reach the 11th row, install a damper in the chimney to regulate the air flow. It is also compacted with an asbestos cord and covered with clay.
10. The next step in the instructions on how to cover a potbelly stove is the installation of a chimney that connects to a metal one. To ensure that it stands level, the base is reinforced with three rows of bricks.
11. You can then remove the knockout bricks from row 4 and clean the chimney. This completes the brick lining of the potbelly stove.All that remains is to whitewash the surface, place a sheet of metal in front of the fire chamber and lay down the plinth.

Drying

It is quite obvious that you cannot immediately use the stove for its intended purpose, since it is necessary to thoroughly dry the masonry. This can be done in 2 stages:

1. Open the door and chimney, put an incandescent lamp (classic, which gets very hot) into the chamber, and in front of the firebox, place and turn on a fan. Wait 5-7 days.
2. Having figured out how to cover a potbelly stove with bricks in a garage or bathhouse, you can move on to the second stage - forced drying. To do this, dry small firewood is burned once a day for several days, opening the plug halfway and the ash door about a quarter.

A brick potbelly stove will last even longer if it is sheathed with metal. This is an optional, but desirable step, which will make the structure more resistant to chipping and cracking. Sheet steel with a thickness of 4 mm or more is used. Then they heat it in test mode and check how well the firebox heats up and how quickly it cools.