This fireplace at our house Poleworld, is without flaw or equal in my experience/opinion; its geometry and engineering yours. Many thanks. Dimensions, 60" height under mantle, 62" wide. Suck your hat right up the chimney. Flue is 24" square, laid up in brick, parged smooth inside flue, Chimney top is 30 feet above fireplace hearth. Happy New Year, James.

james johnson

Dear Jim Buckley,

I poured a structural concrete chimney in 1995, and after 15 years of procrastinating, I completed my Buckley Rumford fireplace (BRF) the spring of 2011. It is 62" high and 64" wide. (I think that I sent you a photo back then.)

A big old slash pine grew taller and taller, bushing out until its crown was about 8 feet from the top of the chimney, 42 feet above grade. This fall, I dared not light my BFP for fear of firing the tree. Tree came down for $750, the sawyer saying he could feel the heat (from a small fire in the woodstove) from the chimney from his aerial bucket. (yikes.) The house rule is we don't fire wood until the temperature drops below 70 F.

This dawn it was in the 50s, I put a match to my BRF and watched the first smoke wisk straight up the fireback, in five minutes I had a five foot wall of flame leaping up the throat, never the first puff of smoke. When the flame died down to about four feet, my wife snapped this photo I worked hard hat trades for about 40 years, my BRF one of the most rewarding and satisfying things I have ever built.

My enduring thanks for your careful presentation of the real Rumford. Hope you are well, most sincerely, James M.S. Johnson