There's a H-O-L-E hole out there...

must be spending way too much time at the baseball park...

ANYWAY

there is a hole out there,  I finally got around to drilling a hole (or lots of them to be more precise) in a perfectly good brick wall

It is kind of strange, people ask you  "What are you doing today"  you answer "cutting a hole in my house"

Well anyway, as everyone (both people who read this blog) knows, we have been putting a fireplace in the master bedroom over the last 47 years.  We finally got to the point that we needed to install the vent.  I had the framing all ready to go, just had to put a round hole in the sheeting on the house, then a slightly smaller hole in the brick on the exterior.

First thing to do was make some templates of the 2 different hole sizes out of cardboard.  Check

Then had to figure out how to find the center of those holes,  Hmmm,  how do you find the center of a circle.  GOOGLE!  (learned something new there...)

Found the center of both templates and marked the sheeting from the inside of the room with the hole and the center.

Drilled a center hole through the sheeting and through the brick, this is what the holes on the inside and outside would be based around.  Using a recip saw, cutout the sheeting on the inside.

Then checked to make sure the metal thimble would fit and it did

Then moved outside, got out the ladder  (did I mention our bedroom is on the second floor)

marked the hole, got out my hammer drill and started drilling holes around the outside of the hole.  Then got a cold chisel and started connecting the dots.

Moved inside, drilled some more, chiseled some more, finally got the hole cut out and smooth enough the vent would fit through.

Checked the fit of the vent stack with the outside plate attached, worked out how much needed to be cut off and went to trim that pipe to length

Used caulk to seal all the wood and brick gaps in our new found hole in the wall

Mixed up some hydraulic cement to place around the opening since it was not perfectly round (it would expand to fill the gaps) spread it around the hole, then pushed the vent in from the outside.  Slid the thimble on the inside, and got to filling gaps.

Spread caulk around the edge of the thimble and attached it to the inside wall

Spread Caulk around the upper edge of the brick hole and around the inside edge of the vent trim piece before setting it against the brick and attaching it with tapcon screws.

Then set the fireplace and connected the vent with self tapping screws.

Spread caulk around the outside of the vent trim to make sure this was as water tight as it could be

Outside, back up on the ladder, inserted the inner vent tube, and attached it to the trim piece, then touched up the caulk to ensure a solid coverage.

and Voila!

Now I need to mount the TV back on the wall and D needs to get to painting..

DD

P.S.  The LOML will hate me for thinking this, but one thing I will say, is all the time and planning and thinking and measuring and planning and thinking and time we spent getting to this point was worth it. The day went off without too many issues and only had 1 trip to the store.  Sometimes its good to slow down a project and not rush it