The MHA is in Good Hands - Jay Hensley, 2001
MHA is in good hands
A little early history, what happens at an annual meeting, and the challenges ahead
By Jay Hensley
Associate Member
A nucleus of savvy, hard-working officers and members is what has made the Masonry Heater Association of North America (MHA) fly ever since a small task force of stove masons met in 1985 to work on an ASTM standard for masonry heaters, a far more difficult undertaking than they had ever imagined. ASTM is the world's largest consensus standards organization and the development of a heater standard became an ongoing project. Before the stove masons adjourned this first work session, they formed the MHA. In addition to developing the ASTM standard, their two major goals were to share information and, eventually, to offer a training and certification program for their members.
Three of MHA's current officers are stove masons and the fourth is a modular heater manufacturer. Born into the mason's trade 69 years ago, president Jerry Frisch was six or seven when he went on his first job with his daddy, and 12 when he was told to join the union or stop working as a mason. It was almost the end of summer out in Everett, Washington and Jerry had to go back to school. He was inducted into the union the following summer after a harrowing session in a smoke-filled room "where all these old guys, 35 or 40 years old, gave me the third degree and swore me in." There was never anything else Jerry wanted to do for a living.
He began educating himself about masonry heaters in 1979 when a customer asked him to build a "Russian fireplace," which Jerry proceeded to do under a Washington State Department of Ecology grant. Nowadays, 90 percent of his business is building masonry heaters. The other 10 percent is spent doing custom stone work, laying up his Frisch-Rosin heater/fireplace/retrofit unit, and conducting heater research at his own Lopez Labs out in Everett, Washington, often in partnership with Canadian stove mason Norbert Senf. He's built somewhere between 300 and 400 heaters, 80 of them one-of-a-kind custom heaters. "And they all work!"
Vice-president John LaGamba of Toronto was building a weekend cabin for his family back in 1989 when he saw his first masonry heater at a home show. "The whole concept was so appealing," he said, "so practical, so basic--I'd learned in school that the longer it takes something to heat up, the longer it stays warm." He had a Temp-Cast unit with a built-in bake oven installed in his cottage and found it to be the perfect heating system. A few years later, when the opportunity presented itself, he took over Temp-Cast, becoming a manufacturer of modular masonry heaters. "And what I thought would be an enjoyable part-time business became my full-time passion." He joined the MHA shortly thereafter, in 1993, and started attending annual meetings.
Secretary Gary Hart of High Ridge, Missouri took up chimney sweeping in 1979, like many other dreamers, back-to-the-landers and get-rich-quick hopefuls of that era. He was introduced to masonry heaters at chimney sweep conventions, HPA (Hearth Products Association) trade shows, and articles in SNEWS, the independent trade magazine for sweeps. Gary started installing Tulikivi modular masonry soapstone heaters five years ago, about the time he opened a retail stove shop. He soon joined MHA, learned to custom-build masonry heaters and earned his MHA certification. He thinks that selling, installing and building masonry heaters and bake ovens is a natural progression for sweeps with masonry skills.
Treasurer Rod Zander owns/operates New England Hearth and Soapstone in Goshen, Connecticut. A mason for 15 years and a cabinet maker before that, he now focuses on building soapstone masonry heaters, a skill he learned "by the seat of my pants" and by networking with other stove masons. He says, "A lot of research, hands-on, time and travel, especially to Europe, is involved in learning this craft." He joined MHA in '91 and over the years has become increasingly involved in the nitty-gritty of the organization. He's now serving his third two-year term as treasurer.
Executive administrator Bev Marois of Randolph, Vermont came to MHA three years ago from a solid background in the hearth industry, having worked with Charlie Page at TESS (thermal storage modular fireplaces) in the '80's, with Tulikivi and then with the Hearth Education Foundation.
Outgoing president Pat Manley worked for a Connecticut mason for two years when he was in his early 20's, learning to do stonework on houses and build fireplaces. He went on his own at 22 in Washington, Maine, working directly for homeowners, avoiding contractors "because they get between you and the people." A 1978 article by Albie Barden in The Maine Times in 1978 sparked his interest in masonry heaters. Albie, who is considered the guru of stove masons in North America, was in the early stages of setting up an international network of masonry heater builders, writers and business firms.
Pat spent an afternoon with Albie in Norridgewock, Maine, soaking up all the information he could. Soon he started building masonry heaters, learning as he went. He traveled alone to Europe in 1983--to Amsterdam, up through Finland and back down to Germany--seeking out tile stoves and the masons who build them. He was inspired by all the different styles he saw. Back in the U.S. he attended workshops, networked with other stove masons and became a charter member of the MHA.
Outgoing Secretary Norbert Senf of Shawville, Quebec was born in Germany, the son of a mason. He grew up in Toronto, became a mason, then built his first masonry heater about 21 years ago. He was introduced to heaters in the Co-evolution Quarterly put out by the Whole Earth Catalog people. Shortly thereafter, he subscribed to The Masonry Stove Guild Newsletter published in Germany, started meeting North American stove masons and participating in masonry heater workshops.
He laid up a heater in the concrete block house he'd constructed for himself and his wife Leila beyond the power lines in rural Quebec, replacing their woodstove with this far superior heating system. Building tile stoves for his neighbors gave him instant feedback on what worked and what didn't. Within a few years he was busier than he wanted to be in his new "craft within a craft," often working far from home.
Masonry stoves were catching on in Canada, and Norbert "didn't want to go to the Yukon to build heaters!" So he came up with his Heat Kit idea. He made a castable model of his own basic contraflow heater and found a company to manufacture its components. He and other qualified masons can lay up these modular units on site, finishing them with locally available materials of the customer's choice.
Norbert has done yeoman service for his association since its beginnings, including publishing MHA News twice a year, cramming it with news, technical information and in-depth articles. He has also translated technical articles from the German and shares them with the membership. His Fall '91 issue of MHA News included a 29-page report on the two-day "Short Course on Masonry Fireplace and Masonry Heater Emissions Testing Methods and Combustion Design" at OMNI Environmental testing lab in Portland, Oregon. It was this course, specifically designed for MHA members, that inspired Norbert and Jerry to get into some heater testing of their own. ("What a boring deal," Jerry says, "but we've learned a lot!")
In another issue Norbert covered the First International Conference on Sustainable Construction, held in Tampa, Florida in 1994. Eager for information on masonry heaters, attendees quickly depleted his large supply of newsletters and brochures. In 1996 he set up a web site for MHA. This created a communication avenue for members, a place for them to display their handiwork, and an information source for the general public on heaters and the craftsmen who build them. MHA News is now online.
As for me, I saw my first "Russian Fireplace," and was completely smitten, at the Boston Energy Show on a bitterly-cold, windswept day in 1980. Making my living then as a freelance writer, I had just produced my "Jay Hensley's Woodburning Basics" brochure, which chimney sweeps were using as a customer-education handout. Later, as editor/publisher of SNEWS, The Chimney Sweep News magazine, I wrote articles about masonry heaters whenever the opportunity arose.
I got to know Jerry in the late '80s when he started doing masonry chimney repair workshops for sweeps. I met both Albie and Norbert in 1990 at a sweep convention in Albany, New York, where they offered seminars on the history of masonry heaters and how to build them. There was standing-room-only for both of their presentations, and sweeps got some hands-on experience laying up one of Norbert's Heat Kits.
Albie gave me a copy of the wonderful book he co-authored with his mentor Heikki Hyytiainen, Finnish Fireplaces: Heart of the Home. I already had David Lyle's The Book of Masonry Stoves, and now I could continue my education on the subject with Albie's book. I joined MHA at their annual meeting in New Orleans in 1990 and have been covering their activities ever since.
In those early years MHA scheduled its annual meetings to coincide with the time and location of the Hearth Products Association (formerly Wood Heat Alliance) Expo, where our trade show booth gave us good exposure to and interaction with other segments of the hearth industry. In 1998, deciding we needed a location where we could do hands-on workshops to improve the knowledge and technical skills of our members, we met at Wildacres retreat in the Blue Ridge Mountains, about 20 miles southeast of Boone, North Carolina. We filled five full days with workshops and taking care of association business.
In 1999, again at Wildacres, we launched our rigorous MHA Certification Program and certified our first two custom masonry heater builders, Jerry Frisch and Rod Zander. Since then at least 10 more members have earned their certification credential. Heater building is an arduous and exacting discipline. Craftsmen learn from each other, from the "old country" stove masons, and through MHA workshops and seminars.
Wildacres covers 1,400 forested acres on Pompey's Knob mountain about three miles from Little Switzerland Post Office. Accommodations in the two rustic guest lodges are satisfyingly comfortable, and free of three distracting amenities of civilization--radio, telephone and TV. The all-you-can-eat meals, served family-style, are purely wonderful.
We met at Wildacres again in the year 2000 and voted to return in 2001. Our time there is always intense, productive, and a lot of fun.
Y2000 meeting & workshop
A brief review of last year's meeting will give you a pretty good idea of what goes on at one of these gatherings:
A cold rain and fierce April winds buffeted us that first day. Bundled up against the storm, heads down, we scuttled to and fro. This was quite different from the warm and breezy days of May we'd experienced in previous years!
Most of us arrived on Sunday, April 16, in time for dinner and left after breakfast on Saturday. There were 22 in all—20 voting members, plus administrator Bev Marois and me. For an organization with 48 full members and seven associate members, that's a huge turnout. Those who traveled the farthest were Albie Barden from Maine, Jerry Frisch from Washington state, Norbert Senf from Quebec, and Ernst Kiesling from Nova Scotia. Other attendees included Pat Manley, Rod Zander, Dan Fisher (Pennsylvania), Gary Hart, Ben Hurd (Missouri), Ron Karson (Ontario), Peter Solac (Minnesota), Walter Kelly (Pennsylvania), Martin Pearson (Massachusetts), Ben Sotero (California), Rebecca and Dan Carnes (North Carolina), John LaGamba, Tony Cuoco (New York), and Tim Custer (Ohio). Tom Trout, a long-time member who lives nearby, popped in and out as often as his work schedule allowed.
We met each day around the big table in the library in the building across from our guest lodge. Our bricks-and-mud sessions were held outside the old red barn, a short way on down the mountain. Close attention to business matters was interspersed with a work session on designing a kachelofen for the space it will heat, building a pizza oven, laying up a generic masonry heater, and then safety testing it for a worst-case scenario.
Designing & sizing a heater
Ernst was our instructor on heater design. He and his wife Maria own and operate Canadian Kachelofen, Kiesling Wood Fired Heating System Ltd. in Blockhouse, Nova Scotia. Ernst designs and builds the heaters, cook stoves, and bake ovens. Maria makes the unusual, colorful, and often free-form tiles that help turn each Kachelofen into a unique work of art.
He passed out copies of the thick manual that would be our workbook. His system had already been adopted by the Austrian masonry heater guild to start their computer program on heater design.
"All my heaters are done with these calculations," Ernst told us, "and it works, and it will burn clean if you use the right firewood."
He explained in great detail the technical calculations he has worked out for making sure each of his custom heaters suits the space for which it is designed. His calculations assume two firings a day. In a technology as old as the hills, a Kachelofen and other variations of masonry heaters soak up the heat from one or two hot fires a day and release it slowly, like sunshine, over a 12-to-24-hour period.
Ernst discussed combustion basics for heaters, adding a few words on customer education. "I educate everyone, show them how, all of the process, but they don't do it! So I get calls at 8 o'clock, saying, 'What do I have to do starting the fire?'"
He emphasized the importance of the chimney, which needs a certain cross-section area, must be of at least a minimum height, and should be an interior chimney. Other essential information to gather includes: average climate temperatures, location of the heater, construction details, and height of the chimney. Is the whole house to be heated, or just one or two rooms? What exterior finish does the customer want? Bricks, stucco, soapstone, ceramic tiles? Does he want a bake oven incorporated and/or to heat water for the household? You need a floor plan of the house and precise measurements (square footage, height of rooms, etc.), type of construction, R-value of insulation, type and size of windows… and on and on.
Step by step, Ernst led us through the complicated process as we dealt with page-upon-page of data and the graphs generated by them. Without the technical background, knowledge, and hands-on experience of a stove mason, I was lost. But I understood the principles at work here.
Ernst: "Making all these calculations also gives something to someone who inspects our heaters to see that we have a clean-burning stove."
Safety testing a heater
Down at the bricks-and-mud site Monday afternoon, members began the construction of a generic masonry heater under Jerry's leadership. They finished it Tuesday and built a break-in fire. Over the next two days, we would safety test it for a worst-case scenario, such as: (1) During construction, carpenters and workers grossly over-fire the heater, burning lots of scrap wood and trash, or (2) Teenagers left on their own build one fire after another in the heater as they party. Blatantly abused, even this safest wood heating system in the world could conceivably cause a house fire.
Testing included firing up the heater with one 50-pound load of seasoned cordwood after another, four and five times in a row. Participants recorded surface temperatures at regular intervals to see if the heater ever got hot enough to endanger a combustible ventilated wall four inches away. Each load of cordwood was tested for proper moisture content.
Although the results were skewed somewhat by the cold wind a'blowin' one day, we still learned some important things on our way to developing a testing protocol.
In essence, it would appear from our testing that a properly built masonry heater observing the stipulated 4-inch clearance to a combustible wall poses no danger to the structure, even under a situation of extreme overfiring.
Web site draws 200,000 hits
Norbert reported that our MHA site drew 200,000 visitors and inquiries over the past year, with about 100 megabytes being downloaded. Our on-line bookstore, where titles by members are highlighted, does a brisk business.
Pizza party!
Pat Manley was the instructor and chief mason on building and operating an outdoor bake oven. Our Thursday afternoon pizza party was a great success. As he handled the dough, Tony Cuoco belted out a tune from an Italian opera, while Pat took charge of turning the pizza every few minutes for an even bake. In a black oven such as this one, you bake in the firebox itself—push the hot coals to the rear, clear out the ashes, sprinkle cornmeal on the bottom of the oven, and slide the pizza in.
Wildacres chef Thomas Broadway soon joined us, made most of the pizzas thereafter, and was delighted with the bake oven. As he created a delicious cheeseless vegetarian pizza for me, I learned that a REAL pizza chef just barely brushes the dough with tomato sauce and also rolls over and seals the edges of the pizza.
"This is perfect," Pat said, "exactly what I had in mind! Everyone standing and sitting around eating pizza and talking. I'll be interested to see how many of these guys tell us about the bake oven they built in their backyard after they got home!"
Stove mason's worst nightmare
Friday morning, the discussion turned to how MHA should handle any complaints against one of our stove masons. We agreed on the need to set up a professional, streamlined method of dealing with that rare dissatisfied customer. It is also important to be supportive and helpful to the stove mason.
We worked on a procedure for Bev to set in motion when she receives a complaint at MHA headquarters. Ben Hurd said, "The most important thing is to keep the attorneys out of it and get it settled fast. It'll never get better!"
Heater owner's survey
Bev reported that our new Board of Advisors, which reads like a Who's Who in the Hearth Industry, has recommended we do a survey of masonry heater owners to find out how they use their heaters, whether or not they have any problems with them or special concerns, etc. To facilitate this, Bev asked members to supply her with the names of their heater customers. To date, we now have around 500 names, and work on the questionnaire for the survey has begun.
Homeowner's Manual
Jerry passed around copies of homeowner's manuals for a masonry heater and a bake oven, adapted from ones he uses with his own customers. We worked on these at the 1999 annual meeting, after which Jerry and Bev incorporated our suggestions. We proceeded to do a final editing. Both manuals are now available to members and should prove to be very useful handouts, with individual masons adding some instructions specific to their heaters.
We also worked on the final revision of our four-color MHA brochure. This has since been printed and is available through MHA headquarters and our website.
And we gave attention (again!) to updating the ASTM standard for masonry heaters—a laborious, complicated process that has been going on for almost 16 years, with MHA members working on ASTM committees and attending meetings. References to heaters are now included as a "guide," and the goal of our current efforts is to have them upgraded to a "practice." The guide has proved very useful, since it is referenced by the building codes and gives the building inspector something to go by.
There were reports from members who attended the Masonry Products Caucus at the HPA show, as well as the recent meeting of MACS (the Masonry Alliance for Codes and Standards), which works on all sorts of issues relating to masonry.
We decided to schedule two masonry heater workshops before the next annual meeting to give instruction and experience to members and other masons, and also raise some money for the association. Two possibilities were a very successful workshop Albie was subsequently able to schedule last September at a customer's home, and a workshop at Jay's (that's me!) new house, if she got that project going in time. (I did, and the workshop was scheduled for the first week in May, just before our annual meeting 2001 at Wildacres.)
Albie noted that "you get maximum learning from building a custom heater from scratch."
On the last day, we tore down the masonry heater and bake oven and stored the bricks 'til next time. One evening, we were treated to Pat Manley's slides and report on "Masons on a Mission." He was part of a group of North American masons who traveled to Guatemala at their own expense in the winter of 2000 to build very basic masonry cook stoves for poor families driven from their home village by hurricane and flood. These new stoves replace the unvented open cookfires that filled their one-room corrugated metal and wood houses with smoke, causing severe health problems.
MHA accomplishments
Over the past 16 years, the small but mighty MHA has accomplished a great deal: Sponsoring, helping to fund, and/or running safety and emissions testing of their stoves; holding heater-building workshops; participating in masonry heater presentations at hearth industry conventions; convincing building code officials in some areas of the U.S. and Canada to allow masonry heaters in new construction; taking group trips to Europe to visit tile-stove masons and factories where heater components are manufactured; exchanging information and heater designs with European craftsmen; and setting up and manning booths at trade shows to educate people about their product and their craft.
The challenge ahead
Ernst Kiesling feels an urgency most of us share about getting the word out to more people on the merits of masonry heaters. "The main problem to solve is how to convince people that this is not a dangerous way to heat, as some people want to tell us. This is environmentally friendly, and this is the best way to heat the house from the standpoint of health. We need to create the market awareness. Over the next 40 years, we need to make the change, because we won't have oil!"
This means educating not only the general public, but also the air quality regulators, code officials, and other powers that be, many of whom still lump masonry heaters in with woodstoves and fireplaces and try to restrict their use accordingly.
Norbert reminds us that a new awareness and enthusiasm for masonry heaters will also make necessary a "quantum leap" in our ability to produce them in sufficient numbers—custom-built heaters, modular cores, and manufactured units, all three.
Right now, spiraling fuel costs and serious power outages are highlighting masonry heaters as the intelligent alternative. "All of a sudden we're finding a lot of customers," John LaGamba told me recently.
Sustainability, a sense of independence, a shortening pay-back period, safe and healthy heat, a clean burn, economical use of firewood—all this can look pretty good to people faced with brownouts, blackouts, and outrageous utility bills.
Even though folks in Europe have been warming up their lives with masonry stoves for centuries, North Americans who do so feel like pioneers, leading the way into a technology as old as the hills... and also as new as tomorrow.
Meanwhile, here in Kentucky, two HEAVY packages with my name on them have arrived via UPS—a masonry heater door of his own design from Norbert Senf and a bake oven door from Finland, via Albie Barden. These are handsome components for my very own masonry heater. Jerry Frisch has custom-designed it for my "new" (being remodeled) little A-frame house outside Berea and will lead the MHA training workshop to build it. I can hardly wait.