Finished custom white Kachelofen tile stove with blue crown, mantle and raised bench, built in the USA

A Kachelofen is a tile stove: a wood-fired masonry heater wrapped in hand-made ceramic tiles called Kacheln. You burn one short, hot fire. The masonry stores that heat and releases it gently for the next 12 to 24 hours. It is the way homes in Germany, Austria and Switzerland have been heated for six hundred years, and it still outperforms almost anything sold as a wood stove today.

We build them here in the United States. Below is a complete look at one of our custom builds, start to finish, so you can see exactly what goes into a Kachelofen before you ever call us.

The project: a two-sided Kachelofen in Dubois, Wyoming

This heater is an SR-18H see-through Kachelofen, built into the wall between two rooms so it shows a finished face and a working firebox on both sides. One face is white Kacheln with a blue crown, blue mantle and a blue tiled raised bench. The other face is deep green with hand-painted accent tiles.

Model: SR-18H see-through, built on our SR Core refractory system
Location: Dubois, Wyoming
Heats: a 2,000 square foot home, through Wyoming mountain winters
Time on site: nine days, May 26 to June 3
Investment: approximately $35,000, reflecting the double-sided design and travel to Wyoming
Tile: hand-made by our potter, Sharon, in RAL 6035 pearl green, RAL 5015 blue and RAL 9016 traffic white

Designing the stove with the client, before anything is built

Every custom Kachelofen starts as a drawing. The client tells us the colors they want, usually by pointing at a RAL color code. We model the stove in 3D and send back a full design showing every face, every course of tile, the crown, the mantle, the bench and the floor tile that will meet it.

Those RAL codes then go to Sharon, our potter at Falcon Fire Pottery, who mixes and fires glaze samples to match them and gives the client several options to choose from. Nothing is guessed at, and nothing is ordered from a catalog. On this project the client also had a set of authentic signed Salvador Dali art tiles that had been a wedding gift, and we designed the white face around them so they would be seen every day rather than sitting in a box.

This is the actual design package the Dubois clients approved before we broke ground. Every face, every course, the crown, the mantle, the bench and the floor tile, drawn to scale in their chosen RAL colors.

Custom Kachelofen design drawings – Dubois, Wyoming Download the design PDF

How a Kachelofen is built, step by step

1. The tile is made by hand

True Kacheln are not surface tile. Each one is hollow-backed, with a rim about two inches deep around the inside edge – the Stuga – that we pack solid with firebrick and a lime mortar. That fill ties the tile into the body of the stove and makes the tile itself part of the heat-storage mass rather than a facing hung over it. Each tile is also wired to the tiles next to it in at least two places, so the whole shell locks together as one. Every tile for this stove was thrown, glazed and fired to the client’s chosen colors, then laid out and dry-fit before a single one went on the wall.

Green Kachelofen Kacheln tiles dry-fit before installation — Every kacheln/tile dry-fit and numbered before a single one goes on the wall. We also trim them to size if necessary to that they fit better.

Hand-painted decorative accent tiles laid out for a Kachelofen — The kacheln/tiles laid out and sequenced before setting.

Hollow-backed Kachelofen Kacheln showing the two-inch Stuga rim packed with firebrick and lime mortar — True Kacheln are hollow-backed with structural “stuga” walls built on the backs of the tile. These are filled with firebrick and lime and sand mortar.

2. Hearth and foundation

A masonry heater is heavy, so it starts with a proper base. 4″ solid concrete block are bedded in mortar over cement board, dead level, carrying the load of everything above. This heater has a steel foundation support under the wood floor joists. We used 4 layers of 1/2″ Durock cement board to insulate the wood flooring. This concrete block base also adds to this.

Granite hearth slabs set in mortar for a Kachelofen — Granite hearth slabs bedded in mortar, dead level, carrying everything above.

3. The refractory core

This is the start of the engine, and it is the part nobody sees once the tile goes on. Our SR Core is a precision cast refractory system: base slab, firebox floor with its combustion air opening, firebox walls, then the throat where hot gases accelerate out of the fire and into the bell chambers above. Those chambers are what strip the heat out of the smoke and hold it in the mass.

Get this wrong and you have an expensive tile box that smokes. Get it right and one armload of wood heats a house all day.

Cast refractory base slab of an SR Core masonry heater kit — The first course of SR Core refractory slab, set in Type N mortar and leveled.

Refractory firebox floor being formed on a masonry heater core — Forming the lower chamber under the firebox floor on top of the base slab.

Kachelofen firebox floor with combustion air opening — The firebox floor and its ash drop opening. No combustion air comes from this ash drop. All of our combustion air is supplied through our SR Doors with air frames and integrated air supply in the door frames for complete and proper combustion.

Refractory firebox walls rising on a masonry heater core — Firebox walls going up around the fire chamber.

Masonry heater firebox and throat under construction — The throat, where hot gases accelerate out of the firebox creating a venturi effect.

SR Core refractory masonry heater core partway through assembly — The core partway up, firebox closed and secondary combustion chambers beginning.

channeling of a masonry heater core — The bell chamber that strips heat out of the smoke and holds it in the mass.

Upper bell chamber assembly on a masonry heater core — Upper chamber going together above the firebox.

side channel and gas slot detail inside a masonry heater core — Gas slot detail inside the core.

4. Flue collar and chimney

The 8″ diameter chimney connection is field cut with a diamond blade saw into the top refractory caps. We then install one of our SR chimney adapters that the insulated chimney connects directly to it.

Round flue collar opening on a masonry heater top slab — The flue connection cut into the top slab.

Insulated chimney connected to a masonry heater flue collar — The insulated chimney connected directly to the SR chimney adapter.

Completed refractory masonry heater core before tiling — The finished core – the engine nobody sees once the tile goes on.

Cast firebox door opening on a see-through masonry heater core — The firebox door opening, built to see the fire with a see-through firebox and doors on both sides for great fire viewing. The white material is 2 layers of OCF chopped strand fiberglass wrapped around the core. This is our expansion material that we use as a slip joint over the core so that the core can move and expand at a different rate compared to the exterior of the heater material. In this case it is the kacheln tile. We also finish heaters in stone, brick and stucco. Alternatively, you could also use heavy box cardboard or 2 layers of 1/8″ rolled cardboard for this expansion joint material.

5. Setting the Kacheln

Every course is drawn and dimensioned on the wall before tile is set, because a Kachelofen has no trim pieces to hide behind. The tile shell goes up around the core, coursing tight to the drawing, with the crown and mantle tiles landing exactly where the design said they would.

Dimensioned Kachelofen tile layout drawing — Every course drawn and dimensioned before tile is set. The dashed lines in the center of the drawing is where the room divider wall will be located. You will see in the photo below the 2×4″ wood framed wall that is spaced 12″ away from the kacheln tile. The last 12″ of wall will be built out of steel studs and then covered in cement board for 12″ from the heater. This can then be plastered and painted to match the sheetrock walls.

First course of Kachelofen tile being set around the core — The first course set, everything above it references this line.

White Kachelofen tile shell rising course by course — The white Kacheln shell rising around the core.

6. The raised bench

The bench on this Kachelofen is a raised bench, a solid masonry seat built up as an extension of the stove and tiled to match the face above it. It is not run with flue gases. It sits right against the radiant mass of the stove, so it stays comfortable to sit on through a Wyoming winter. It is the most fought-over seat in the house.

Mortar bed being laid for a Kachelofen raised bench top — The insulated mortar cap on top of the heater.

7. The Dali tiles

The signed Salvador Dali tiles were set individually into the white field, spaced so each one reads on its own. They were a wedding gift, and now they are part of the house permanently.

Signed Salvador Dali art tile set into a Kachelofen tile shell — A signed Salvador Dali tile set into the white field.

Signed Salvador Dali sun face art tile on a Kachelofen — The sun face tile.

Signed Salvador Dali starfish art tile on a Kachelofen — And the starfish.

8. Both faces, finished

White Kacheln, blue crown, blue mantle and a blue raised bench on one side. Deep green with hand-painted edelweiss accents on the other. One fire, one chimney, two rooms.

Finished white Kachelofen with blue tiled raised bench — The finished white face with its blue crown, mantle and heated bench.

Finished blue tiled raised bench on a custom Kachelofen — The warmest seat in the house.

Green Kachelofen tile face with hand-painted star accent tiles — The green face, in RAL 6035 pearl green with hand-painted accents.

Green Kachelofen face with cast firebox door and glass — One fire, one chimney, two rooms.

How a Kachelofen actually heats a house

You build one fire, hot and fast, usually for two to three hours. The masonry absorbs that heat and then radiates it back gently for the next 12 to 24 hours. There is no fan, no blower, no cycling on and off, and no cold end of the room. The surface is warm to the touch rather than scorching, which is why people sit against them.

This particular heater carries a 2,000 square foot home in Dubois, Wyoming, where winter is not a rumor.

What a custom Kachelofen costs

This project came in around $35,000. Two things drove that number: it is a double-sided stove, which is effectively two finished heaters sharing one core, and it is in Wyoming, so travel and lodging for the crew is part of the job.

A single-sided Kachelofen closer to home costs meaningfully less. The honest drivers of price are size, whether it is one face or two, how much hand-made and hand-painted tile is involved, whether you want a heated bench or a bake oven, and how far we travel. We will tell you where your project lands before you commit to anything.

Start your own Kachelofen

We design and build custom Kachelofen, Swedish kakelugn and masonry heaters across the United States, and we manufacture the SR Core refractory system that goes inside them. Solid Rock Masonry is listed among the manufacturers of the Masonry Heater Association. If you are considering one, send us your room, your climate and the colors you are drawn to, and we will start the drawing.

Solid Rock Masonry
5347 Howard Gnesen Road, Duluth, MN 55803
218-343-2978
eric@solidrockmasonry.com

Custom Kachelofen Tile Stoves Built in the USA