The Helmi kit is a Finnish masonry cooker in pre-cut elements: a firebox, a hotplate, an oven and a storage circuit, to be built by yourself. The video below follows a complete assembly, from unpacking to the first fire. Nothing loads from YouTube until you click.
What the video shows
Checking the elements on delivery, preparing the base, dry assembly then laying with refractory mortar, course after course, fitting the doors and the hotplate, connecting to the flue, and the first drying burn. Every step is filmed at eye level, at the real pace of the work.
What you need before you start
A suitable flue, calculated or checked; a floor that can carry the mass; safety distances from combustible materials; and a combustion air supply, from outside if the house is airtight. These four points belong to the study, not the assembly: they are what the workshop checks before delivering a kit to you.
What the workshop takes care of
Choosing the model to suit your house, sizing the flue, the plans and the order of the steps, and an answer when you get stuck on a course. Supported self-build describes this support; the kits, doors and mortars are on the Cœur de Foyer shop.
Once the first fire is lit, the heater manual takes over: fourteen days of drying, gradual running-in, how to run the burns.