Chimney

[deranged]

We finished building a house this year. The original design was for a wood stove in the basement to allow the slab to warm and the heat to rise. Well with building being the process it is and me not realizing what I was getting into when we started, I didn't get the chimney built with the house.

My question is I'm running straight out of a walkout basement up 2 stories. I'm looking to try and build the chimney myself. Does anyone have any good resources to read up on this process? I could go either masonry or metal I believe. How well does a triple wall metal pipe last if it is outdoors and can I even do metal with vinyl siding?

Sorry for the deluge but I've seen this forum give good advice before so here I go again

 

[oosik]

I've seen many two story homes with exterior metal - I assume triple wall - chimneys. Even with the wood stove going full blast the exterior wall of the chimney was only luke warm. Certainly not hot enough to affect vinyl siding. One chimney has been in operation for over 15 years with no visible degradation. I would surmise that constructing a metal chimney with standoffs would significantly easier than a masonry one.

I used a stainless steel triple wall chimney for my wood stove and then for my pellet stove here at my house - the same chimney has been used for the last 32 years and has not degraded one bit.

 

[CalG]

I've seen many two story homes with exterior metal - I assume triple wall - chimneys. Even with the wood stove going full blast the exterior wall of the chimney was only luke warm. Certainly not hot enough to affect vinyl siding. One chimney has been in operation for over 15 years with no visible degradation. I would surmise that constructing a metal chimney with standoffs would significantly easier than a masonry one.

I used a stainless steel triple wall chimney for my wood stove and then for my pellet stove here at my house - the same chimney has been used for the last 32 years and has not degraded one bit.

Wood framed metal flues are gaining popularity. At least I see them around more and more.

 

[Boiler74]

Get over to Hearth.com. There's a lot of knowledge over there. One thing they will tell you is that a wood stove in the basement will not heat the house adequately. Wood stoves are space heaters and will heat the room they are in. That heat, however, has a hard time rising into the upper floors. If you truly want to heat the main floor, put the stove on the main floor with the flue/chimney inside as much as possible. That will allow more heat to radiate off the stove pipe and keep the flue warmer for better draft.

J.

 

[Clint S]

Get over to Hearth.com. There's a lot of knowledge over there. One thing they will tell you is that a wood stove in the basement will not heat the house adequately. Wood stoves are space heaters and will heat the room they are in. That heat, however, has a hard time rising into the upper floors. If you truly want to heat the main floor, put the stove on the main floor with the flue/chimney inside as much as possible. That will allow more heat to radiate off the stove pipe and keep the flue warmer for better draft.

J.

Fairly true I have a stove in my basement , vaulted ceilings on the main floor and here is what I have found. I have the basement partitioned off 1/2 way basement is 1500sf . Stove side gets around 90 degrees. I have several registers cut in the floor and a fan in the basement door blowing warm air up. Temps 35 and above it can heat the house in the low 70's, temps 20 to 30 heats house to low to mid 60's. I would guess 10 to 20's it would be in the 50's. That is burning 24/7, but I do not get up in the night to load and my dad comes at noon to reload. Any time we are home it is fed regularly so on the weekend when we are home all day it does a bit better. 17 face cords a year. It is a GREAT supplement. I live in the northeast and have harsh winters and burn about 200 to 250 gallons of oil per year not bad if you ask me. I keep the temp set at 67. Get fans going and cut registers. If you have forced air I would suggest a wood furnace and use your ducts. I have a boiler.

For the chimney, masonry on the outside would have to be dug to the footer a footer poured and built up. Also a cleanout is difficult as you would have to go through the block of the house and that is asking for trouble. I just shove my sh vac through the thimble to suck out the cresol. I don't get much due to a good burning stove. Building masonry is more labor intensive. You , it can crack, re point, paint ect ect. If I had to do it again I would go with the triple wall for ease of install and maintenance.

 

[dave1949]

If you don't have the stove yet, and/or are not set on doing your own firewood, a pellet stove requires minimal chimney--just through the wall to the outside. There is code to follow regarding the distance from the flue outlet to windows and doors. Pellet stoves also don't need as much side and rear clearance to combustible surfaces. A simple hearth pad on the floor does fine.

You may be able to find a place for a pellet stove on your main floor.

 

[jimpen]

I agree dave1949. Look at pellet stoves. I was able to find a triple wall pipe that I was able to just cut a hole and put in in about 20 minutes including a heat foam that I just sprayed in. If you buy pellets by the ton a pallet will probably get you through a winter easily. Your electric bill will be about $25-50 additional per month. Plus moving a 40 lb bag of pellets is no real work at all.

 

[Ken45101]

We have a pellet stove, big mistake. Nuf said.

If you really want it in the basement, a wood furnace is 100x better than a wood stove. When we bought this house, it had a wood furnace in the basement but no ducting connected. Even though it was six feet from an open stairwell, it did an absolutely terrible job of getting much heat upstairs. I finally installed a duct from the furnace to the upstairs and it did much, much better at heating the house.

However, it's not an epa efficient furnace. We eventually went to a modern epa wood stove on the first floor and it does much better, heats the house and uses much less wood.

By far, your best approach would be a metal chimney going up through the house. An outside metal chimney, well insulated, would be a second best choice. I vote for insulated double wall, instead of the triple wall, it's more efficient and collects less creosote. An insulated double wall gets warm, which is good for avoiding creosote whereas a triple wall is always pulling cold air into the wall and stays colder which encourages creosote.

I too recommend hearth.com as an excellent resource. Many good people over there.

 

[dave1949]

We have a pellet stove, big mistake. Nuf said.

<snip>

Not really. What sort of issues are you having with your pellet stove?

The complaints I hear about are:
1) Don't like the fan noise.
2) Pellet quality consistency.
3) Requires backup power (battery or generator) to function during power outages.
4) Power control board expensive to replace.

My son put a pellet stove in his older, not well insulated house last year and it knocked the stuffing out of his oil bill. It keeps their downstairs area comfy warm plus some heat makes it up the stairs. With just the oil burner, they hated to spend the money to be comfortable. The pellet hopper holds enough that you don't need to be home to load the stove.

He had a similar chimney challenge. No place for an interior chimney chase to pass up to the roof without considerable cutting, framing and patching. A bare metal exterior chimney without the wood framed chase is never going to be a beauty mark on a house.

Personally, I prefer a regular wood stove in the living area for simplicity, reliability and fuel cost since I have firewood. If I had to buy wood or hang a metal chimney on the side of the house, the choice is not so clear to me. Around here, pellet stove sales exceed traditional wood stove sales.

 

[deranged]

Thank you all for your wisdom. The wife and I are now talking about finding space on the main floor for the wood stove then the chimney just has to rise above the roof line. So it's off the measure out how big a hearth I need to plan for to see if a hearth and stove will fit. I will be sure to check out hearth.com also. Again thanks for everyone's replies.

 

[MotorSeven]

As stated, you are better off heating from the main floor with your wood stove. That being said I can maintain 68 degrees on my main from the basement(1080- sq ft each floor & the main is open design 22' vaulted) but I burn around 7 full cords a season running my stove 24/7.

I am going to switch over to a electric over wood furnace that will duct forced air through my registers. The Yukon Electric would knock 2 cords off my consumption and have the convenience of turning a thermostat for shoulder season and times when we are away from the house for extended periods. I can also add a water jacket to pre-heat my domestic hot water when burning wood. I will move my existing wood stove up to the main floor and build a nice river rock hearth around it. Here is the Yukon website:
Yukon - Your Wood Furnace Company

 

[brokenknee]

I have both a pellet and wood stove, put in the pellet stove last September, ran it until mid January when I finally got around to putting in my new wood stove. I have a 1600 square foot slab home. I went through 4 tons of pellet from September to mid January. The pellet stove has only been used a couple of time since. As already mentioned noise being one of the biggest factors for not liking the stove. It is highly recommend by folks over on Hearth.com It is a Harman P68.

The new epa wood stoves have very good burn times. I have a Harman TL 300 down draft stove and get 8-12 burn times with ash/oak. The pellet stove needs to be cleaned once a week and takes about 10 - 15 minutes. The wood stove empty the ashes once a week 5 minutes.

One thing to consider with the new epa stoves my down draft stove and other have said on Hearth their cat stoves you do not get the light show as with non epa stoves. I believe the eap tube stoves you still get the light show but do not know for sure.



Many chimneys are run outside, the disadvantage to this is it cools the chimney and are more prone to creasol (sp)buildup. Either way I would do a stainless class A chimney. I have had both and the stainless are easier IMHO to keep clean.

 

[brokenknee]

Should add I am fairly new to the wood burning, this will be my fifth year burning. With my old wood furnace was burning 10 - 12 full cords a year. Hope to burn only around 7 this year, optimistic.

In hindsight I should have purchased a new wood furnace and a tube fireplace. The furnace heated the house more evenly than the wood stove.

As already mentioned if the intent is to heat the house purchase a wood furnace for the basement and a epa tube fireplace or wood stove for the main living area.

 

[jimpen]

I would also suggest cieling fans in every room. That helps move the heat around to get it more even.