wood stove question

[happy@home]

We have been wanting to put in a wood stove for years but can't figure out how to do it with the way our house is configured. We have large, old hot water radiators for heat. The boiler for that is in the basement and vents out a window, the chimney is not being used for it. The chimney can be accessed by three rooms on the main floor, one is the laundry room, one is our living room which is too small for a stove, we would roast plus it would take up too much space in a small room. We don't want the stove in the laundry room because we don't spend time in there, we want it in part of the house we spend our time. That leaves the third room, it's a combination dining room, computer room, everything room. It connects to the living room with a large archway so the heat would get to both rooms. There is enough space but the chimney is in the wall behind the radiator. Can we take the radiator out and put in a baseboard heater attatched to the furnace so that we still have heat when not using the stove? We can't seem to find anyone who knows the building code on that. Basically we would have to put the protective plates,brick, tile or whatever we need to for the wood stove and then a baseboard heater on that with the wood stove in front of it. If we move the radiator we have a major project to redo all the pipes from the furnace to a different part of the room.
Any suggestions?

[The Paw]

I think it depends on your code for the stove, but I believe most of them specify clearances to combustible materials. So, if you can place the wood stove far enough out, you might not need tile on the wall, just on the floor.

Or, since a hot water rad is not combustible, you might be able to remove the hot water rad, apply tile to the wall, and then re-install the rad. If you have to have air space between the tile and the wall (about an inch) then it might be too tight a fit for this approach.

Insurance companies or wood stove dealers are good places to ask about the code requirements.

[Vickie44]

http://www.renovators.com/knowledge_...,67,0,0,1.html

Some clearance info

[Pelenaka]

Most code says that two appliances can't share a chimney so check on that. While my code allows for thru the roof venting and even going thru the second story wasn't such a hardship we elected to go out thru the wall & up the side of the house. If ever there is a chimney fire I wanted teh firedepart to have easy access. I know others will disagree.
As to placing a heater behind or next to the stove I doubt that would fly also. You need hearth & stove clearence.
Do u have an old house as in a eighty to hundred years old. Reason why I ask is that if the home originally had a stove then chances are were the hearth originally was is the near perfect place to put one now.

~~ pelenaka ~~

[happy@home]

The furnace doesn't use the chimney, it has a pipe running to the outside through a window in the basement so that shouldn't be a problem. A chimney guy told us it needs to be lined but it otherwise sound.
The house is over 100 years old, the county records don't go back far enough to get an exact date but it was in the records over 100 years ago.
I have no idea where the old hearth would have been. The chimney runs through the middle of the house. It goes down to the basement, could they have had a wood stove down there for heating back then? We can't find any signs of where a stove might have been in the kitchen, it may not have been the kitchen then though.
I love old houses but I wish we had a history on this one. Two bedrooms were converted, one to a laundry room and one to a bathroom. Other than that I don't know if other rooms were changed in location.

[happy@home]

If we put the stove on an outside wall and do a new chimney how much will it affect the heat? From what I've read an inside chimney is better due to down drafts. I've never had experience with a woodstove with an outside chimney, the houses we had were center chimneys so I don't know how much that will affect it.

[Danaus29]

happy@home, your house might have had a coal furnace in the basement.

Our house has an outside chimney. I don't know how much it affects the heat. From what I understand a good chimney should be insulated well enough that you don't feel heat coming from it.

[Pelenaka]

Originally Posted by happy@home

If we put the stove on an outside wall and do a new chimney how much will it affect the heat? From what I've read an inside chimney is better due to down drafts. I've never had experience with a wood stove with an outside chimney, the houses we had were center chimneys so I don't know how much that will affect it.

I read the same thing about inside vs. outside placement of a chimney. Just knew that if my chimney caught fire I wanted an exterior wall to be the closest combustible especially with a house that is this old.
We have been using the old lathe that we removed recently from gutting the living room for kindling. I can tell you that it goes up in flames like paper. That said I have never lived with wood heat before so I have no experience with a center chimney.
I found all 3 original stove placements by looking at in the attic. Roof was patched were the chimney was. I also found one stove pipe plate (looks like a pie plate used to cover the pipe opening) behind plaster. Since plaster was used up until the 1930s here I think that was when a coal furnace was installed (found evidence of a coal chute).
I would suggest to make mock up of the stove & hearth with cardboard boxes. Really helps to visualize the final footprint before you commit.
Good luck. Took me about 5 years of window shopping before I decided on my stove & a year on placement.

~~ pelenaka ~~
http://thirtyfivebyninety.blogspot.com/