Odd places to place a wood stove
 

For reasons too long to explain, we can no longer use the chimney to our dining room wood heating stove. There are no other places inside the main part of the house to put a chimney, nor to run a metal flue out at any place. Although my big Fisher Papa Bear still runs in the basement, due to the air flow in the house, heat does not reach the "back part" of house including dining room and kitchen. I need my wood heat back!

We do have a front porch, screened in and I am wondering if I could enclose it and just run a metal pipe out one side? I am not going to worry about "codes" nor "looks" except for safety issues. I want it to be safe.

Anyone ever seen a wood stove placed on an enclosed porch, then leave the front door open to let in the heat?

2nd question:
In one of our Cabins, there is no where to put a wood stove inside the building. Has anyone ever built a small shed, similar to those built to hold a hot water heater, build it large enough to be safe with a wood stove in it, place it up under a window and then fire it up and open the window to let in the heat?

OR has anyone built a platform of some type on the outside a window, like a window box but for a wood stove? Then open the window to fire it up?

Thanks for any ideas or suggestions.

Hmm, I have seen a wood stove put interior to a house, then the stovepipe ran with a 10degree up angle through two other rooms to finally punched through an exterior wall, and turned upward.

Our stovepipe now goes straight up and through the roof. No walls are involved.

Good luck

Why don't you just run a pipe up through the roof??

I live in a much colder area than you, but I can't imagine a woodstove on the porch or near a window would be enough heat.... not only that, but it seems you'd get smoke inside.

Michelle

You need to be very careful of how close pipes get to walls,etc. Enough heat can go through plaster, etc., to overheat wood lathe or framing over & over, eventually degrades such that it is much more flammable. Sue

When installing a woodstove, no matter where you install it, be sure to use an "all fuels chimney". If not, you will, most likely set your house on fire. Also...DO NOT use blown in insulation in that area, unless you install a sheild around the boxed in area around the stovepipe. The reason I am so emphatic about this is I almost burnt my house down, as the insulation contractor did not put a sheild in to a prevent fire. I just went through a month of repairs from structural damage that occured between the ceiling and roof, and I had to install a new roof and ceiling in that area, replace a corner post, and facia board where the firefighters entered to put out the fire, and get the entire house cleaned by professionalsto remove soot. Thank God I have a good insurance company, and a great contractor! You will be surpised how much damage even a small fire can cause, and how absolutely terrifying it is. By the way if any of you live in SE Massachusetts and need a contractor, B and D Construction from East Taunton, MA are fantastic! Dan DeRosa is the owner and a wonderful man!

There are outdoor wood stoves specifically designed to pump heat into your house while the stove burns outside.

I'm not sure what you mean by 'all fuels' stovepipe, but this is what most people around here use:

http://heating-and-cooling.hardwares...tove-pipe.aspx

Michelle

An interesting usage of scare tactics.

Really a single layer stove pipe with greater than three foot of clearance in all directions is fairly 'safe'.

Code in most areas requires that once you go to encroaching within that feet foot radius, then you need to: Use double or triple layer insulated pipe, and use non-flammable materials.

Steel flashing works well, as does concrete backer board.

If you just stick to the plain and simple rule of thumb that nothing flammable goes within three foot of hot metal your safe.


As for 'blown-in' insulation, well that depends. But nothing works like scare tactics right?

Using blown-in vermiculite or perlite insulation are generally considered non-flammable, since they need greater than 3000F temps to get them hot.

When installing our all-fuel stove we went with a clearance of eight foot in all directions. And it seems to be working just fine. :)

My grandfather had an enclosed porch leading into the kitchen. He put the woodstove in the enclosed porch and opened the two kitchen windows on the wall between the kitchen and the porch. Kept it warm as toast and kept the wood mess contained on the enclosed porch. Worked like a charm for him. I remember the porch had storm windows in winter and screens in the summer.

bubbahead: that is what I am thinking about. We have a screened in porch and I am thinking about enclosing it with salvaged windows. I could put cement board on the floor where the wood stove would go, and just plywood on the rest of the floor? We have double french doors that open to the porch and three windows too (2 open to bedroom and 1 to kitchen).

What did he have on floor under the wood stove? Just wood porch floor or did he put metal sheet down? Or what?

Thank you

You can put a woodstove chimney wherever you want it... it's easier if you go between the ceiling and roof joists. If necessary you can go through them, but you have to reinforce/build up the ones that are compromised. If the chimney is going through 'living space' upstairs, simply build a 2x4 frame around the chimney and drywall it on the inside and outside... Cut a hole through the roof and install flashings.

I'd use the triple wall insulated ss chimney pipe.

I cut a hole in my ceiling, ran it through my bedroom (luckily it ended up in a corner) and through the roof, and metal roofing. Used the single wall to the ceiling, went into an adapter, triple wall through second floor, out the roof, and 8' out the roof. Worked like a charm.

It CAN be done... but proper chimneys aren't cheap.

We have cement board with 12x12 stone tiles on it-- not slate, that breaks too easy.

Codes weren't created to be a P.I.T.A, even though it sure seems like it some times, they were written to keep you from burning your house down.

If you have to ask this question, and you are, which is a good thing, then you need to refer to some sort of code, be it from the stove company, or even local.

Not trying to be a pain, just don't want anyone to get hurt.

I would never enclose a stove pipe.

Enclosing a stove pipe, limits how much heat it can convect into the living spaces.

Also a 2X4 framed enclosure with sheetrock?

2X4s are flammable.

Sheetrock is flammable.

An eight inch diameter stovepipe with three foot of clearance in all directions, would require a seven foot by seven foot enclosure.

3' + 8" [for the stovepipe] + 3' + 4" [for the 2X4s] = 7'



You could safely go inside that clearance if you used a non-flammable heat shield like concrete backer board. But why? to limit heat?

Meanwhile, it was a cement floor. It was first a cement porch....no roof. Later he added the roof. Another few years later he enclosed it with the storms/screens. The cement floor was never painted or anything. I would think cement board and then tile/stone in that area would work good and look great!

Thank you everyone.

Bubbahead: thanks, I think that might work too. I will have to figure out the wall part and figure out how to frame the salvage windows but I have helpers for that job.

thanks everyone

Did I mention triple insulated stove pipe? I installed mine about 15 years ago, so I had to find the online info about clearances... According to the mfr., it needs 2" clearance... http://www.duravent.com/docs/instruct/L119_Mar01.pdf When I had a roaring hot fire in it, you could barely feel heat at all 2" away... I had a six inch clearance around the entire pipe. I had a 'cheat' box installed in my 24" square enclosure upstairs... I could put my hand inside to see if the walls were hot... Nope.

Drywall doesn't burn... 3/4" is used to prevent fires from spreading in homes. I've thrown it on fires, and the paper will burn off if you start raking on it.

What I was talking about was once the chimney pipe goes from uninsulated pipe through the ceiling into the insulated portion of the chimney. Believe it or not, I did research this, in pre-internet days... Finding the manufacturers info, getting info mailed, and accessing the library's resources (Building codes in regard to fireplaces, woodstoves, and chimneys).

If the OP wants a woodstove, they're going to have to cut holes in the ceiling and the roof. If they're reluctant, (to hire a contractor to do it), and don't want holes... I'd recommend having a HVAC specialist come out and install an electric or gas furnace.

I was simply telling them that it IS possible... not sweet and easy to do, but Possible... and if they have any skills, can do it themselves... follow the code, buy premium materials, and oversize clearances (beyond code) and they'd be ok...

Just like anything else, if someone is afraid they'll mess up, they should either run away (and hire a professional) or 'homestead up' and do it. It bugs me to have to pay anybody to do anything for me... Very few things can't be learned... with books and the internet I figure I can learn just about anything....

3/4" sheetrock is 'fire-rated' at 90 minutes.

It is supposed to give you a 90 minute delay as it slowly burns through, before it bursts into open flame itself.

That is not the same thing as non-flammable.

Homes built using sheetrock burn down everyday.

Which is why sheetrock is not approved as a heat shield for using near heat sources.

Thank you ET1SS and Texican: We are planning to do most of it ourselves, I am printing all this and saving, we do have some construction help and we do have access to heat/ac man to ask questions, we are collecting more information before deciding whether or not to even enclose the porch. We tend to get ideas, brainstorm it all over, collect a lot of information and even prices from "professionals" but then we are "do it yourself" people and we use the best information from all sources. We get a lot of good ideas here, like those from each of you. Thank you very much!

You are welcome :)

When we were in our trailer I installed a wood stove on the front sun porch.
The stove was home built double wall fan force , the flue went straight up .
The porch construction was a bit different the floor walls and ceiling being
either insulated steel doors or sliding glass doors . the stove its self sat three ft off one wall but produced enough heat to blister the paint so after the first firing a concrete heat shield was placed 6" out from the wall .
The main draw back was the porch would get hot even with fans running into the house

You need to pay a lot of attention to how the chimney is built, what it is made of, and the materials you place near it. You need to have it tall enough to draw well or it will not work. You need less bends in it vs more bends. You prefer straight up over going horizontal & then up. You need to understand fire resistant is NOT the same as fire proof.

'Just vent it out the side' is a very, very scary comment, not sure what it is you mean by that. Chimney should be taller than anything within 10 feet of it, so 'just out the side' is not at all right.

Your comment about not caring about codes also is very scary, & prevents me from really commenting too much on this thread with anything specific. Code is there because folks have learned from past mistakes, and while sometimes code gets a little bound up on just being rulemaking; it is based on good sound experience too and a basic understanding of it would be a good idea for anyone who wants to design their own chimney.

I guess you can do whatever you want, some of the advice you got is good, some is scarier than your own comments..... Don't bother paying your house insurance policy, they will never cover you! :)

Think about safety a little bit at least. We all like to save money, but having a warm hose because you set it on fire really isn't all so great.

--->Paul

You are right about the codes, rambler. I did not mean it as "flip" as it sounded. PryoDon, I had not thought about the small area getting too hot. The porch we have is long and narrow - may not work at all. We are, like I said, brain storming it and trying to figure out the best thing to do to get wood heat back! I hate paying that propane man but you are right - it is better than burning down the house. We will keep thinking about it. thanks everyone

Everyone that has long range plans of using a wood stove if the SHTF should fire it up now and once every week, pass the word around that you burn wood.. Where I live the town fathers are passing a law that no new wood stoves can be used in the town after this yr. So if a person has a stove and has used it, they would slip under the law.
you just never know how other people may want your heating dollars used.

stranger: you are kidding? why are they passing such a law? We are way out in the country and many people rely solely on wood heat - so no such law will happen here but I am curious why they did it where you live?

Our last location had outlawed woodstoves as well. It was in a city. Burning HG or oil is considered 'clean', but wood smoke is considered dirty.

Also I have read that many communities have been having law suits and big issues with outdoor wood boilers.

Outdoor boilers are not so efficiently designed. and keep advertising that any old junk, wet wood, punky wood, etc. can be used for heating. They tend to be large sized.

All of this tends to make a furnace that can smoke terribly if it is used with poor wood & odd heating demands.

This has given wood heating a _bit_ of a stigma.

--->Paul

MEANWHILEstranger: you are kidding? why are they passing such a law? We are way out in the country and many people rely solely on wood heat - so no such law will happen here but I am curious why they did it where you live?

people started setting those outside stoves up and the smoke was going in their neighbors windows. a simple solution would have been to have them build a chimney and hook it up so smoke would be carried out. then came up the property line ????s and how close should the stove be from their neighbor plus other crazy things that only people with no comon sence could think of.there are some law suits going on now because of the smoke. we've just had too many city people move in and take over in the past ten yrs.