Advice Wanted- Mold on Walls

Okay, lets get our terminology straight. You're talking about the chimney pipe NOT stovepipe. You are correct the chimney pipe has to be 2 feet higher than anything within 10 feet. I assume that your chimney will be going up along an outside wall. If possible, try to place it near a gable peak. That way, the chimney is not that much higher than your roof. If your chimney is much higher than your roof, you can always secure it with angle iron or straps. The problem with this set up is cleaning the chimney....you'll have to clean it from the bottom.

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I don't know much about this area. Sorry if I confused you.

Many wood stoves in our area have stove pipes only. For instance our trailer had one coming right out of the stove, straight up into the ceiling and out the roof.

We do not have a chimney in our house, so what we are considering would be stove pipe only.

I'm not sure if all this is accepted practice, as far as safety and code goes. While I am concerned about safety, code is not a problem since we have none in our county.

The code usually requires triple wall pipe outside to avoid creosote buildup. This really increases the cost and you are talking about a long run of pipe outside the bldg. I, personally feel that if you check the pipe and keep it clean that single wall pipe is ok. I'm sure many will disagree with me. You do not want to have the pipe up against anything that is flammable, such as wood siding whether you use triple or single wall. You will need a bracket that holds the pipe out from the wall. Putting it up the gable end will support it almost the entire run.

Do you have a basement window that you can run the pipe thru? Punching a hole in a concrete wall is a MAJOR job!

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I have heard that triple-wall does prevent buildup.

We don't have any window, as this was a hand-dug basement after the house was built. We do have an access that was for getting under the house pre-basement. We could put it through that, but the stove pipe would probably have to go up out of the stove, bend 90 degrees and travel 10-15 feet to get to this access, then 90 degrees up past the roof. The access is on a gable end.

The only other access is a covered stairwell, but it is narrow already and I wouldn't want to have to use it with a hot stove pipe going through it.

The siding on the house is asbestos most of the way up.

The foundation is actually cinderblock, but I have no idea whether they filled it with concrete or not.

Concerning creosote, does it tend to build up in the vertical sections or horizontal ones? If we went with the above scenario, the horizontal portion would be easy enough to clean, but the vertical much tougher. Could a person put a "T" at the second 90 degree with a clean out to knock the creosote down to for cleaning?

Creosote builds up where ever the chimney pipe (or stove pipe) is relatively cool. When smoke rises up the chimney and hits a cool spot, evaporated water condenses onto the inside of the pipe. If water is condensing, so are the volatile gases that harden into creosote. So you, living in a cold Idaho, with a long single wall outdoor stovepipe WILL have much creosote build up in that pipe. One of the reasons chimney pipe is either triple-wall or doublewall and insulated, is so the interior of the pipe stays warm.

If you plan to use single wall stovepipe as your chimney, please keep it 12 to 18 inches away from the side of the house...especially where it passes the wooden eves (soffits) and make sure that you use black stovepipe...not galvanized or aluminum vent pipe.

And remember this, the standard code setback for singlewall stovepipe is 18 inches. And if you have a chimney fire, do not count on your insurance company paying for ANY loses due to a fire.

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This is the government the Founding Fathers warned us about.....

You know, I have to say from the perspective of someone who has purchased and installed 6 woodstoves in my lifetime that this is a really dangerous thread.

You need to hire a professional to come in and install a woodstove properly. Or to tell you there isn't a safe way to install the woodstove. A chimney fire will blast flames 6 feet out of the top of the stack, turn even an insulated pipe white hot, and burn down your house before you can get your dogs out. Because woodstoves are "low tech" people don't respect them the way they should. But improperly installed or poorly maintained, they are deadly. Usually during a cold snap when you don't let the thing burn out so you can clean the pipe. So not only do you have a chimney fire, the fire department is pretty much helpless because their lines freeze.

Just go hire someone who knows what they're doing, or go to a store that sells stoves and see it they'll send someone out to "appraise the situation" and give you advice on which stove to choose.

I know that in theory you can build a barrell stove (used to use one) and run it off an uninsulated pipe, but you REALLY have to know what you're doing and you've got to have brass balls to do it with kids in the house. In fact, people who do stuff like this are the reason my homeowner's policy excludes damage caused by the woodstove... and why I can't get a business policy on my rental unit which also has a woodstove in it.

Get a professional and pay the man any price. Some things are not worth cobbing together on hope and glory.

Thanks for your thoughts. Be assured, this forum is not the only advice I will get before doing anything.