adding a wood stove to basement without a chimmney

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I am going to be finishing our walk out basement and have tossed around the idea of adding a wood stove. we do not have any chimminey right now but wood supply is free 13 acres of woods maple and oak. so burning wood would be cheap. the basement walls are poured foundation so my assumption is that I will have to drill out a hole I guess 6-8 inches for the pipe. would I use double insulated chimminey pipe to create a chimminey? the house is a two story so it would be very tall and exposed. down the road could I enclose the pipe by boxing it in. (when funds get raised agian). I checked with the insurance and they just said that as long as it is done right they would still insure the house. any tips on starting this project. oh ya. the basment will be about 800-900 sq foot finished. I would like some heat to radiate upstairs but I don't want it so hot in the basement it is not livible. do I look for stoves based on sq feet?

-- brian savage (brje94@juno.com), January 14, 2002

Answers

You will have to check with your local building code to see what side chimney will meet code. While the pipe might be 6-8 inches the hole will be much larger.

-- Gary (gws@columbus.rr.com), January 14, 2002.

First realize that there are two types of pipes associated with wood burning: (1)stove pipe and (2)chimney pipe. Stovepipe comes in single wall and double wall and is usually painted black. Don't quote me on this, but I believe that the setback from combustibles is 12 inches for single wall stovepipe and 4 inches for double wall stovepipe.

Most commonly, chimney pipe is either (a)triple-wall or (b)double wall with insulation between the walls. The pipe is generally galvanized or stainless steel. The setback from combustibles is one or two inches with chimney pipe. For your application, you could use single or double wall stovepipe inside the house and through the concrete wall. You would then have to then use chimney pipe alongside the outside of the house.

As far as the woodstove goes, my philosophy is buy as large of a stove as you want. It is not the size of the stove that determines heat output, it is the size of the fire which matters. I like a bigger stove because I do not like splitting wood into small pieces that are required by smaller stoves. --Happy trails, Cabin Fever

-- Cabin Fever (cabinfever_mn@yahoo.com), January 14, 2002.

Cabin Fever has it about right.

Local zoning laws will come into play here.

You will need to extend the chimney above your roof line by x number of feet. The less horizontal pipe & less bends you have, the better! All this is to make the woodstove draw air properly.

The galvinised pipe will rust through, and will then start a fire on your house. Five years, or 25 years, but it WILL happen. A lot of people try to save a few bucks, but are sorry afterwards. If this is something you want to cover up with no way to inspeect it, spend the extra bucks for stainless! Better yet is to install a good block chimney with a flu on a concrete pad, and run your stovepipe to that. Spendy tho!

Is this a newer house with no chimney in it, just a through-the-wall furnace exaust?

There are also outdoor stoves, and ways to duct the heat from your wood stove into your exsisting furnace & use the furnace fan to distribute heat - if you have such to begin with.

--->Paul

-- paul (ramblerplm@hotmail.com), January 14, 2002.


Hi Brian,

I agree with the above answers but would like to add that if you are handy you can construct a masonry chimney. I built one for my shop wood stove. It has 8 inch ID square ceramic tubes that fit inside square concrete blocks. Provide a cleanout door near the bottom. To hoist the heavy blocks and inside tubes I rigged up a home made balanced beam crane. It looks like a tall TEE with a counter weight on one end of the beam hung from a rope so the weight sets on the ground. The weight is 2 pounds or so greated than the chimney blocks. A pulley is attached to the center of the top balanced beam. A rope extends from the ground, up to a pully on the lifting end of the beam, then horizontally over to the center pulley, then down to the ground to another pulley and then finally tied to the bumper of the car. You hook the block on the rope. The little wife backs the car which pulls the rope and lifts the block as high as needed. Then with ease you lift the counter weight and swinge the load block directly over the chimney. Go up on the roof and with little effort lower (pull) the heavy block onto the mortared chimney. Go as high as you want. Save your back. As you go up add vermiculite insulation in the annulus, the spac between the inter tube and the outer concrete block. Don't mortar the inter tube solidly to the outer block as the tube will expand more than the block in use. This makes a life long chimney. If you want to do this I can send you sketches as it may be hard to visualize. John

-- John Hayes (jehayes54@hotmial.com), January 14, 2002.


I would put a masonary chimmney up. We have had a 50 gallon drum stove in our basement for probably 20 years now...only changed it once...keep sand in the bottom of it so it doesn't burn through. We also have a second stove in the kitchen hooked into the same chimmney. I wouldn't put the stove pipe up if I were you. Seems like a long distance you will need to run it outside. Word of advice is .every year clean that chimmney a couple of times really well...and pull the pipe out of the wall check the thimble and make sure there are never any cracks in it. We also have dampers on the pipe going into the wall just to control the fire and heat too. If your not sure how to do all of this ask someone that has a wood burning stove. I don't know about boxing it in...what for ??? I'd think about that idea . Educate the whole family in wood stove safety. Good Luck !!!

-- Helena (windyacs@npacc.net), January 15, 2002.


If time allows do a brick chimney.The correct pipe is very expensive, but well worth it in the long run.Nothing is to good for your family's life.

-- Patty {NY State} (fodfarms@hotmail.com), January 15, 2002.

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