Install Pics "update 2"

Cool. Never thought of opening a hole in concrete that way, myself, Seemed impractical. How did you manage to get the big chunk out ? Chiselling between the holes ? Banging it with a maul ?

That's called having your work cut out for you.

Good luck.

Man sometimes I am so slow I freak myself out. Small holes to "draw" the big one and power chisel to finish the job makes a lot of sense indeed.

Not to be downbeat, but is the other side of the wall below grade? I ask because of the PVC drain I see to the right in the photo, which I'd usually expect to exit below grade. Keeping a flue warm is important to maintaining an effective draft, so some attention may need to go to making sure that the concrete wall and the outdoor surroundings that it emerges into don't represent a huge "heat sink" that cools the flue too much. A tall flue may, depending on lots of variables, balance out in the other direction.

Good luck

It looks like you sized the hole for black pipe but you mention class A. Did you size it for class A pipe?

I think you'd probably be saddened to know how inexpensive it is to have a pro core a hole in a concrete wall. I had a 9" hole cored...and I couldn't even rent a decent hammer drill and bit for the money. They were done in 30 minutes, including setup and tear down. Be that as it may....good luck with breaking that thing out!

I borrowed a 6 inch core saw from work, but a half decent rental place should have them. It took about 20 minutes or so to go through a 14 inch stone and concrete farmhouse foundation.

as stated above, I don't think you want just the black 6" pipe going through the wall. The class A should though.

A diamond toothed chainsaw works good for that, but you do get water and exhaust smoke everywhere.

huffdawg said:

A diamond toothed chainsaw works good for that, but you do get water and exhaust smoke everywhere.

Click to expand...

10-4 HUFF..... amsoil helped the smoke output the most for me.... and you can run a shop vac to keep the water down with a beer in hand!

pybyr said:

Not to be downbeat, but is the other side of the wall below grade? I ask because of the PVC drain I see to the right in the photo, which I'd usually expect to exit below grade. Keeping a flue warm is important to maintaining an effective draft, so some attention may need to go to making sure that the concrete wall and the outdoor surroundings that it emerges into don't represent a huge "heat sink" that cools the flue too much. A tall flue may, depending on lots of variables, balance out in the other direction.

Good luck

Click to expand...

Can someone explain this in more detail to me? I'll have a similar setup for my chimney. It's better to go below grade right? I understand you can only go so far below due to the height of the appliance, but are we saying the lower the better?

Thanks.

hiker88 said:

pybyr said:

Not to be downbeat, but is the other side of the wall below grade? I ask because of the PVC drain I see to the right in the photo, which I'd usually expect to exit below grade. Keeping a flue warm is important to maintaining an effective draft, so some attention may need to go to making sure that the concrete wall and the outdoor surroundings that it emerges into don't represent a huge "heat sink" that cools the flue too much. A tall flue may, depending on lots of variables, balance out in the other direction.

Good luck

Click to expand...

Can someone explain this in more detail to me? I'll have a similar setup for my chimney. It's better to go below grade right? I understand you can only go so far below due to the height of the appliance, but are we saying the lower the better?

Thanks.

Click to expand...

I personally went as high as I could before worrying about the remaining strength of the concrete above the cut. I exited my basement above grade.

Below grade, in my opinion, is worse based on my experiences with water. I guess this will depend on your specific location but seasonal changes in soil, snow piles, heavy rains and everything else H2O should always be considered for anything below grade.

Also my opinion - but the cooling effect on the chimney should be a non-issue. To meet code you have to be using insulated pipe once you leave the building. Whether your insulated pipe is surrounded by a chase below grade or above, in my opinion, will have very little impact on the overall internal temperature of your chimney.

Either way I suppose it should be stated that insulated chimney pipe should NEVER make direct contact with the ground if you're exitng below grade. Maybe that is what pybr had in mind? That would definitely present some problems. I don't know this for a fact but I have to believe this type of installation would void your warranty immediately and also never meet code.

Thanks for the info Stee. I've been wanting to ask you about your chimney install. I don't want to hijack this gentleman's thread, so I will probably start one about my plans. Maybe you can keep an eye out and chime in!

Where there's a will...

What are we looking out into? The garage maybe?

Used to in stall PVC ducts [large fans 50 to 100 HP] for factory platting systems, we always had the hole penetration done by "others" when we got there. seen the same method used for a 48" hole threw a 10" deck. That about killed the maintenance guy. We core every thing now, it amazing how cheap it is. Last week we did some soil bearing verification in an existing bar, I had the local people come in early with two men they did, three 12" holes for 235 bucks.

What are you going with for a chimney. I assume some brand of stainless. I'm trying to decide between a SS chimney and Isokern.