It Begins

The tear out of the POS ZC fireplace that was added to this house 20 years ago; that I bought 9 years ago, has begun. Looks like some really fine "Polish-American" engineering on this install It hurts to say that also, because half of my ancestry is Polish! Anyhow, the former owners were Polish, and the owner had his brother do this install from what the neighbors tell me. I'm shaking my head as I type this too!

Anyhow, from what y'all see, I plan on closing up the wall where the ZC is now and building a stone/tile/brick hearth out into the room about 4' and do the same up the wall about 4-5' also. Then I plan on going essentially straight up with the stack on my stove and out thru the roof.

Any questions or comments about the ZC I'm tearing out, I'll try to answer. Hopefully these pix turn out.

Dirtsurgeon said:

Have you decided what you are going to replace it with Dork?

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Stove-wise............no. I really don't plan on living here more than another 3-4 years, so I'll probably get a "cheaper" stove, rather than the "stove of my dreams". I have a line on a PE Vista............any thoughts??!!

fredarm said:

The Vista is a great little stove, well built and easy to use. It's good for night and weekends supplemental burning. It won't heat your house by itself unless you have a small house and it won't hold a fire overnight (4 to 6 hour burn max). But if you can get one for a good price and it's ta emporary situation anyway-go ahead!

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1000sq.ft. ranch.........and I generally keep it cool for my 2 Labs anyway. Hopefully this next winter will be my first burning. It'll be supplemental at first until I understand the in and outs of it. Thanks.

Wood Duck said:

So you are not going to use the existing flue at all? A straight-up stack is supposed to be better but it seems a lot easier to reline the existing flue or maybe it can be used as-is.

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I'm not using the existing chase. It's actually built into the garage, behind the wall you see in the pix. It actually runs at a 30* angle before going up thru the garage attic and out the roof near the peak. Taking that out will give me more garage space and save a lot of money in angled double wall chimney pipe were I to run it thru the existing chase. I'm going straight up thru the room and put in a new chimney. I'll have the close up the old hole in the roof where the current one is now.

BeGreen said:

If the plan is to eventually burn for longer times consider getting the Pacific insert instead. And I would have my next season's wood split and stacked already.

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Just in case you didn't fully read my first post..................this is a POS ZC fireplace. It was added onto the house before I bought it, and the quality of install............SUCKS An insert in impossible IMHO, because I cannot even find a manufacturer name on the POS that I have now. I'll post some pix of my demolition. I don't want an insert, plain and simple. I want a wood stove.

I'll also post some pix of some of the wood I've got split and stacked now. :-S

Some more demo pix. Again..................I DO NOT WANT AN INSERT! :coolgrin: