This newbie needs some serious help. Pictures attached.

Hello All,

First of all I'd like to thank everyone here for my endless hours of reading to learn the most I can. Not only did this website help me decide on what stove to get, It also helped me decide that wood burning is the way to go.

Let me paint you a picture of my scenario.

We bought our first house over the summer. It was listed with a wood stove and electric baseboard heaters as the main heating source. After talking it over with everyone we decided to get all new duct work and a brand new central heating system. We took the old wood stove out and I gave it to a friend of mine for some work around the house. The chimney stayed in the attic because to be quite honest, I had no idea how to get it out so I figured I'd leave it until it had to come out.

The cold months arrived and we kicked on our brand new $7,000 furnace. It does a good job although the downstairs stays chilly (Raised ranch and the thermostat is upstairs). We got our first propane bill and we were shocked on how much propane cost. We've always had natural gas and this is our first time dealing with propane. Needless to say we want to try and deal with the propane company as little as possible.

After some weeks of convincing my wife (thanks to this website) we decided to get a small stove to help heat the house. I figured since the chimney was already there, How hard could it be? Well I was wrong.

I called someone I found online to come over and "inspect" our current chimney. In my head, I wanted to move the chimney over to the left about 4 feet to get the stove smack dab in the middle of the room. My "Inspector" suggested getting some elbows in the class A pipe to offset the chimney and get it where we wanted it. He told me to get some 45 degree elbows and it'll work just fine.

The next day I called around asking for 45 degree elbows and found out that they're not made. I'm sure everyone knows but I found out that 30 degrees is the maximum in class A pipe. I purchased one 30 degree elbow to see where it would land me and this is where my problem is.

I'm hoping you guys have some suggestions....


Here's some pictures to help. My current set up is obviously in the ceiling. Right now there's an angry birds bucket taped to the ceiling so that the creosote doesn't fall into the house (I need to buy a brush to clean that out). My stove is ideally where we would like it. It's in between the window and our cabinets that holds our TV. Now if you look very carefully you can see a screw sticking out of the ceiling right above the clock. That is roughly where the chimney will come through if I put the two 30 degree elbows in.

I would like to have it come over maybe another foot. What can I do? I already purchased a telescoping double walled pipe to go up directly into the ceiling but I don't think I'll be able to use it if I don't get it moved over.

Help me please!

Picture of the attic if it helps

Thank you for the quick responses.

I didn't realize there was an offset chart to keep an eye out for. The pipe that's up there now is Selkirk SS. Do the same rules apply?

And I apologize for not posting the stove. I went with the englander 17 vl. I've triple checked the clearances and I'll be set to go with that.

The guy that I had come do the inspection is someone I found on Craigslist that said he's been doing installs for the past 10 years. He seemed pretty knowledgeable until it came to the whole 45 degree elbow not existing in the class A pipe. I was actually hoping to maybe find someone on here from the Albany area to maybe do the install so if anyone knows of anyone then that would be great!

My original plan was to use the stove where we have it now and use some of the single wall pipes which are left over from the previous owner and connect to the current chimney set up. It would look hideous but it would only be temporary. In the off season I was going to look into moving the chimney to where we want it.

After speaking with the "inspector" he suggested that we put the elbows in the attic to try and get it where we want it. If we were to move the entire chimney to where we want it then it'll be very close to the peak of the house. The inspector said that a chimney coming out of the peak of the house is a very labor intensive process and that it's not ideal.

The reason I don't want to try it myself is because I'm concerned that I might not do something right. I have two young kids and I don't' think I want to take the risk if something were to happen.

I also have about cord of dry oak sitting in the yard ready to burn. The previous owner left it all behind the garage and I was just going to give it all away until we decided to get a stove.

EatenByLimestone said:

Why not move the chimney on the roof?

Is there a reason you don't want to try to do it yourself?

DAKSY, a mod here, is up in Brunswick, above Troy. He's in the Hearth Industry. Maybe he can give you a name of a competent installer.

In the mean time, have you looked into your wood supply? It'll take some time to fully dry so you should probably have that on hand.

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Hey I just saw your from schenectady! It's good to see some local guys on here. I actually live in cohoes and work right in rotterdam. I figured I'd put "albany" since most people don't know any of the smaller cities.