How to route chimney in a cape-cod style house

Hi all,

I'm new to the forum, but I have heated with wood since I was little. We now have a house that doesn't have a chimney, and we bought an Englander (2200 sq ft model) wood stove from home depot. I have a free source of wood if I just split it, as well as probably a years worth of old hardwood board trimmings to burn, and pin oak pallets. We figure that'll save a good amount of heating money.

Anyway, we need to put in a stainless chimney. We are putting the stove in the basement, as it is really the only spot we have a good spot for it. Plus heat will rise and we can draw air through our current central heat system by just running the blower.

The problem (or maybe not?) I have is running the chimney due the very steep angle of the roof. I have seen that the cap of the chimney should be 2 feet above the nearest point of the roof 10 feet away. For example, if I ran it straight through the house, it'd have to be over 35 feet tall to achieve that. That being said, the current plan is to put the stove a foot or so from the basement wall (block), and run one 45 degree fiting through the wall, and another just as it gets about 5 feet from the side of the house, and straight up from there. I plan on using double or triple wall stainless, if it makes a difference.

I'm looking for some confirmation that this will work, or suggestions on what to do to make it better.

Thanks a lot,
Mike

begreen said:

Welcome to hearth.com. Pics and a sketch would help here. Are you sure you couldn't find a good spot on the 1st floor? It's a shame to hide a good fire view in the basement and costly for the extra piping.

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thanks for the quick reply. The only place we could put it is on the 2nd floor, which I think would be a little more difficult to distribute the heat, but doable.

the basement gets a good amount of time spent I it anyway, and especially will with the stove. To be clear, I was planning a 3 foot pipe from the top of the stove, then a 45, then a 7 or sobfoot section, then the other 45, and finish it with about 10 or so feet straight up.

I will post a sketch and picture I the morning. I'm working on getting everything together to install it this weekend.

thanks again,
mike

Here is a drawing I made up really quick. The main issue I see is supporting the chimney. The drawing is just about to scale, except the slope of the roof of the house, but it is very close. For reference, the piece at 45 degrees is about 10 feet long.

Any help with this is appreciated!

Thanks.

I really like the idea of a masonry chimney, but it sounds like a 30 foot masonry chimney is going to be pretty expensive compared to stainless. Plus, a big investment like a masonry chimney is something I don't want to do unless I plan on building a house and staying there (which I don't right now, just maybe 5 years or so).

As much as I would like to have it in the living room, there is just nowhere for it to go.

I may end up just having to go with an outdoor boiler or forced air unit.

shoot-straight said:

i think you mis-understood. you can build a wood-framed chase for your pipe. then cover it with whatever you want. siding, stucco, feau stone, whatever.

something like this.

http://www.chimneylinerdepot.com/articles-2/class-a-chimney-systems/class-a-chimney-in-a-chase/

one more thing- if you dont care about the asthetics of the fire, then an outside wood burning furnace is an awesome choice.

Click to expand...

Oh, ok I understand. I wasn't familiar with the terminology, but that does look good and not too expensive (although I don't really care about the looks)

Secondly, I do care about seeing the fire, which was the first reason I wanted a stove over an outdoor burner in the first place.

45s are sold, I don't know how uncommon they are though.

This being said, I'll probably just go with an outdoor burner because of the issues. I really don't want to cut holes through 2 or 3 floors and the roof and deal with guarding and clearances everywhere.

Thank you very much!

Mike

Yeah I understand that. However, I have a basically unlimited supply of pine that would otherwise just be burned outside by somebody anyway. I'm still considering my options for a stove though.

Well, considering the options and researching further, we are still going with a wood stove. It's more efficient, and the only real downside for us is not being able to burn the pine. We are going to put it on our 1st floor in the living room on a hearth pad, then do a through the wall chimney. We're not worried about the appearance of the metal chimney, and are hoping it won't be that big of a performace difference than having a chase. We will likely get the duravent SS triple wall chimney for Home Depot at $85/3ft and it is an Englander 30-NCH stove.

And realistically, if it is a huge advantage in this case to run the chimney straight up through the house, please let me know. I'd be willing to do it if it is a really big difference. In the even of a chimney fire, would it be any better either way? I know, probably some silly questions, but I'd like to do this right and understand the principles.

Doing a through the wall installation seems pretty easy, but I have a couple questions about the best way to do it..;.

1. Since I need a 90 to get through the wall, is it better to put the 90 close to the stove, or give it a run a few feet up, or is there no difference?
2. Also, I need to clear the 1 foot overhang of the roof at the top (the chimney is a total of 23 feet from stove to 2 feet above peak of the roof. Is it better to make the original horizontal run through the wall a little bit longer to accommodate this, or use a 30 degree fitting just before the eve?

Thanks for the help. Any suggestions pertaining to the materials I'm planning on using would also be appreciated.

Thanks for the answers and suggestions. I am definitely going to have a tee just outside the wall for cleaning. I'm also actually leaning toward cutting the overhang and giving the chimney the straight shot up (and also considering how expensive 30 degree bends are).

One thing I am going to have to change though, is the stove I wanted. I like the extra capacity and heating potential of the Englander 30-nc over the 13-nc, but the extra length of hearth pad is a problem. I believe the 30 calls for 50" x 39" (which alone is a large distance out from the wall), but I already picked up a 48" x 48" hearth pad I was hoping to use. Plus that extra 6" from the wall makes it quite protruding into the room.

One question for you firefighterjake, do you have your fireplace near the middle of your house on the end, so the chimney can run just about all the way up along the house? I'm looking at how much chimney I can leave free standing past the side of the house while being able to maintain 2' clearance of the peak.

Again, sorry if some of the questions are dumb, they're just some things I haven't found when searching yet.

Yeah, I just read my hearth pad doesn't have a 2.0 R equivalent. Where can I find a TN19? I didn't even com e up with any results with pricing when I did a search on google. And same with the Englander Madison.

Is it very difficult/expensive to make my own 2.0 R equivalent hearth pad? Or could I build up something under the one I have? It's the tractor supply 48 x 48 type 2 hearth pad, but I believe it still falls short at around 1.5 ultimate R value.

I know I really need at least the 13-nc, and the 30-nc would be even better...but it's just so much space in a not so large living area.

where can I find install info for the Englander Madison? I just want to check the hearth pad requirements for space. Then ill call my home depot and see what they say.

Well, after moving everything around today and looking at where I can put a stove, I have decided to put it in the basement on the wall centerline. I'm making stand-off brackets at work to space the chimney brackets away from the house 15", thereby getting around cutting the gable or using bends once it exits the wall.

I am going to pick up a stove and all the vent piping tomorrow evening. I found 3 new pieces of 3 foot duravent on craigslist for 40 apiece, and the rest will be new from home depot. I'm stopping to look at a 1 year old Basic Ideal Steel Woodstock stove first, which includes $600 in new pipe, a through the wall kit, and all other piping for $1000. If it looks good I'll be getting that. Otherwise, it is the 30-NCH from home depot. The hearth problems are eliminated since it is on a concrete floor by a block wall.

Plus, from this location I can best circulate the heat using the ductwork that already draws from my basement. Total chimney height will be around 29 feet from the top of the stove.

Thanks a lot for the help so far, I'm sure I'll have a couple questions as I'm doing the install this weekend, weather permitting. The reason for the need to install relatively quickly is we need to heat an additional 600 square feet (upstairs) that we usually don't due to a car accident in the family, so we will have an extra person in the house.

Thanks for that! I was planning on the triple wall since the diameter won't be too much of an issue.

I actually had a local wood stove guy come to my house today and look at it and give me a price, with one of his stoves.

It includes the stove (Quadrafire Cumberland Gap), hearth, and all installation and materials for $3400.

How reasonable does that sound? I am surprised to find, however, that the Englander 13-NCH still has lower smoke emission. How much that means in the end, I really can't say either.

Is the higher end stove really worth it? I mean don't get me wrong, it looks beautiful and you can see and feel the quality...but is there any reason other than looks to be spending an extra $1550 for the stove over the Englander (he is asking $2200 for the stove itself? I don't know about longevity either, considering the same care. Any input on these concerns is appreciated!

Thanks,
Mike

EDIT: sorry for being off topic, too. It probably would have been better to start a new thread.