House hunting with wood heat in mind

mol1jb · Mar 30, 2015

Hey all,

We are going to begin house hunting soon and I was wondering if anyone here had any tips. We definitely want to keep using wood as major supplementation to our heating needs. Has anyone recently or in the past bought a house with the ability to heat with wood as a major requirement of the new house?

Auzzie Gumtree · Mar 30, 2015

if i was to buy again the fist thing i would look for is insulation / how tight the house is - quality of build.. If you get the 'foundations' of the house right then choosing a wood stove will be a pleasure as you will have a wide range of units to choose from as you will not be wasting any heat you produce.

JA600L · Mar 30, 2015

I like the idea of an open floor plan. Using the wood stove as a central space heater for a very large open area.

Avoid a house with a lot of closed off areas and the chimney on the far end from the bedrooms.

phatdonkey · Mar 30, 2015

I lucked out and the wife and I fell in love with an open floor plan split level with an existing 58 year old open fireplace that never had a fire in it!

The house is a total of 1828 sq ft, and we bought a Jotul Oslo that heats the house more than well enough.

The stove is on the main level, and the only place that doesn't get heated is the mudroom/basement. This spring I will be insulating the floor down there and installing a 1500 watt space heater to keep it around 55°.

+1 on the insulation as well. I re insulated the dormer and attic. Also sealed everywhere i could feel leaks in the house.

So for what its worth, and from my home layout, if i had to do it again I would insist on a split level again. Very easy to get the heat moving around.

peakbagger · Mar 30, 2015

Unless you plan to go with a pellet boiler a second flue on the chimney is big plus. Preferably the chimney is an interior one located in the center of the house close to the ridgepole. If you plan a basement installation you definitely want good basement access. I would suggest a "doghouse" with a full size door rather than a bilco type bulkhead.

Thislilfishy · Mar 30, 2015

What they said, a well insulated house with good windows is the biggest thing. Then the heat generated by the stove will stay in the house. Our old house is huge and drafty. When it got super cold we just couldn't feel the heat from the stove and had to rely on the furnace to keep help toasty. Anything above -10 and the wood stove keep the house sweltering hot to mildly comfortable. Once it dropped below that the lack of insulation really started to show!

Ian

prezes13 · Mar 30, 2015

Also need room for wood processing/storage. I would love to built my own house. I would make it so tight that I would be able to heat it with a candle. Radiant electric floor heat in bathrooms...

Warm_in_NH · Mar 30, 2015

Southern exposure, lot to be said for the warmth from the sun!

Rearscreen · Mar 30, 2015

prezes13 said:
Also need room for wood processing/storage. I would love to built my own house. I would make it so tight that I would be able to heat it with a candle. Radiant electric floor heat in bathrooms...

I (I mean literally) built my own energy star home which is pictured in my avatar. I installed radiant hydronic throughout. I swore by radiant and still do. However, electric is a big mistake if once installed it's inaccessible, there's no fix. If I were to build another house, I would only use hydronic radiant in selected areas. Oddly, my old house was too comfortable. I was forced to sell my house because living next to the Mafia (yup my Buderus furnace cleaning guy informed me since he has known him for 30 years and said "If I were you, I would move"). Transitioning, this winter I lived in a house that is drafty, no insulation, built in 1850. Yanked the Oslo, put in the Progress. I have to say, and it even surprises me to say this, in some ways I like not having radiant and the air tight house. I have been always warm and never been uncomfortable. Yes the temps vary from room to room, and more chilly when the wind blows, but I just get a little closer to the stove and everything is fine. The radiant is coming from the stove and a little breeze doesn't effect radiant heat.

gyrfalcon · Mar 31, 2015

mol1jb said:
Hey all,

We are going to begin house hunting soon and I was wondering if anyone here had any tips. We definitely want to keep using wood as major supplementation to our heating needs. Has anyone recently or in the past bought a house with the ability to heat with wood as a major requirement of the new house?

Bypass the cathedral ceilings!

Open floor plan for sure. Chimney with two flues, or a good spot for a woodstove that has a straight shot up for a new SS chimney in a reasonably central location.

Lots of *flat* space outside 50 or so feet from the house for firewood stacks. Think about the logistics of this really carefully, whether you plan to cut your own wood or buy c/s/d. I'm on the side of a ridge, which has many virtues, but there's very little flat space to stack firewood, and I have to be careful to leave enough room around the pallets I stack firewood on for a truck to come in to deliver close to my stacks and/or back door.

My very modest old country farmhouse has two great virtues. One is a narrow doorway to 2nd floor, so I can close it off. I prefer cold for sleeping, so closing it off to the heat both concentrates the heat where I want it and lets me sleep blissfully in the cold.

But biggest and bestest is the small attached, enclosed woodshed at the back of my house. The house is from around 1850, the woodshed was added around 1900 by people I wish to heck I could thank. I had no idea when I bought the place how large this woodshed would loom in my life. The previous owners, not being wood burners, had put a hot tub in it.

Siting is important, however you're going to heat the place. Southern exposure is critical in winter. If you keep your eyes open, you'll see that only houses built since around 1950 or 1960, when oil was cheap, are on north-facing slopes. My house was perfectly situated on the SE side of a ridge-- protected from the worst winter winds from the N and NW, but exposed to every last second of the low winter sun to the south.

NEVER buy a house in a valley bottom. Ideal is where my house was put 150 years ago-- halfway up a ridge. The worst winter cold just rolls on down past me into the valley. A friend about a mile down the road in a modest hollow has nighttime temperatures in winter a good 20 degrees lower than I get.

I had no idea about any of this when I bought the house. I just totally lucked out.

peakbagger · Mar 31, 2015

gyrfalcon said:
NEVER buy a house in a valley bottom

I agree, local microclimate is very important. Valley areas tend to get inversions and a stove wont run well during an inversion and if you have neighbors that don't burn there is higher chance you will smoke them out. In some areas they could have bans on burning if inversions occur frequently. A south facing house on a slope with proper shading from the prevailing winds will act like a house considerably farther south. Homes in valleys in winter near a river can be considerably colder than homes outside of the valley. My house up on a hillside is routinely 10 deg F higher than homes in the nearby river valley. I do get more snow and wind so there is tradeoff but I maintain a fairly dense set of woods upwind of the house to mitigate the wind. Location on a hillside with a bit of slope facing south also makes solar a lot more viable and on a sunny day it makes a major difference in my heating bills.

savageactor7 · Mar 31, 2015

Well we got our present house because it gave us the opportunity to heat with wood and safe some petrodollars...and those savings add up big time if you're disciplined enough to actually set aside and save those dollars.

Other than that and if you're handy I recommend that you tell the realtor you're looking for a livable 'handy mans special'. In that way you can find yourself in a nice area for half the coin. Good luck and don't be discouraged.

Chimney Smoke · Mar 31, 2015

When we were house hunting a few years ago we specifically looked for either an existing woodstove or an existing stove hookup. Maine is one the most heavily forested states in the nation and I was surprised how few houses had wood heat. Growing up with a woodstove I guess I took it for granted that most people don't use/like them. The house we bought had a double flue chimney so after we moved in one of the first projects was getting a new stove installed. If you can't find anything with a chimney, make sure you look for an open area big enough for the stove and also a spot for the chimney to be installed.

prezes13 · Mar 31, 2015

There is no mafia... I meant electric heat in the bathrooms so it's always the temp you want. Bedrooms stay cooler because it's better for sleeping the rest would be taken care of by a wood stove.

mol1jb · Mar 31, 2015

Auzzie Gumtree said:
if i was to buy again the fist thing i would look for is insulation / how tight the house is - quality of build.. If you get the 'foundations' of the house right then choosing a wood stove will be a pleasure as you will have a wide range of units to choose from as you will not be wasting any heat you produce.

Thanks for all the tips. I will definitely keep a close eye on insulation. Its easy to look up in the attic. But you can't bust out a wall to see whats inside it. I'm guessing the amount of insulation in the attic should give me a good idea to the wall insulation situation. Windows and doors up to date if possible.

gyrfalcon said:
Bypass the cathedral ceilings!

Open floor plan for sure. Chimney with two flues, or a good spot for a woodstove that has a straight shot up for a new SS chimney in a reasonably central location.

Lots of *flat* space outside 50 or so feet from the house for firewood stacks. Think about the logistics of this really carefully, whether you plan to cut your own wood or buy c/s/d. I'm on the side of a ridge, which has many virtues, but there's very little flat space to stack firewood, and I have to be careful to leave enough room around the pallets I stack firewood on for a truck to come in to deliver close to my stacks and/or back door.

My very modest old country farmhouse has two great virtues. One is a narrow doorway to 2nd floor, so I can close it off. I prefer cold for sleeping, so closing it off to the heat both concentrates the heat where I want it and lets me sleep blissfully in the cold.

But biggest and bestest is the small attached, enclosed woodshed at the back of my house. The house is from around 1850, the woodshed was added around 1900 by people I wish to heck I could thank. I had no idea when I bought the place how large this woodshed would loom in my life. The previous owners, not being wood burners, had put a hot tub in it.

Siting is important, however you're going to heat the place. Southern exposure is critical in winter. If you keep your eyes open, you'll see that only houses built since around 1950 or 1960, when oil was cheap, are on north-facing slopes. My house was perfectly situated on the SE side of a ridge-- protected from the worst winter winds from the N and NW, but exposed to every last second of the low winter sun to the south.

NEVER buy a house in a valley bottom. Ideal is where my house was put 150 years ago-- halfway up a ridge. The worst winter cold just rolls on down past me into the valley. A friend about a mile down the road in a modest hollow has nighttime temperatures in winter a good 20 degrees lower than I get.

I had no idea about any of this when I bought the house. I just totally lucked out.

I totally agree. In my current setup I have to move more wood per season than I care for. Ideally a place close to the house that can house at least 2 years supply would be amazing.

savageactor7 said:
Well we got our present house because it gave us the opportunity to heat with wood and safe some petrodollars...and those savings add up big time if you're disciplined enough to actually set aside and save those dollars.

Other than that and if you're handy I recommend that you tell the realtor you're looking for a livable 'handy mans special'. In that way you can find yourself in a nice area for half the coin. Good luck and don't be discouraged.

Ya totally looking for a fix er up deal. I very much like to be handy around the house and like to save money even more. Luckily for us, the market is on the sluggish side currently which if you have patients can merit some very good deals.

gyrfalcon · Mar 31, 2015

mol1jb said:
Thanks for all the tips. I will definitely keep a close eye on insulation. Its easy to look up in the attic. But you can't bust out a wall to see whats inside it. I'm guessing the amount of insulation in the attic should give me a good idea to the wall insulation situation..

Maybe, maybe not. But especially with a fixer-upper, it's not impossible that one is much stronger than the other. The age of the house and the general quality of construction will give you a better sense. If there's insulation in the attic, that's a nice plus, but it doesn't mean the walls are well insulated.

You can, actually, poke some discreet holes in a few places in the wall once you're at the home inspection stage at least, and see what's in there. If it's inadequate wall insulation, that's something you get a price estimate on fixing and then knock your offer down by that amount if it wasn't disclosed.

JA600L · Mar 31, 2015

Measure the wall thickness. If it's 2x4 walls you know there isn't much in there.

gyrfalcon · Mar 31, 2015

JA600L said:
Measure the wall thickness. If it's 2x4 walls you know there isn't much in there.

True, but in an older house, it doesn't necessarily mean there is insulation if the walls are thicker. My 1850s house's previous owners put up ghastly cherry paneling on the walls, right over and concealing the posts of the post-and-beam. Didn't know until we looked that they'd put insulation in there.

BradleyW · Mar 31, 2015

When we bought our house almost two years ago we had a vague idea we wanted to heat with wood. We lucked out and found a house that really heats best with wood. We have an attached wood shed as well and absolutely love it, but I don't know how likely it is to find if you are looking for it specifically.

gyrfalcon · Mar 31, 2015

BradleyW said:
When we bought our house almost two years ago we had a vague idea we wanted to heat with wood. We lucked out and found a house that really heats best with wood. We have an attached wood shed as well and absolutely love it, but I don't know how likely it is to find if you are looking for it specifically.

Congratulations! I don't know anybody else in this land of wood burners I live in who has one. Nor did I realize at the time I bought the house how incredibly valuable to me it was going to be. When your mind is on insulation and bedrooms and flooring and windows, as mine was, you sometimes don't recognize the worth of such things.

I should have said, now that I think of it, to be on the lookout for a place where you could build one fairly easily. Mine is at the back of a large unfinished storeroom, which in turn is in back of a small 1900 kitchen/bathroom wing, which is in back of the main part of the house. So it's not too hard to keep the cold out when going back and forth for wood for the stove.

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