Ceiling caused by narrowing chase?

[jma24]

Have been trying to get someone willing to quote me for a ZC RSF Opal fireplace. It’s been a labor of love, no one seems to want to rip and replace my old fireplace in the Philly area.

The latest issue seems to be that my chase narrows at 54” above floor level. This apparently causes a ceiling and means a ZC fireplace can’t be installed.

Is there any way around this besides increasing the height that the chase narrows? It’s stucco so that may be expensive and may not look great.

 

[xterra]

watching this thread as it seems it could get expensive quick. What stove shop have you consulted? curious if expanding west or up into the lehigh valley would get someone with knowledge/willingness. My guys drove about an hour each way to rework the masonry and install my stove. Good for you for burning wood in Gladwyne; most of your neighbors burn BMW's and small bills to heat the house.

 

[kennyp2339]

Demo the chimney chase, it should be all wood behind the stucco

 

[jma24]

watching this thread as it seems it could get expensive quick. What stove shop have you consulted? curious if expanding west or up into the lehigh valley would get someone with knowledge/willingness. My guys drove about an hour each way to rework the masonry and install my stove. Good for you for burning wood in Gladwyne; most of your neighbors burn BMW's and small bills to heat the house.

I’ve talked to all of the listed RSF dealers in a 30 mile radius. Gasworks were probably the most helpful. Maybe as you say I should try a bit further afield. Tried Quakertown but they refused to travel to me.

I joke that we are the poorest people in the village. The ways people find to waste money are bizarre.

 

[jma24]

Demo the chimney chase, it should be all wood behind the stucco

Thanks. Yeah I’m pretty confident it’s a wood frame. The other two chimneys are masonry, this is an air cooled steel chimney.

Trouble is, it turns a $10k job into a $20k job and I don’t have the budget/desire to do that this year.

 

[xman23]

Are you trying to have the stove installer do the entire job? If so they will sub out the construction of the chase. I think you could get get a small local contractor to do that. It may be cheaper.

 

[kennyp2339]

Thanks. Yeah I’m pretty confident it’s a wood frame. The other two chimneys are masonry, this is an air cooled steel chimney.

Trouble is, it turns a $10k job into a $20k job and I don’t have the budget/desire to do that this year.

Well that stinks - what about a retro diy job, gut the inside, pull the zero clearance out, chimney out then install a woodstove in with double wall black pipe then class a pipe through the chase? May need to do some custom cutting and hearth making, pulling the stove into the room a bit more, but having an insulated alcove to.

 

[xterra]

kennyp has a good point, but assume you already wrote off the possibility of a freestanding stove out through the existing chase. It will get expensive quick, and wouldn't trust any old builder that's contracted out to finish the job for a ZC because of the focus on minimum clearance requirements. make sure this isn't the 1st time the contractor has done something like this.

It's funny that it's tough to find someone to do this, yet someone on this forum is out near Pittsburgh (I think) and had his entire home engineered around a rocket stove with concrete footers through the basement of the house. How'd that guy find a builder that knowledgable?

 

[AlwaysStacking]

manual requires 6 feet from the base of the fireplace to the lowest point of the "ceiling" on a vented enclosure. From the drawing it looks like minimum enclosure width is 36 7/8'' so I would look to see if you can make a smaller enclosure in your space that is 37'' x 72''. Because the chase is tapered, the more narrow you go, the more height you gain.