Chimney options-help convince my wife.

[Bluduck]

We bought a new to us (hud home) this summer and for the first time in my life, no wood stove. I finally got a wood stove and had a local stove shop come out and quote the materials for the install. They suggested just going through the wall and doing a outside class A chimney. From what I have read it would be much better to do it inside, however it would need to come up the wall in the middle of my upstairs living room (between two sliding glass doors) and my wife is adamantly against it. What do you guys think. I have attached a picture of the outside of the house. The wood stove will go on the bottom floor against the outside wall between the sliding glass doors. I will also get a picture of the inside upstairs living room but its essentially a completely open floor plan with a two directional stairway right in the middle of the room. My wifes comments have all been that even a chimney with a chase around it will look stupid right in the middle of the living room wall, but my contention is that it will work better and look better than a 20' tall class A chimney going through the eaves and deck. What do you guys suggest and do you have any pictures of how you have covered up your internal chimneys? I am planning to do it all myself because that's pretty much how I do things.

 

[Bluduck]

Here is the wall that the chimney will go up (either out or inside)

 

[begreen]

So the thought is to put the stove in the daylight basement correct? How will the heat get upstairs?
A sketch of the floor plans of both levels will help here. I agree an interior chimney would work and look better if possible. Maybe there is another location where a chase will be less intrusive, like on the right end of the building?

 

[Bluduck]

There are two bedrooms downstairs. Essentially book ending a living room. The upstairs is similar except the right sliding door is the kitchen and the left a bedroom. There really are no other locations that will work. The heat will go up the very large open central stairway. I am anticipating this will actually work really well as the stairway hole is 12'x9 or so. The stove is a vermont iron 24" catalytic elm.

 

[KindredSpiritzz]

well i agree running it outside is going to look stupid, beyond that i got nothing.

 

[rwhite]

It's at the back of the house so who cares? If its an issue, a chase can be built to match the house and it would look like it was meant to be.

 

[Bluduck]

It's at the back of the house so who cares? If its an issue, a chase can be built to match the house and it would look like it was meant to be.

That is true. I have heard a lot of people say that a outside chimney doesn't work as well and has a lot of issues so that was the main reason I didn't want to do it. The looks were really secondary. However that what u will do if I can't find a better solution.

 

[rwhite]

Outside chimney work just fine and look better that a pipe running through the floor of the living room.

 

[weatherguy]

Outside chimney work just fine and look better that a pipe running through the floor of the living room.

That's what I was thinking, you'd have a pipe coming up through the floor in the upstairs living room,? I don't think my wife would go for that either.

 

[DBoon]

If you haven't realized it by now I can tell you that you are not going to win this one with your wife. There is likely no "convincing" that can be done - her decision is already made. I would focus on getting the best outside install I can.

 

[Lumber-Jack]

From what I have read it would be much better to do it inside, however it would need to come up the wall in the middle of my upstairs living room (between two sliding glass doors)

That's how I would do it.
You could build a chase outside too, but it would be more complicated from both the standpoint of the chase, and the chimney. Also it's always better to have a straight up run with the chimney if you can.
Obviously if you keep it inside you would need a chase around the chimney on the second story, so you aren't going to see it, but you'll probably have to move that couch somewhere else. The picture could probably be hung on the chase after it's built.
What you could do to help please your wife is get creative with the chase and rather then just framing an extrude box with three walls, perhaps you could turn it into some sort of feature with display shelves for your wife's favorite nick-nacks, with nice wood trim that matches the wood on the stair railings.

 

[vwmike]

I despise my thru the wall outside class a. Its ugly and temperamental. With the stove in the basement it always back drafts once the stove gets cold.

 

[Nick Mystic]

If you go up the back of your house as your wife would like have you calculated how tall the stack is going to have to be above the gutter level in order to meet the proper draft requirements. From your photo it looks like the top of your flue is going to have to stick up quite high to stay ten feet away from the roof angle. You will most likely need some braces on the pipe and have to clean from the bottom up unless you have a way to reach the cap from the outside, which will be quite a bit up off the roof. How will you clean the cap, which is usually the dirtiest part of the chimney arrangement? The stuff that accumulates in the cap might not come off well with a SootEater used from the bottom up. If it was me, I would do some more scouting around inside the house to look for other possible locations for the stove. I have a stove in my lower level and another on my main living level and I can tell you we use the upper level stove almost exclusively since we can't move heat upstairs very well from the lower level stove. If you plan to spend a lot of time downstairs around the stove, then that's a good location, but if you are going to be upstairs most of the time you should factor that into your decision, as well.

 

[Bluduck]

If you go up the back of your house as your wife would like have you calculated how tall the stack is going to have to be above the gutter level in order to meet the proper draft requirements. From your photo it looks like the top of your flue is going to have to stick up quite high to stay ten feet away from the roof angle. You will most likely need some braces on the pipe and have to clean from the bottom up unless you have a way to reach the cap from the outside, which will be quite a bit up off the roof. How will you clean the cap, which is usually the dirtiest part of the chimney arrangement? The stuff that accumulates in the cap might not come off well with a SootEater used from the bottom up. If it was me, I would do some more scouting around inside the house to look for other possible locations for the stove. I have a stove in my lower level and another on my main living level and I can tell you we use the upper level stove almost exclusively since we can't move heat upstairs very well from the lower level stove. If you plan to spend a lot of time downstairs around the stove, then that's a good location, but if you are going to be upstairs most of the time you should factor that into your decision, as well.

It will be 94 inches above the eaves if my calculations are right, but will still be close to that tall if its inside the wall. If its inside, cleaning the thing is something I hadn't considered. Outside can be cleaned from the bottom fairly easily. As far as scouting inside the house goes, there really is no other place and I am not just being closed minded. 6 sliding glass doors and a wide open floor plan makes it really difficult. I could do two wood stoves but was really hoping I could move the warmth upstairs with such a giant hole in the floor. A upstairs stove would make the placement easy with multiple decent spots to put the stove, but my kids would freeze in their basement rooms. I'm a bit frustrated but my wife was intrigued by the built in shelf ideas so I might just work on that.

 

[Bluduck]

I despise my thru the wall outside class a. Its ugly and temperamental. With the stove in the basement it always back drafts once the stove gets cold.

This is what I am afraid of. We will burn wood 24/7 and I don't want a tempremental inefficient pig of a install. It will be almost exactly 20ft tall so maybe that will help with the backdraft?

 

[BrotherBart]

If you are running around the clock the damn thing will be hot and drafting all the time. Do the through the wall Class A and warm it up once a season. Or sleep on the couch for the rest of your life.

My un-insulated liner in the infamous outside masonry chimney is 21' tall and drafts like a freakin vacuum cleaner. I shudder to think how hard it would draft if it was insulated Class A.

 

[Lumber-Jack]

If you are running around the clock the damn thing will be hot and drafting all the time. Do the through the wall Class A and warm it up once a season. Or sleep on the couch for the rest of your life.
.

Not to worry, you'll have to move the couch anyway, so just make sure you move it into the bedroom.

 

[vwmike]

I shoulda mentioned my chimney drafts great when it's warm, it's just hard with my work schedule and small firebox to keep it warm 24/7.

 

[firefighterjake]

Due to the way my house is built I had to go with an out and up install.

I had read all the reports saying that outside installs often have problems with drafting and that you lose some residual heat from the chimney . . . and I wasn't a big fan of the look of all that metal on the side of my house.

However, after four or five years here is what I have found.

A. My stove drafts perfectly fine. The only time I have issues -- like many other folks with inside chimneys -- is in the early Fall and late Spring.

B. Heat loss has not been an issue. I think I may be losing some heat from the chimney, but the revelation that the bulk of the heat comes from the stove and not the chimney was eye opening for me.

C. At first I thought I would live with the metal for a year and then build a chase . . . until I realized that due to the location of the Class A you can pretty much only see the whole run from one spot along the road . . . it is barely noticeable truthfully . . . unless you are in the side yard or my neighbor's yard. After a year in I figured since it is not right out in the open I can live without the expense and look of a wooden chase.

D. A benefit . . . installed with a T-cap cleaning the chimney can be very easy -- remove the cap, sweep from the ground up . . . no ladders, no heights and typically this is a quick job.