Cutting holes in floors and ceilings is a reduction of safety. today all rough frame inspections include inspecting draft and fire stopping. Just as important to your personal safety, as the structual aspects of homes. Every wire, pipe, or duct penatration is draft stopped. Fire blocking is also used to protect the integrity of structual members, like your load bearing walls and beams.
It has been proven that, containment saves ctitical seconds/ minutes to safely exit a fire situation. Floors and ceilings are considered natural containment barriers. One would never cut a hole in the floor if they watched the films I have seen, how a fire spreads and the time it can get to critical stages. Ones fire starts the rising hot air finds there holes ( penatrations) as it risses threw that hole due to pressurization differencials it accelerates. the more intense it gets the faster the acceleration cycle. Some holes offer the oxegen source to accelerate the fire while others offer a path for rapid expansion. Its not just the fire, but the huge vollumes of hot potentially deadly gasses and smoke. The holes allow for express pasage into the next floor living space. Speaking of deadly gases the same holes can be an expressway for carbon monoxide, just as deadly.
The question on should ask is getting a little residual heat to the next floor worth the risk? If you came into my office and applied for a permit to cut holes in the floor. I would deny issuing it
These holes are being cut to allow heat to rise into the next floor.
Lets examine the situation: If you want heat from your auxillary heat source then place it within the living space. Basement locations are woefully bad concerning drafts in a negaitive
pressure location. Usually stoves in basements compete for adequate combustion air need by your furnace / boiler. fuel fired hot warter heater and many times a clothes dryer.
All this competition leads to, incomplete combustion and reduced effeciencies of all appliances, plus increasing negative presurization. With increased negative pressurization and incomplete combustion is the fromular for increased carbon monoxide risk. Makeup combustion air has to come from somewhere. The negative pressure gradient is there, it is very easy for one appliance demand to suck the exhaust back into that basement. Could it be the reason no heat is moving into the living space, because combustion air demand is sucking that air from the holes cut in the floor, into the basement? That explains one phenomem, Another thing is happening the pressure in the Basement is negative or lower. Those same holes act to allow the higher pressure to to make up the negavive pressure gradient in the basement. This is a chimney effect in reverse. Added to the reversechimney effect, colder heavier air at the floor level also wants to decend. The winner will always be the heavier air. The final piece of the puzzel is supply = returns. Cutting hole in the floor without a well thought engineered location of the return route, is useless.
The basement its self unless you have well insulated walls, That cold concrete foundation walls suck most of that heat out. the sill contact plate is probably leaking like a sieve. Your rim joist is probably not insulated This stove location was doomed to start. Everything I have said is backed up by studies. There is nothing new I came up with.
Very few studies favor basement locations as a solution to heat an entire house. Wood/pellet stoves are zone heaters that should be located within the space they should heat
they were never whole house heaters. Cutting holes in the floors is not improving a bad location. only compromising you and your familly safety.
The question you have to come to grips with is heat vs safety. Im the forum's worst typer. It is not easy or as fluid a task. as it is for many here.
I did not take this time to type up this post, if I was not concerned about you and your familly's safety. My home there are no holes. I know the risk, I would never compromise
my familly safety.
Note I did not refference any code here, Code at times is to protect the innocent and at times to protect fools from themselves. I'm not ducking of cover here worring about other oppinions.
Worse would be ones that advocate the increased safety risk. Ones that will tell you to use blowers further removing combustion air, accelerating situations, that have gone bad. Blower that further add to negative pressurization. Very few are qualify as Mechanical engineers, with the knowledge of you home's layout and air flows, to locate the required holes and fan vollumes required to even achieve a positive heat gain. No Mechanical engineer should advocate purging natural containment floors and ceiling without detailing adequate protection.
There such a safety concern ,for those that advocate some sucess that's ok. You acepted your own personal risk, but it is not wise to endorse others, to compromise theirs.
It has been proven that, containment saves ctitical seconds/ minutes to safely exit a fire situation. Floors and ceilings are considered natural containment barriers. One would never cut a hole in the floor if they watched the films I have seen, how a fire spreads and the time it can get to critical stages. Ones fire starts the rising hot air finds there holes ( penatrations) as it risses threw that hole due to pressurization differencials it accelerates. the more intense it gets the faster the acceleration cycle. Some holes offer the oxegen source to accelerate the fire while others offer a path for rapid expansion. Its not just the fire, but the huge vollumes of hot potentially deadly gasses and smoke. The holes allow for express pasage into the next floor living space. Speaking of deadly gases the same holes can be an expressway for carbon monoxide, just as deadly.
The question on should ask is getting a little residual heat to the next floor worth the risk? If you came into my office and applied for a permit to cut holes in the floor. I would deny issuing it
These holes are being cut to allow heat to rise into the next floor.
Lets examine the situation: If you want heat from your auxillary heat source then place it within the living space. Basement locations are woefully bad concerning drafts in a negaitive
pressure location. Usually stoves in basements compete for adequate combustion air need by your furnace / boiler. fuel fired hot warter heater and many times a clothes dryer.
All this competition leads to, incomplete combustion and reduced effeciencies of all appliances, plus increasing negative presurization. With increased negative pressurization and incomplete combustion is the fromular for increased carbon monoxide risk. Makeup combustion air has to come from somewhere. The negative pressure gradient is there, it is very easy for one appliance demand to suck the exhaust back into that basement. Could it be the reason no heat is moving into the living space, because combustion air demand is sucking that air from the holes cut in the floor, into the basement? That explains one phenomem, Another thing is happening the pressure in the Basement is negative or lower. Those same holes act to allow the higher pressure to to make up the negavive pressure gradient in the basement. This is a chimney effect in reverse. Added to the reversechimney effect, colder heavier air at the floor level also wants to decend. The winner will always be the heavier air. The final piece of the puzzel is supply = returns. Cutting hole in the floor without a well thought engineered location of the return route, is useless.
The basement its self unless you have well insulated walls, That cold concrete foundation walls suck most of that heat out. the sill contact plate is probably leaking like a sieve. Your rim joist is probably not insulated This stove location was doomed to start. Everything I have said is backed up by studies. There is nothing new I came up with.
Very few studies favor basement locations as a solution to heat an entire house. Wood/pellet stoves are zone heaters that should be located within the space they should heat
they were never whole house heaters. Cutting holes in the floors is not improving a bad location. only compromising you and your familly safety.
The question you have to come to grips with is heat vs safety. Im the forum's worst typer. It is not easy or as fluid a task. as it is for many here.
I did not take this time to type up this post, if I was not concerned about you and your familly's safety. My home there are no holes. I know the risk, I would never compromise
my familly safety.
Note I did not refference any code here, Code at times is to protect the innocent and at times to protect fools from themselves. I'm not ducking of cover here worring about other oppinions.
Worse would be ones that advocate the increased safety risk. Ones that will tell you to use blowers further removing combustion air, accelerating situations, that have gone bad. Blower that further add to negative pressurization. Very few are qualify as Mechanical engineers, with the knowledge of you home's layout and air flows, to locate the required holes and fan vollumes required to even achieve a positive heat gain. No Mechanical engineer should advocate purging natural containment floors and ceiling without detailing adequate protection.
There such a safety concern ,for those that advocate some sucess that's ok. You acepted your own personal risk, but it is not wise to endorse others, to compromise theirs.
