Getting Close to Starting and Thank You ALL! PLAN B UPDATE!!!

[Ryano42]

:lol:

First, I very grateful thank you to everyone here! If I had listened to the salesman at (NATIONAL HARDWARE CHAIN) I would have attempted to wedge a terrible Vogelsang into the existing flue and burned down the place! :D

I went back after a lot of studying, talked to them and they looked at me... :gulp: Not going back there again!

THE PROJECT:

Remove the late 70's prefab all flame, no heat fireplace:

It's a oddly sized 38'' X 17'' X 20 '' firebox in a 40'' X 40" X 24'' Galvinized box. No tags or info found yet.

THE CHIMNEY: Thanks to you all I know it's an air-cooled unit. It's an 8'' pipe, straight shot, which looks like it's inside another pipe all the way down.

THE CHASE: The area around the chimney is huge; 60'' X 32', about 1/4 of it attached to the house. As soon as I can I am lifting the top plate and peeking in. I am assuming stucco/concrete over wood frame with ample clearance till proven wrong.

THE INITIAL PLAN: The hearth is nice, big and REAL BRICK. Floor is concrete slab. I found a VC Resolute for a great price and it fits in front with room to spare. All clearances are good to the VC manual's specs. Of course after reasearching here the sticky part is the chimney. I am looking at Class A Duravent all the way then a double walled tee and stove pipe to the rear vent on the stove.

The area behind the stove I am still looking at...the firebox looks simple to remove leaving the big box. It looks like the builders left ample clearance behind it. There would be room from the Tee to the outer box...5 inches at least in all directions. Would a layer of insulation work to block heat? The double wall stove pipe spec is 6''.

The chimney...if I ran Class A inside the outer pipe would that work? Since the chase area is enlosed the only areas of support at at the top and near the Tee. Looking inside is going to help.

Any thoughts suggestions and if anyone recognizes the Disco Era fireplace are greatly appeciated! I am still in planning and haven't made a single cut.

And I feel so much more confident and knowledgable THANKS TO YOU ALL! :coolsmile:

 

[woodchip]

Really glad you found this forum before you bought your stove!

I discovered this forum and the wealth of information a month after our stove was installed, it was just luck that we got a good stove for our needs.

I wasted a lot of wood before I learned about secondary burns, and really worked out how to get the best out my stove though ;-)

 

[Ryano42]

Its a great resource!

I will be adding inside the chase photos soon. ANY thoughts or opinions are greatly appreciated! :D

I am also wondering just about the logistics of it, like after I cut free the 8'' inside chimney how do I remove it??? Cut up and pull out through the hearth comes to mind!

 

[Ryano42]

Well about to place the order!

I may be able to do a Tee Support above the firebox I am removing. Going to be interesting.

The issues puzzling me are:

Current chimney removal
Mounting anchor plate and cap on top of chimney
Chimney assembly
How to make slight adjustments to Tee and stove pipe to fit VC Resolute rear vent. I figure build from the bottom up and adjust at the top.

This is fun and I am driving everyone crazy with all my planning! I figure is more is better than too little

 

[Ryano42]

--- UPDATE ---

After partial dismantling of the metal "Disco" fireplace I started to get a bad feeling about the integrity of the what was holding the chimey together. The more I removed the more I realized the outer box was the only thing the holding the prefab up. The list of unknowns was growing. I ordered a Duravent doublewall T and 36'' section of Class A to look at installing and clearances and found the only way to get it all together was to assemble from the top and go down...pretty difficult and scary with my limited assistance and fear of heights. :ahhh:

One final measurement sealed it. The Class A was 1/8'' too big to slip inside the prefab chimney, by the width of the lip on the ends. I decided to halt right there.

PLAN B...

While we got snow and super cold weather, I started looking at the opposite corner of the room. I poured of Duravent's documentation and saw that the "attic" was 18'' there and a ceiling support box could go there! No need for extra pieces, I make cross supports between the A frame crossmembers, screw the support box into them, and for extra support fold over the top of the support box and attach to the roof also!

This was loooking MUCH easier and cheaper than the chimney scenario...and it was

Once I got the courage to start making holes it went pretty fast. I ended up doing it all solo, I had planned to have a stove move and alignment party but renting a furnature dolly from U-Haul was CHEAPER THAN BEER! The stovepipe is double wall DVL and it has about 6 feet of Class A at the top.

The first test fire went better than I expected. It's great having the option of an open fire then the ability to switch to "real heating" mode. All the show of the fireplace without the freezing other rooms!

In full draft mode, flue door closed it can be trimmed to stay at 450 F all day. It nibbles wood compared to the fireplace and gets the living room area super warm! That old Resolute is an amazing stove! I am working on getting the WARMZ down the hall with ceiling fans and that is working too!

I set the air inlet almost closed, stove at about 450 at 11PM and had embers still going this morning! The Resolute did what it was designed to perfect burn across the fuel, efficient and WARM! :D

Opps....just dislocated my shoulder patting myself on the back!

Thanks for all your help everyone

 

[woodchip]

That looks really neat!

Thanks for coming back and posting the pictures.

Now you've found this place, you'll get hooked.

'Cos woodburning isn't just a lifestyle, it's a whole new life..... ;-)

 

[jimbom]

...

The chimney...if I ran Class A inside the outer pipe would that work? Since the chase area is enlosed the only areas of support at at the top and near the Tee. Looking inside is going to help.

I did that with my class A. My installation gave me 2.5" clearance for the class A. Only needs 2". The outer pipe is heavy galvanized steel. Exceeds code since the original outer pipe installation has the clearances required when it was part of the chimney. So I have two separate specified clearances that are additive.

When you look inside, you may find tabs or metal spacers that kept the original smoke pipe centered in the outer pipe. If you have some muscle helping you drop the class A into the outer pipe, you can carefully install the new chimney without bending those. The muscle needs to be able to hold up the entire class A chimney while you join and clamp the next piece. My muscle did it, but his hands got tired. I could have made a jig with clamp to hold things up, but why bother if strong kid has his feet under the table at meal times. Viola, the class A is centered. Mine connects to a ceiling box that came with the class A system.

 

[jimbom]

...I am also wondering just about the logistics of it, like after I cut free the 8'' inside chimney how do I remove it??? Cut up and pull out through the hearth comes to mind!

Pull it straight out the top. It is very light. Mine was stainless. Gonna use that puppy for something good in the future.

 

[jimbom]

Whoops. Didn't realize this was an old thread. Sorry.

 

[Ryano42]

I guess if I had really pushed it I could have done it inside the prefab chimney. I just couldn't secure help and was a little too intimidated to try it alone...especially at the highest point in the house at about 17 feet above the ground.

I am really happy with what I did and didn't feel over my head at any time with the ceiling install. The location is better too; the fireplace is 10+ feet away from the couch, chairs and such.

Even though it's old the Resolute works amazing! Don't know what I was thinking having a fire in that drafty fireplace!

 

[woodchip]

Don't know what I was thinking having a fire in that drafty fireplace!

We had an open fireplace for 25 years before getting a wood stove.

I can't believe we never got a stove before.

Looking back it was about as primitive as sitting outside a cave trying to keep warm by a bonfire in comparison...... ;-)

 

[jimbom]

....Don't know what I was thinking having a fire in that drafty fireplace!

Now is the time to seal that old flue and do something artsy with the fireplace hearth opening. My IR thermometer showed appalling energy loss around my fireplace installation.