Greetings from new member and questions about chimney design.

[Barky McLog]

Greetings from Ottawa, temps last week from -12 to +40 Fahrenheit.... a little crazy but sorta normal with teh global warming and whatnot...we actually swung over 50 degrees in one January week.
Thanks for the help I've already gained here, and here's to doing it right.

I have been planning a wood stove as an intermittent main source of heat in my 1600 sq. ft. house once the rebuild is done, so I've been lurking here to soak up as much info as I can. I hope that I will be able to make an informed, safe, and economical decision when the stove goes in next fall, thanks to the people here. My hat goes off to all participants. (I have actually been known to read totally unrelated posts just for pleasure)

I plan on heating with wood as a primary source when I'm there, with a small oil burner and heat pumps to keep the place at 40 during the week or when I'm otherwise not able to get out there. No gas available, and propane is wicked expensive at that location. Wood is everywhere, with a range of hardwoods at many locations and in many forms.

Given the 20x40 800 up and 800 down 2 story rectangular layout of this builiding, and the floor plan I'm currently working with, the stove will be dead center of the 1st floor, with plenty of clearance. My preference would be one flue straight up from the stove through the second platform and on up through or just beside the roof peak, and that leads me to my first question. Sorry for my lengthy intro, but I want to be careful here and not omit anything.

The roof is a 2 plane peaked roof, with the ridge running longways straight down the middle, at a 10/12 pitch. It's about 28 feet from grade to ridge, and will be about 23 feet from stove top to ridge. I'm thinking that with a 4 foot protrusion from the ridge, that gives me 9 lengths of 3 foot pipe...not a problem. Is there a vacuum/draft problem with it being on the ridge? I'm thinking that it's easier chimney-wise to send the flue through the roof a couple feet BESIDE the peak?? I can't recall the last time I saw a through-the-peak install so I'm guessing it isn't normally done, but being abnormal has never stopped me before. Moving the stove 2 feet in one direction and maintining a prefectly vertical pipe up to just beside the ridge is possible though not my first choice.

I would go to the extra trouble of framing a hole through the ridge, for one important reason . I would like to be able to clean the pipe from the bottom up, although I realise that this is more difficult and messy, and much harder if the pipe isn't perfectly straight. It's going to be a nightmare for me to get up to the roof at all, let alone the ridge, and if I can do a good cleaning myself, I will, but I thought that anything other than a straight pipe would give me more grief. My steep roof dancing days are behind me a good ways if you catch my drift.

How usual is it to take apart stainless double wall insulated for cleaning purposes or is it just not worth it in terms of mess and possible damage to the pipe? I can see myself on the second floor taking out a section of class A to clean it and to clean up to the cap from that point, but that leads me to another question...is it possible at all to clean a cap area from below, or is it mandatory to get somebody up on the roof and clean it top down? I very much doubt if I will be up on that roof at all, let alone in winter, and am wondering if it's feasible to clean the upper flue from the bottom or the middle. I bet that with the height/steepness of the roof it's going to cost me a fortune to hire a sweep to clean from the top.

Thanks guys, I know I wrote a book here, and I appreciate any feedback or workarounds anybody can think of. In a nutshell, how do I clean a 27 foot flue from the bottom up, especially at the cap area??
Does anyone ever take a section of pipe out to perform cleaning, or is this a no-no?
Lastly, does anyone ever run the pipe through the ridge? Tha's actually my first choice, but I am probably missing a few reasons why it shouldn't be done.

Cheers and happy heating

Roly

 

[bag of hammers]

Roly - welcome. I'm not a veteran Ihere but 'm sure they will roll in with all kinds of advice. My 2c meanwhile:

- sooteater to clean from bottom up - don't disassemble any insulated pipe for cleaning or otherwise. Especially mid-point in your chimney.
- use a slight offset in your stove pipe to go the 2 feet over to "miss" the ridge. I think there are just too many flashing and other issues up there if you run dead center on the ridge. Just stay 2' min over the ridge elevation.
- look at something like a Rinnai 1004F to keep your no-freeze. I use this on @ 1500 sq ft all one level place with cathedral ceilings - and the older part is an unskirted space (built on piers). This amazing unit keeps the place at @ 45 deg on the lowest setting when I'm not there. Been running great for 3 years now - propane yes but a single tank (rental) outside and I fill it once a year at most. it does not run when we're there. Something to think about (fuel oil isn't cheap either).

Good luck - hope it goes great...

 

[NortheastAl]

I'm not that experienced, but I do not think you can have a length of class A pipe even exposed on the second floor, let alone clean it by removing. It usually would be installed behind drywall in a frame. At least that is code here in the USA.

Cleaning it from the bottom should not be too much of a problem. I had commented that I was going to buy the Sooteater in another thread. You can get the extensions that would take you up to the top of the chimney and it uses a drill to spin the rods and cleaning head. Appears to be very effective.

Here's the link: http://www.sooteater.com/

Good luck, and welcome to the site.

 

[Barky McLog]

Thanks for the help guys, I appreciate any advice I can get, and I would say outright that you're experts compared to me, so keep it coming.

I take it that class A has to be in a chase or otherwise protected then, ok, if it's possible to clean a 27 foot chimney from the stove area no probs. I was worried about any elbows in the pipe because I thought that those elbows would have to be removed or somehow bypassed to do a proper cleaning. I'm confident that in +40 to -25 temps and with 27 vertical feet I should be ok with 2 45's in the pipe draftwise, then out through the 10/12 drywall ceiling, insulation, roof planks and 15,000 year old tin shingles via a 10/12 adapter. Very cool and none of this breaking the ridge board/cap nonsense.

So, Sooteater, huh? Ima go check these out and if I can somehow weasel one around a 45 corner or two, my questions are answered for now.

P.S. People are starting to think I'm at a porn/dating site because of the time I'm spending here........... I have literally read 100's of pages of just this subforum .... and I must admit that some of the setups I have seen are arousing strange longings.....

 

[KaptJaq]

Welcome to the forums. Something to look at:



I would frame the pipe in a chase in the living areas. If you use 30° angle pipe for your offset there should no problem using a sooteater from the bottom up. Their site implies it can even do 45° bends easily. And yeah, like Mr. Hammers said, miss the ridge. Too much stuff going on there already...

KaptJaq

 

[Barky McLog]

Thank you for that KaptJaq, I would think that leeward would mean less pressure/more draft, and in my case leeward means northeast or away from the road, so that works out perfect also visually. Now that I think about it, prevailing wind is also AWAY from my neighbours. I can't lose

 

[bag of hammers]

Another word of advice - pay careful attention to the flashing details on the roof. As simple as that seems, the roofers still messed mine up (ran shingles over the metal all the way down). Doing that looks pretty (so they say) - but leaks after @ 3 years. My old smoke dragon flashing is still bullet proof after 12 years (a DIY install by a no-nothing noob - me). I see you mentioned tin roof + adapter - I have no idea what that entails but just sharing my leaky roof joy as an extra incentive to make that area tight tight tight. Don't skimp there. Don't need no drips running down inside your brand new chase and onto your new stove....