As some of you might know, I have been prepping for my first wood stove for some time now. I have read so many great threads, and so many of you have offered advice and answered so many questions. I toast to you all.
It has been a huge challenge deciding which stove to purchase. Fire show or not so much? Soap stone or cast iron or steel, or...? How big? How small? How many BTUs, square footage, etc? Will this one work? Will that one work? Will this one produce too much heat? What about clearances and the hearth? You mean I have to have DRY wood?
And on it goes...
At this point I am either the talk of the block, or the geek of the week when it comes to proper fire wood at least, and I have picked up a bit of knowledge about stoves along the way too. After perusing all the local stove shops and asking questions, I decided that I hadn't come any closer to making a decision. In a last ditch effort to maintain my sanity, I decided to head to the local state fair where there are usually a large number of dealers selling this stove and that, with deals that sometimes are too good to pass by. Well, the deals were too good to pass by, and now the decision has been made. Bought and paid for, stove Excell pipe package, and installation at a price no mortal could refuse.
(broken link removed to http://advblane.smugmug.com/Trees/i-vfpg5Vv/A)
Yes my friends, the Jotul F3 CB is the winner. She is going to look dandy on the hearth.
I had planned to do all the installation myself, but insurance requires a pro to install the stove and pipe, so I guess I'm just left with the hearth to satisfy my DIY desires. You all may be thinking that it is a bummer that I don't get to install it too, but beware what you wish for. I'll have plenty questions about the hearth project, but I promise that I'll repay the masses with a deluge of fine pics of the process. I'll also try to get some good pics of the actual install process if the installer is the type to be pestered.
On With the Hearth...
(broken link removed to http://advblane.smugmug.com/Trees/i-SrfSkHj/A)
(broken link removed to http://advblane.smugmug.com/Trees/i-QL2dzMf/A)
I have been kicking around some ideas of how to place the stove. I know generally where it is going to go, but it is difficult to decide how to place it, in my experience anyway. On paper, the distances to combustables and hearth size seem to be overly large. No layout that I drew up seemed to seem to fit very well in the room without seemingly sticking out into the middle of the living room.
I had had enough of drawing it out, so I decided to go with the layout that I liked the most and tape it out onto the floor. I found a tote in the garage almost the same width and depth as the stove, so I set it on my tapped out hearth, and sat a toddler chair on top in order to give the whole contraption some height for perspective. This is how it all turned out and I love it. It turns out to be much less intrusive than it looked on paper.
(broken link removed to http://advblane.smugmug.com/Trees/i-73btVv8/A)
The F3 requires a hearth minimum of 39"x39". For a corner install with protected surfaces, we can move those back corners only 6" away from those back walls. However, and here is where I am perplexed to begin, you have to leave an inch air gap between the hearth pad and the bottom edge of the protection wall. How have all of you approached this dilemma while maintaining the look of a smooth transition from hearth deck to wall? And how did you finish the top to look somewhat normal due to the gap required there?
I plan to frame the hearth out of framing 2x4s, then deck with a number of layers of Durock to get the insulative R value of 1.1 required by Jotul for the F3. On top of the Durock I plan to use Thin Set or mortar to attach slate, or some such material. I have never done any type of tile work before, so this should be interesting. Anyhow, would 4 layers of Durock provide the R value necessary, or do I need more or less, or something else entirely?
Thanks again, everyone! More to come just around the corner. We gotta get this thing installed before the frost bites. : )
It has been a huge challenge deciding which stove to purchase. Fire show or not so much? Soap stone or cast iron or steel, or...? How big? How small? How many BTUs, square footage, etc? Will this one work? Will that one work? Will this one produce too much heat? What about clearances and the hearth? You mean I have to have DRY wood?
And on it goes...At this point I am either the talk of the block, or the geek of the week when it comes to proper fire wood at least, and I have picked up a bit of knowledge about stoves along the way too. After perusing all the local stove shops and asking questions, I decided that I hadn't come any closer to making a decision. In a last ditch effort to maintain my sanity, I decided to head to the local state fair where there are usually a large number of dealers selling this stove and that, with deals that sometimes are too good to pass by. Well, the deals were too good to pass by, and now the decision has been made. Bought and paid for, stove Excell pipe package, and installation at a price no mortal could refuse.
(broken link removed to http://advblane.smugmug.com/Trees/i-vfpg5Vv/A)
Yes my friends, the Jotul F3 CB is the winner. She is going to look dandy on the hearth.
I had planned to do all the installation myself, but insurance requires a pro to install the stove and pipe, so I guess I'm just left with the hearth to satisfy my DIY desires. You all may be thinking that it is a bummer that I don't get to install it too, but beware what you wish for. I'll have plenty questions about the hearth project, but I promise that I'll repay the masses with a deluge of fine pics of the process. I'll also try to get some good pics of the actual install process if the installer is the type to be pestered.
On With the Hearth...
(broken link removed to http://advblane.smugmug.com/Trees/i-SrfSkHj/A)
(broken link removed to http://advblane.smugmug.com/Trees/i-QL2dzMf/A)
I have been kicking around some ideas of how to place the stove. I know generally where it is going to go, but it is difficult to decide how to place it, in my experience anyway. On paper, the distances to combustables and hearth size seem to be overly large. No layout that I drew up seemed to seem to fit very well in the room without seemingly sticking out into the middle of the living room.
I had had enough of drawing it out, so I decided to go with the layout that I liked the most and tape it out onto the floor. I found a tote in the garage almost the same width and depth as the stove, so I set it on my tapped out hearth, and sat a toddler chair on top in order to give the whole contraption some height for perspective. This is how it all turned out and I love it. It turns out to be much less intrusive than it looked on paper.
(broken link removed to http://advblane.smugmug.com/Trees/i-73btVv8/A)
The F3 requires a hearth minimum of 39"x39". For a corner install with protected surfaces, we can move those back corners only 6" away from those back walls. However, and here is where I am perplexed to begin, you have to leave an inch air gap between the hearth pad and the bottom edge of the protection wall. How have all of you approached this dilemma while maintaining the look of a smooth transition from hearth deck to wall? And how did you finish the top to look somewhat normal due to the gap required there?
I plan to frame the hearth out of framing 2x4s, then deck with a number of layers of Durock to get the insulative R value of 1.1 required by Jotul for the F3. On top of the Durock I plan to use Thin Set or mortar to attach slate, or some such material. I have never done any type of tile work before, so this should be interesting. Anyhow, would 4 layers of Durock provide the R value necessary, or do I need more or less, or something else entirely?
Thanks again, everyone! More to come just around the corner. We gotta get this thing installed before the frost bites. : )
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