Hello everyone. I have spent a decent amount of time reading through threads here, and I must say I am very impressed with the level of expertise represented within them. Hopefully someone amongst the collective will have an easier, more accurate way for me to plan my chimney penetrations through floor and ceilings.
I have done an outside installation of a steel chimney in the past, which by comparisons seems easy to what I'm planning now at the new house. I will attempt to explain this as clearly as I can, but I'm sure I won't! This completely interior steel chimney for a VC Encore Cat will hopefully run completely straight up from the first floor to the roof with no obstructions. My dilemma is with the plotting of the chimneys path. I know where I would like to have the stove on the first floor, and have plumb bobbed a line to the ceiling. Probing under some molding to confirm what the stud finder says, i know the location of the ceiling joists. But the second floor has a space of about 18 inches or so from the plywood beneath the hardwood down to the ceiling of first floor, with a seperate set of joists seemingly offset from the 1st floors ceiling joists. I'm not a house builder or master carpenter, so I don't know if this "double" joist is typical in construction or not, but this much I can tell...the 2nd floor joists are much newer looking, and as you would expect the first floor joists are old, full dimension lumber, so I'm guessing an addition at some time was done.
Is there an easy way to transpose marks on the ceiling (where the center of the ceiling support box will be mounted) to the top of the floor opposite it, across this inaccessible 18" space easily without drilling pilot holes? I am trying to maintain the aesthetics of both the ceiling and floor while I determine the chimney's path. I'm not the type of person to just start cutting and deal with the problems that arise later from poor planning. I am looking to determine where every joist, rafter and roof valley is in relation to my desired chimney path so that I can plan for those potentials now. I would of course like to avoid any offsetting with elbows, but am certainly not opposed to it if my desired location lands me directly beneath a roof rafter or too close to a joist. I've made as exacting measurements on the ceiling as I can, and tried to transpose them to the upstairs floor, (from a central point) to find the centerline of the pipe. But I fear there is too much inherent error in this method. Of course access to the attic is no problem, so roof penetration and attic interference aren't an issue. It is mainly continuing the center point of the 6" ID flue from the 1st floor ceiling to the 2nd floor that has me stumped.
I realize that a larger hole must be drilled to maintain the clearence to combustibles anyway, as well as a sheetrock closure around the triple wall pipe as it enters and exits a living space, per the code. I realize that these two things may aid in covering any pilot holes or such that are necessary in the beginning. I was simply curious if there is a way to "connect the dots" without doing such things initially.
I'm curious if any of the extreme DIY's or any of the contractors here may be able to shed some light on how they would approach this "mapping" of the chimney location without destructive means. I've consulted 3 dealers in my area, 2 of which visited the house and said they wanted no part of the job, due to the "difficulty", as they put it. This doesn't deter me in the least. Any help would be most appreciated.
Thanks
I have done an outside installation of a steel chimney in the past, which by comparisons seems easy to what I'm planning now at the new house. I will attempt to explain this as clearly as I can, but I'm sure I won't! This completely interior steel chimney for a VC Encore Cat will hopefully run completely straight up from the first floor to the roof with no obstructions. My dilemma is with the plotting of the chimneys path. I know where I would like to have the stove on the first floor, and have plumb bobbed a line to the ceiling. Probing under some molding to confirm what the stud finder says, i know the location of the ceiling joists. But the second floor has a space of about 18 inches or so from the plywood beneath the hardwood down to the ceiling of first floor, with a seperate set of joists seemingly offset from the 1st floors ceiling joists. I'm not a house builder or master carpenter, so I don't know if this "double" joist is typical in construction or not, but this much I can tell...the 2nd floor joists are much newer looking, and as you would expect the first floor joists are old, full dimension lumber, so I'm guessing an addition at some time was done.
Is there an easy way to transpose marks on the ceiling (where the center of the ceiling support box will be mounted) to the top of the floor opposite it, across this inaccessible 18" space easily without drilling pilot holes? I am trying to maintain the aesthetics of both the ceiling and floor while I determine the chimney's path. I'm not the type of person to just start cutting and deal with the problems that arise later from poor planning. I am looking to determine where every joist, rafter and roof valley is in relation to my desired chimney path so that I can plan for those potentials now. I would of course like to avoid any offsetting with elbows, but am certainly not opposed to it if my desired location lands me directly beneath a roof rafter or too close to a joist. I've made as exacting measurements on the ceiling as I can, and tried to transpose them to the upstairs floor, (from a central point) to find the centerline of the pipe. But I fear there is too much inherent error in this method. Of course access to the attic is no problem, so roof penetration and attic interference aren't an issue. It is mainly continuing the center point of the 6" ID flue from the 1st floor ceiling to the 2nd floor that has me stumped.
I realize that a larger hole must be drilled to maintain the clearence to combustibles anyway, as well as a sheetrock closure around the triple wall pipe as it enters and exits a living space, per the code. I realize that these two things may aid in covering any pilot holes or such that are necessary in the beginning. I was simply curious if there is a way to "connect the dots" without doing such things initially.
I'm curious if any of the extreme DIY's or any of the contractors here may be able to shed some light on how they would approach this "mapping" of the chimney location without destructive means. I've consulted 3 dealers in my area, 2 of which visited the house and said they wanted no part of the job, due to the "difficulty", as they put it. This doesn't deter me in the least. Any help would be most appreciated.
Thanks
