Missing anything? Rear flue into old gas fireplace firebox and out chimney?

[Linzertortes]

Greetings! I have been researching options for a small wood stove for my living room and am curious to know if ya'll have feedback or ideas for where I might run into problems.

Here's the scenario: I have a 1,400sq foot house in Seattle that is 95 years old. Open floorplan on the main floor with a small 2nd story. Two-story chimney. The previous owners had a gas stove insert in the living room, which they removed and covered with sheetrock. I've included a photo of the old gas insert.

I opened a hole in the sheetrock to inspect the firebox - there is a metal firebox (I'm guessing this is a zero clearance firebox?) and an old chimney liner. I've included some photos, but it's hard to take a good pic. Approximate dimensions of the firebox are: opening starts at 12.5'' off the floor and ends at 39'' off the floor, and is about 14'' deep front to back.

My hope is that I will be able to install a small wood stove with a rear flue, use a wall-thimble and double-wall pipe that makes a T inside the firebox and then vents out of a new chimney liner.

As best I can figure, our stove options are:
- Morso 7110
- Vermont Castings Intrepid
- Sadly, the Jotul Oslo is too big for our space, but it is beautiful.

Reviews make me think that I should go with the Morso over the VC.

My questions are:
- Is this the right approach? (stove w/ rear flue into the old firebox). Will I run into a problem with the fact that I don't know what is on the other side of the metal firebox?
- Are there any other stoves that I should consider besides what I've noted above?
- What else do I need to know about what is going on here before I can confidently purchase a stove to install? Do I need to have someone out to look at this before I buy a stove?
- What would you do differently here?

I look forward to your thoughts. I've never owned a wood stove before and I've gotten this far from reading these forums and really appreciate the wealth of knowledge here. Thank you! - Lindsey

 

[bholler]

Greetings! I have been researching options for a small wood stove for my living room and am curious to know if ya'll have feedback or ideas for where I might run into problems.

Here's the scenario: I have a 1,400sq foot house in Seattle that is 95 years old. Open floorplan on the main floor with a small 2nd story. Two-story chimney. The previous owners had a gas stove insert in the living room, which they removed and covered with sheetrock. I've included a photo of the old gas insert.

View attachment 267182

I opened a hole in the sheetrock to inspect the firebox - there is a metal firebox (I'm guessing this is a zero clearance firebox?) and an old chimney liner. I've included some photos, but it's hard to take a good pic. Approximate dimensions of the firebox are: opening starts at 12.5'' off the floor and ends at 39'' off the floor, and is about 14'' deep front to back.

View attachment 267183
View attachment 267184 View attachment 267185

My hope is that I will be able to install a small wood stove with a rear flue, use a wall-thimble and double-wall pipe that makes a T inside the firebox and then vents out of a new chimney liner.

As best I can figure, our stove options are:
- Morso 7110
- Vermont Castings Intrepid
- Sadly, the Jotul Oslo is too big for our space, but it is beautiful.

Reviews make me think that I should go with the Morso over the VC.

My questions are:
- Is this the right approach? (stove w/ rear flue into the old firebox). Will I run into a problem with the fact that I don't know what is on the other side of the metal firebox?
- Are there any other stoves that I should consider besides what I've noted above?
- What else do I need to know about what is going on here before I can confidently purchase a stove to install? Do I need to have someone out to look at this before I buy a stove?
- What would you do differently here?

I look forward to your thoughts. I've never owned a wood stove before and I've gotten this far from reading these forums and really appreciate the wealth of knowledge here. Thank you! - Lindsey

There is no way for us to know from those pictures.

 

[kennyp2339]

Whats on the outside of the house?

 

[Linzertortes]

Here are some photos of the outside of the house. I will pull the insulation out of the firebox tomorrow and get some better pictures of the inside.

 

[jetsam]

Since you are already looking at a small freestanding, and since you don't have a lot of info about the old setup, you should walk the house and look for a central spot where you'd like a small wood stove with a new roof penetration. This is probably the easiest method (and best for heat distribution and stove performance).

If it turns out that you really do want to run it through the chimney, you will need to tear into that area some. You need to make sure clearances for your stove and flue are honored, and that may involve cutting up or even removing the old gas unit since you don't know what is behind it.

...and if you're already getting into it that deep, you may want to go ahead and consider wood burning inserts, bearing in mind that you'll need to remove the old gas unit if you go that way.

 

[Linzertortes]

Finally pulled out the insulation and have some better photos. This is the spot where we want the stove, it's the middle of our living room.

 

[webby3650]

What you have is a heat form fireplace. It’s a metal firebox in a masonry structure. If you tear the sheet rock back to obtain proper clearances around the opening, there’s no reason you couldn’t make this work.

 

[Linzertortes]

Hi all, writing to update on how we handled our stove installation. Thanks for the feedback! This worked great, and I wanted to share for anyone else who has a funky situation like ours and doesn't want to go the insert route.

Here's a photo of what was behind the drywall. We replaced everything around the firebox with cement board and repainted it to match the wall.

Then we built a platform out of 2x4's, which we covered with cement board and then tiled. We installed the Morsoe 7110 stove with a rear vent, put a T in the firebox, and vented up a new chimney liner. We also bought the outdoor air kit, which is piped down to a vent in the masonry at the base of the chimney.

It's kind of a funky setup, and we really had a hard time figuring out the code since the fireplace code doesn't address clearances for stovepipe in an old firebox, and wood stove code doesn't expect the cleanout to be inside, however, the inspector approved our permit and but we're thrilled to have a freestanding wood stove! It's been burning great and making our 1440 sq foot home super toasty!

 

[Sean in the woods]

Hi all, writing to update on how we handled our stove installation. Thanks for the feedback! This worked great, and I wanted to share for anyone else who has a funky situation like ours and doesn't want to go the insert route.

Here's a photo of what was behind the drywall. We replaced everything around the firebox with cement board and repainted it to match the wall.

Then we built a platform out of 2x4's, which we covered with cement board and then tiled. We installed the Morsoe 7110 stove with a rear vent, put a T in the firebox, and vented up a new chimney liner. We also bought the outdoor air kit, which is piped down to a vent in the masonry at the base of the chimney.

It's kind of a funky setup, and we really had a hard time figuring out the code since the fireplace code doesn't address clearances for stovepipe in an old firebox, and wood stove code doesn't expect the cleanout to be inside, however, the inspector approved our permit and but we're thrilled to have a freestanding wood stove! It's been burning great and making our 1440 sq foot home super toasty!

Excellent!

P.S. The pictures of your last post aren’t visible for me.

 

[Linzertortes]

Thanks for letting me know. I don't know why the links broke, let me try again...

 

[Sean in the woods]

That's a fine looking installation!
Do you plan to make a removable cover so you can access the flue for yearly cleaning?

 

[nortcan]

Very nice installation and nice stove. It's a Morso stove ? , and what model is it?
Salutations from Québec.

 

[Linzertortes]

Very nice installation and nice stove. It's a Morso stove ? , and what model is it?
Salutations from Québec.

Yes, it's a Morso 7110 https://morsoe.com/us/product/indoor/wood-burning-stove/p7110_us

 

[Linzertortes]

That's a fine looking installation!
Do you plan to make a removable cover so you can access the flue for yearly cleaning?

Thank you! The T that we ordered said it had a removable cleanout, but it's definitely welded on, so I expect we'll be taking the connector pipe out to clean it. Not ideal but it's still possible.

 

[mellow]

What did you do with the gas line that was there?