New Hearthstone exceeds my expectations

[snowleopard]

Lots of dram-o-rama, predictions of gloom by a pessimist in my life, and a few missteps along the way, but finally got my wood stove installed, completed my break-in burns, and have been heating the house with it a few days.

Hearth may have been overbuilt--plywood-insulation-dur-rock-granite sandwich trimmed w/2"oak, but it holds the heat nicely and looks pretty and warms toes while buns toast. I used four sheets of the granite HD sells for countertops, (18"x31") cut the fourth into thirds to create a 41"x54" platform. It exceeds minimum specs, but I used the extra length to center the stove on the hearth. (I picked the emerald green granite--they had other colors that would have also looked nice. Some people might think the green too busy with the soapstone, but life is short, and so are we. I liked the depth and the gold sparkles in this one. The reflections of the fire look amazing.) I got a price break on a few of the sheets because they were a bit scratched or crumbled at the edge, but I just hid that stuff under the stove. I thrashed out a *lot* of design ideas for this hearth, and am happy with the solution I found. I was nervous while they were putting the stove on it, especially since they kept saying, "No guarentees!", but the granite survived the transfer and I'm really happy with it.

Due to the predictions of Dr. Doom that I would have to spend a few hours a day tending the stove, I was prepared for the worst. I keep looking over my shoulder, thinking, "This is it?" I get home from work, clean out ashes, lay the kindling, break up a piece of firestarter and tuck the pieces in there, light the fire, feed the dog, come back and throw a few rounds of wood on it, (I don't have a splitter yet) and adjust the temp setting and go start dinner. Any other fussing I do is really just an excuse to play with it. I've been heating my 2K SF house with it, not only downstairs where it's located, but the heat even wends its way upstairs and into my bedroom at the opposite end of the house from the stairs.

It's burning very clean--I never even had a problem with the break-in-fire paint stink I was warned about. None of the smoked-up smell I'm used to with wood stoves. House is warm in the morning, stove is still warm to the touch. It really is just that easy.

Now the challenge is to dry-rack all the firewood I inherited when I bought this place. It's been stacked between trees for several years, mostly poplar, some spruce, some birch, cut to a length that fits my stove (thank goodness) but not split. All things considered, it's in suprisingly good shape. I realize it's not ideal, but I want to clean up the property, winter is coming, and I can only do what I can do.

I found several sheets of corrugated steel roofing behind the garage, brand new, covered w/weeds. (Visions of a covered wood rack are dancing in my head. But not this year.)

I have a forty-something foot covered porch across the back of the house. Even if I keep the wood just one layer deep, I could stack about 4 cords there, and another spot by the back door that can hold a couple of cords. I've been told (guess by whom?) that it's a really bad idea, but I don't see the downside. It's not like it's heavy green birch or something, and I don't have to stack it agains the wall. Any thoughts? It will shortly be cold enough that I don't think insect migration will be an issue. The porch is about six feet deep, on the lee side of the house.

I am thinking about renting a wood splitter for a day to work it up. Any suggestions?

My teener son and I sat next to the stove last night with the lights off, and talked. It was good.

Working this out step by step as I go along . . .

 

[cmonSTART]

Glad things are working out! Hand your teenage son an axe and save your money on the splitter!

 

[Todd]

Are you kidding me? No pictures or even a hint of which Hearthstone your burning? Jeez! :lol:

 

[tickbitty]

Sounds great! Enjoyed reading your post! Would enjoy PICS of it all too!! (you know what they say here....)

 

[cmonSTART]

Pics or it didn't happen!

 

[Dakotas Dad]

Pics or it didn't happen!

THIS!

 

[Beowulf]

Congratulations; it just keeps getting easier as you learn the tricks!

Seriously, splitting wood isn't too bad with a good, heavy axe like the Fiskars Super Splitter that we all know and mostly love here. I find it's pretty good therapy as well for hostility management.

 

[PapaDave]

Are you kidding me? No pictures or even a hint of which Hearthstone your burning? Jeez! :lol:

We are Sooooo disappointed. ;-)

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Congratulations on the new stove snowleopard. May it serve you well.

As for the splitting, yes, that might be a good way for that boy to earn some dollars and exercise the muscles at the same time. I believe it is that same as sending them to school. They exercise the mind then and now they exercise the muscles this way along with any athletics in school. As long as you teach him how to do it right he should do fine. Whatever, be with him the first time or two when he starts. With my two sons I first let them try on their own and they did quite well. Then I taught them how to do it a little better and they appreciated it.

On the other hand, you can rent a splitter for a weekend and make short work of the splitting....with your son's help.

On the wood, I think you have the right idea with bringing it onto the porch.

On the heat. I don't want to put down anything you have written so please do not take this wrong, but you can not judge the heat you get now with what will be required when cold air hits. We see this every year when people are surprised at how much heat that stove gets. It doesn't take much of a stove to throw enough heat for the temperatures we are getting now but what is required when the outdoor temperatures are way below the freezing point. I do expect that stove will perform well though, so enjoy it.

 

[firefighterjake]

Snow Leopard . . . you can't just tease us about this great sounding hearth without posting some pics . . . it sounds like it looks really nice!

 

[basswidow]

That's a total tease without pics.

Congrats on your install! Tell Dr. Gloom they are not allow to reap the heat benefits of the stove or they can earn their keep by fetching, stacking, and scrounging wood!

I keep wood in my garage and on my covered porch. Now if I see obvious signs of wood ants or termites - I won't put that on the porch or inside the garage. My wood is clean and hasn't been an issue on the porch or in the garage. Sure is nice when there is a couple feet of snow to go into the garage and grab an arm full to fill up my near stove wood storage bin. Front porch works well too.

Just consider the weight of the wood and don't stack it up against the house where it could damage or dirty the siding.

 

[snowleopard]

Thank you for all the great suggestions. I rolled out Sunday morning last week in search of the Cult Classic Supersplitter, and none was to be found in this town. I settled for a wedge-headed splitting maul that makes ridiculously easy work of splitting this wood, and tapped the brains of a Home Depot clerk who said that all he ever burned was poplar (which is most of what I've got sitting around the property just waiting its turn). Getting that was a turning point, and I've been heating with nothing but this last week. Last year I averaged three gallons a day of fuel oil to heat the house in October-November.

Found a camera. Found batteries. Charged batteries. Took pix. Now I have to find the cable to hook camera to computer. I'm working on it, gents. (Also got the bathroom vanity installed in the freshly-plumbed and painted bathroom last week, so have *not* been piking here. That vanity was sitting in my bedroom since July--the dog was startled when she walked in and saw it missing.) The hearth is very plain-vanilla compared to some of the amazing pix I've seen here, but she gets 'er done. If I were to do this again, I would split the difference on my three small cut pieces, cutting it into sixths and running a row along the front and the back, so that the stove was resting its weight distributed on two legs per sheet of granite, instead of on a single point each on four different pieces. I think it would bode better in the long run. I'll just have to see how it does. So far, so good. I'd like to think it was a stroke of genius to have selected material for the hearth that was such a nice heat sink, but odds are it was just a stroke of luck. Either way, I'm reaping the benefits.

Missed the window for working in the golden autumn--this weekend is drear and wet-ish, so wood will need a little drying before its useful--but overnight behind the stove seems to be all it takes. So the porch it is. Got the battery charged in the pickup, and then noticed the flat-flat tire. Lost its spare somewhere in the last adventure, so have more tires on rims coming tomorrow. The garage is starting to look like a real good idea. Found a great piece of wood out behind the Magic Garage (a grandma's attic of a garage that always seems to have what I need when I go looking for a piece of ____ )that looks like it was leftover chunk of power pole. My son borrowed a chain saw and cut it into thirds, so we now have three great chopping blocks, one for behind the garage, one for the downstairs entryway, and one for the driveway (I'm built into a hillside, and have this burnable wood distributed all over the property).

The fellow at HD told me that he cuts his poplar into four-foot lengths, stacks them like Lincoln logs for a year. Then he makes the cuts, and splits the freshly-cut ends, and says they split real easy.

The stove I selected is a Heritage. I didn't get it with the idea that I would heat the house exclusively when it drops into the -30 and below range, but rather with the knowledge that oil prices are at the mercy of the commodities game and politics, and that a good early snowstorm can knock power out for weeks, and that there is just something comforting about toasting in front of a fire.

I work all day, and son's in school, so I'm just supplementing w/wood. I still have to work out how that's going to look--I have a boiler w/infloor heating downstairs, so I was just thinking that I can set that thermometer for about 68, and it will come on during the day, warm the floor, and then I can build a fire and the boiler probably won't come on again until the next day for most of the warmer stretches of winter. I just truly don't know how that's going to work out. I have a ceiling fan downstairs, and ran that last night. It was in the 20ies or 30ies yesterday, I think, and the temp downstairs was 74, upstairs was 70.

Sure was nice to feel the heat of the stove this a.m. --thought the fire was out for sure, but twisted a piece of newspaper, and threw some wood on, and cracked that ash-pan door for a few minutes, and it fired off. It looks like someone's turned a torch on when that door is open--I'm cautious not to let it run more than a minute or two, just enogh to get the fire going, but it's amazing. Just something cheering about being warm.

Going to look for some of those corners-things that you put 2x4s into for stacking wood, and run the verticals up to the rafters. I won't stack the wood beyond my reach, but even so, that's a lot of wood storage. Will let you know how that works out. The garage is detached, and a bit of a poke, but no step for a stepper if I can just pick my chore time for restocking the supply on the porch. Since the garage is heated, the wood should dry pretty nicely (since it's already seasoned, just a little damp).

Thanks again for all the support and ideas. I especially like the one about letting Dr. Doom work out his atonement by contributing to the good of the common order.

Happy burning to you all.

 

[Highbeam]

You crack the ashpan door on the heritage for a blast? Really? So since the grate in the stove must be opened to allow ashes to fallinto the ash pan have you removed the sliding grate? When ash piles up and fills in the miniscule cracks in the ash grate system I don't think it will work so well. What I do is leave the side loading door cracked open for that blast effect. Glad you like your heritage, mine's been very good too.

 

[firefighterjake]

[quote author="snowleopard" date="1286647905"]Thank you for all the great suggestions. . . .


Found a camera. . . . (Also got the bathroom vanity installed in the freshly-plumbed and painted bathroom last week, so have *not* been piking here. That vanity was sitting in my bedroom since July--the dog was startled when she walked in and saw it missing.) Completely understandable . . . while it may not seem so . . . many of us actually do work around the house and work for a living and don't spend every free moment posting here at hearth.com or working on the wood . . . although it may seem so. Renovating a house myself . . . The hearth is very plain-vanilla compared to some of the amazing pix I've seen here, but she gets 'er done. If I were to do this again, I would split the difference on my three small cut pieces, cutting it into sixths and running a row along the front and the back, so that the stove was resting its weight distributed on two legs per sheet of granite, instead of on a single point each on four different pieces. I think it would bode better in the long run. I'll just have to see how it does. So far, so good. I'd like to think it was a stroke of genius to have selected material for the hearth that was such a nice heat sink, but odds are it was just a stroke of luck. Either way, I'm reaping the benefits. We still would love to see a picture . . . did I mention that we like looking at pictures?

Missed the window for working in the golden autumn--this weekend is drear and wet-ish, so wood will need a little drying before its useful--but overnight behind the stove seems to be all it takes. So the porch it is. Got the battery charged in the pickup, and then noticed the flat-flat tire. Lost its spare somewhere in the last adventure, so have more tires on rims coming tomorrow. The garage is starting to look like a real good idea. Found a great piece of wood out behind the Magic Garage (a grandma's attic of a garage that always seems to have what I need when I go looking for a piece of ____ )that looks like it was leftover chunk of power pole. My son borrowed a chain saw and cut it into thirds, so we now have three great chopping blocks, one for behind the garage, one for the downstairs entryway, and one for the driveway (I'm built into a hillside, and have this burnable wood distributed all over the property).

The fellow at HD told me that he cuts his poplar into four-foot lengths, stacks them like Lincoln logs for a year. Then he makes the cuts, and splits the freshly-cut ends, and says they split real easy.

The stove I selected is a Heritage. I didn't get it with the idea that I would heat the house exclusively when it drops into the -30 and below range, but rather with the knowledge that oil prices are at the mercy of the commodities game and politics, and that a good early snowstorm can knock power out for weeks, and that there is just something comforting about toasting in front of a fire. HehHeh . . . many of us started out thinking we would just burn on the weekends and evenings or for those power outages . . . and many of us quickly discovered that we like the look, sound and smells (from the potpourri on the stove) from wood burning (not to mention the savings) and now burn 24/7 . . . don't be surprised if you find yourself burning more often . . .

I work all day, and son's in school, so I'm just supplementing w/wood. I still have to work out how that's going to look--I have a boiler w/infloor heating downstairs, so I was just thinking that I can set that thermometer for about 68, and it will come on during the day, warm the floor, and then I can build a fire and the boiler probably won't come on again until the next day for most of the warmer stretches of winter. I just truly don't know how that's going to work out. I have a ceiling fan downstairs, and ran that last night. It was in the 20ies or 30ies yesterday, I think, and the temp downstairs was 74, upstairs was 70. There really is no reason not to have a fire when you're not home either . . . unless you're saving your wood for when you're home . . . my wife and I run the stove 24/7 . . . but it really is up to you . . . fyi . . . we keep our oil boiler thermostat set at 60 degrees when we're not home . . . for us the oil boiler is our back up heat.

Sure was nice to feel the heat of the stove this a.m. --thought the fire was out for sure, but twisted a piece of newspaper, and threw some wood on, and cracked that ash-pan door for a few minutes, and it fired off. Uh . . . most folks would recommend not using the ash pan door to get the fire going . . . there is a risk of damaging the stove . . . it's a better idea to crack the loading door a bit since you're effectively making a "forge" by running the air through the coals and as you know forges can heat up metal to some very hot temps. It looks like someone's turned a torch on when that door is open--I'm cautious not to let it run more than a minute or two, just enogh to get the fire going, but it's amazing. Just something cheering about being warm.

Going to look for some of those corners-things that you put 2x4s into for stacking wood, and run the verticals up to the rafters. I won't stack the wood beyond my reach, but even so, that's a lot of wood storage. Will let you know how that works out. The garage is detached, and a bit of a poke, but no step for a stepper if I can just pick my chore time for restocking the supply on the porch. Since the garage is heated, the wood should dry pretty nicely (since it's already seasoned, just a little damp).

Thanks again for all the support and ideas. I especially like the one about letting Dr. Doom work out his atonement by contributing to the good of the common order.

Happy burning to you all.[/quote