Our BK Ashford inspired remodel

[pvfjr]

Since there still aren't a ton of threads showing installed Ashfords, as they're a relatively new model, I thought I'd share our experience. First off, I originally came to this forum as I found our existing Century FW270xxx to be quite lacking when it came to heating our 2200 sqft two-story home in the PNW. The thing would cook us out of the living room, but the rest of the house remained cold. Fires would also only last about 4 hours with the puny 1.6 cf box. I will say, it burned clean, made little creosote, and put on a nice fire show. But that's not enough!

After some convection analysis, I decided the living room wasn't the right place for a wood stove. After much research and deliberation, I then decided that a Blaze King Ashford 30.1 was the right stove for our home. I originally was dead set on an Alderlea T6, then a Hearthstone Mansfield; I came to my senses when I saw all the numbers.

Forgive me if some of you have seen this already, but I thought it would be constructive to put everything in the same place. First is an image of our original layout, and next is the proposed floorplan. Notice that the house originally had two space-wasting brick hearths. They were beautifully built, but not needed. So, both are coming out. Next, you'll notice that the stove has been more centrally located in the second plan, and that the dining room wall is gone. Also, it was necessary to replace the laminate floor of the entry way with something non-combustible.

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This is where all the hard work began. The old kitchen hearth used to hold a pellet stove (so I was told by the previous owner). Now it's just something that's in the way, so out it comes. The Harbor Freight rotary hammer was invaluable for this phase!


All done! Now what to do with the giant pile of bricks in the yard...
The piano won't take up permanent residence in this location, but it's out of the way for now, and the dining area already feels more spacious (even with a piano added).


Here's the offending wall that must come out. With it there, it would be too close to the stove--or the stove would be too close to the doorway. Something had to give.


These two had to be kicked out of the house so I could stop tripping over them while I worked. They were a little too interested in all the activity, and the white one has a habit of stealing any chunk of wood she can carry while your back is turned.

Unfortunately, the wall ended up being load bearing. I thought the joists above were running the other way, but apparently the two halves of my house differ from one another. We haven't been here long, and I'm still getting this place figured out. Eventually I want the post gone, but that will require an 18'x18"x3.5" beam, recessed into the ceiling and joists. The primary objective here is a warm family for the remainder of the winter, so that will wait for another time. Here's the wall and the "combustible" floor removed, with some of the new flooring installed. I had to get creative with my dog barricade to keep them off the wet mortar once they were allowed back inside.


Here's the tile I put down. It's a 36"x6" Italian porcelain, in a "Brazilian Pecan" pattern from Lumber Liquidators. It's a little trickier that regular tile, but not too bad overall.

Bruno is enjoying the tile as a nice cool surface, but not for long...

There were SIX wire drops inside that little wall I removed, so I had to move some things around. While I was at it, I decided to open up the exterior wall and add an outlet behind the future stove, as well as an outdoor outlet for our main porch. Since I already had to ruin the drywall to cross-drill some studs, I might as well install some slate....right?


This was probably the most interesting batch of slate I've seen at a store. It had fossilized moss and whatnot running through it.


The plan for the future is to make a mantle shelf to hang stockings off of (one of the wife approval factors), and the shelf will cover the large grout line below the mosaics.


I'm just putting the finishing touches on the floor.


The new stove location was finally ready. So, I stripped the stove down by removing the top, sides, front/door, and ash pan. Now lighter and more maneuverable, I built a custom "pallet" for it that would allow me to securely put the stove on a regular hand truck, and wheeled it inside. No pics, sorry.

Here she sits!


The next step was reframing the attic space, and cutting holes for the ceiling support and chimney flashing. The rain never let up, so I had to work quickly on the roof. I opted for a new Selkirk "Decorator" ceiling support, because I hate the rudimentary square boxes. Our old one looked homemade, and not in a good way.


Next I installed a new telescopic Selkirk double wall stove pipe. The old installation only used single wall, and it looked scabbed together. Unfortunately, I didn't have the foresight to get a new chimney adapter, and the old one looks a little silly mated to the fatter stove pipe. That's next on the to-do list. I moved the old chimney to it's new location, and fired up the Ashford! Please excuse the excessive assortment of fire pics...



It's pretty easy to see which dog requires less heat.

The next phase of the project involves removing the old Century stove and the hearth to free up some valuable space in the living room. Gotta have that all done by Superbowl Sunday!


First reports are that we are ecstatic! I stayed up late to watch the fire, and heard the furnace kick on. I ran over to the thermostat to discover that it was the air conditioning! That NEVER happened with the old stove. After 24 hours now, I'm still amazed that we never have to load this thing. I keep checking it to see if it needs wood....NOPE! And the whole house is warm. Almost too warm. I think we need some colder weather now.

 

[firefighterjake]

Loving the hearth . . . and tile job on the floor. Looks sharp.

 

[edyit]

that is really nice! enjoy the warmth

 

[pvfjr]

Loving the hearth . . . and tile job on the floor. Looks sharp.

that is really nice! enjoy the warmth

Thanks! Now I just have to wait for my alkali burned fingers to go back to normal!

 

[moresnow]

I am jealous. Using a Century S244E and already planning on buying the stove you have or a similar design. Long burn times sound really nice. My little pooches enjoy the stove also!

 

[drz1050]

For the old bricks: build a pizza oven or a grill in the back yard!

Real nice work!

 

[pvfjr]

I am jealous. Using a Century S244E and already planning on buying the stove you have or a similar design. Long burn times sound really nice. My little pooches enjoy the stove also!

Those long burn times are VERY nice. Not only that, but the house is so much warmer all around. We pretty much only have to mess with the stove once a day. We keep checking it out of habit, but it hardly uses any wood by comparison. It doesn't even seem possible. I can't believe how much heat it squeezes out of a few splits, and how it can meter out that heat over the course of a day. Our house has never been this comfortable. Even when we use gas, we never let the house get too warm because of the cost. Now we have guilt-free warmth!

 

[pvfjr]

For the old bricks: build a pizza oven or a grill in the back yard!

Real nice work!

Thanks! I don't know if we would use a pizza oven much. We don't do much grilling either. I've been thinking about using them for some landscaping projects, but I don't know how much effort I want to put into cleaning all the mortar off. That pile is going to get quite large once I remove the 2nd brick hearth from the living room.

 

[pvfjr]

Just for an update:

We've been running on about a 12 hour loading cycle just because it's easy that way. There's usually about 6 hours worth of burn left in it when we reload, and we're not loading it full either. We did get a 26 hour burn once and had plenty of coals left over (it was rather warm outside for a couple days, so we dialed it down into crockpot mode).

This stove has done a great job of keeping our 2200 sqft house nice and warm. Our home has NEVER been so comfortable in the winter.

It's also worth noting: we haven't struck a match or burned a single piece of newspaper/kindling since this thread started. I haven't even cleaned out any ash yet. Things have been pretty low maintenance. Oh, and the glass is as black as the night.

I've only had one concern with this stove. Sometimes (I think mostly when it's warm outside) we have a little smoke rollout when we open the door. The bypass is always open, of course. I've tried opening the door super slow, cracking it for a couple minutes first, etc. Is this just something I'm doomed to fight if it's warm outside? I haven't gotten the OAK kit hooked up yet as I'm still looking for the right deal on a diamond bit, but that may help.

 

[jetsam]

I had smoke spillage with my new BK this year too. I raised the height of the pipe by 24" and it went away almost completely. (I am still under BK's recommended flue height with the extra 24", and it works great.) I am thinking I'll possibly add 36" permanently this spring when I rip out the stove and redo the 'professional' install.

That install looks great and the dog looks happy. (I'm using dog in the singular because I grew up with huskies and samoyeds, and they are not big fans of the stove. )

 

[Ashful]

Thanks! I don't know if we would use a pizza oven much. We don't do much grilling either. I've been thinking about using them for some landscaping projects, but I don't know how much effort I want to put into cleaning all the mortar off. That pile is going to get quite large once I remove the 2nd brick hearth from the living room.

In the case of the bricks I removed from my fireplace, the mortar popped right off with a tap or two. I'd do two bricks at a time, banging them into each other. Went quite fast.

Before:


A small sampling of the bricks coming out:


All brick removed:


Now:

 

[mol1jb]

As far as heating placement I love it. As close to the stairs would sure make heating the upstairs easier. Aesthetically though I don't know that putting a stove next to the front door would be my first choice. And I know it would never pass the wife inspection. How did you manage to swing that?

 

[pvfjr]

That install looks great and the dog looks happy.

Thanks! I may have to experiment with extra pipe sometime. Right now I've got 12' class A + 5' DSP, and its all straight up. I would think it would suffice. Then again, maybe I need to get that OAK put in.

 

[pvfjr]

In the case of the bricks I removed from my fireplace, the mortar popped right off with a tap or two. I'd do two bricks at a time, banging them into each other. Went quite fast.

Thanks for the tips and sharing your experience. I still haven't tried cleaning any, maybe I'll have some luck with it too.

 

[pvfjr]

As far as heating placement I love it. As close to the stairs would sure make heating the upstairs easier. Aesthetically though I don't know that putting a stove next to the front door would be my first choice. And I know it would never pass the wife inspection. How did you manage to swing that?

The wife didn't like how cold it was upstairs, so anything that would keep the nursery warm was met with instant approval. It's not really that close to the door either, some of those pics were at a bit of an angle. Also, with the cast jackets on the side, a careless person can bump right into the stove with no issue.