Good morning - I've lurked around this forum for about a year, since we bought a house (built in 2001) with a fireplace. The hearth (pic below) was one of the major draws for us, but when we bought the house we knew that we were going to need to get the firebox fixed or...look for other options. Yesterday we finally were able to have the chimney swept and the entire system inspected. Some of the things I can do myself (new chimney cap, seal the crown) but I know my limitations and am not going to tackle rebuilding a firebox.
Backstory: the house (1800 sq/ft, split almost evenly between two floors) sits on 16 acres of oak hardwoods in the middle of South Carolina, with plenty of potential for wood to stack, cure, and burn. I stacked about a cord of green oak last winter, and have another to split and stack just waiting till I have the time. My wife and I (and our son) are attempting to be not quite so grid-dependent, and using wood for heat is something we want to be able to do when the electricity is out.
That being the case, I think I have settled on the idea of a wood stove, and not an insert. Reading the forum here it seems like folks are usually happy with moving away from insert to freestanding stoves, especially when they don't want to depend upon a fan to circulate. I've read some of the great posts here about installing wood stoves through chimneys, and know that I will need to install a chimney liner, and probably extend the hearth out a bit on the floor.
As you can see from the pictures, the stone is really pretty, but I'm concerned that it doesn't provide a level surface when putting a stove there. The size of the opening is about 41.5" wide by 26.5" high. The back wall of the firebox is 35". The depth to the front of the hearth is 43", and the overall width of the hearth is 80". Oh, and the lintel is 50" above the hearth.
I would really appreciate any thoughts on my situation - stove size (or models), how to address non-level stones, the insurance factor (hence my plan to cut out some of the wood floor and install stone with rated backer board), or...other things I might not even know that I don't know. I am not sure if I should try to do something like a Jutol 500, one of the Hearthstone models, or a VC defiant, or maybe those would be too tall? Or something else! We are quite interested in being able to at least boil water on it for cooking purposes in case of power outage.
By the way: I'm a librarian and my background is in research, so if you think I need to do some more reading / looking please feel free to suggest resources!
This is not a rushed timeline: I can take care of some of the maintenance and install the floor stones this winter, and plan to purchase a stove next spring for use next winter. If things go faster than that, it would be considered icing on the cake.
Thank you so much for reading this far, and any input!
Backstory: the house (1800 sq/ft, split almost evenly between two floors) sits on 16 acres of oak hardwoods in the middle of South Carolina, with plenty of potential for wood to stack, cure, and burn. I stacked about a cord of green oak last winter, and have another to split and stack just waiting till I have the time. My wife and I (and our son) are attempting to be not quite so grid-dependent, and using wood for heat is something we want to be able to do when the electricity is out.
That being the case, I think I have settled on the idea of a wood stove, and not an insert. Reading the forum here it seems like folks are usually happy with moving away from insert to freestanding stoves, especially when they don't want to depend upon a fan to circulate. I've read some of the great posts here about installing wood stoves through chimneys, and know that I will need to install a chimney liner, and probably extend the hearth out a bit on the floor.
As you can see from the pictures, the stone is really pretty, but I'm concerned that it doesn't provide a level surface when putting a stove there. The size of the opening is about 41.5" wide by 26.5" high. The back wall of the firebox is 35". The depth to the front of the hearth is 43", and the overall width of the hearth is 80". Oh, and the lintel is 50" above the hearth.
I would really appreciate any thoughts on my situation - stove size (or models), how to address non-level stones, the insurance factor (hence my plan to cut out some of the wood floor and install stone with rated backer board), or...other things I might not even know that I don't know. I am not sure if I should try to do something like a Jutol 500, one of the Hearthstone models, or a VC defiant, or maybe those would be too tall? Or something else! We are quite interested in being able to at least boil water on it for cooking purposes in case of power outage.
By the way: I'm a librarian and my background is in research, so if you think I need to do some more reading / looking please feel free to suggest resources!
This is not a rushed timeline: I can take care of some of the maintenance and install the floor stones this winter, and plan to purchase a stove next spring for use next winter. If things go faster than that, it would be considered icing on the cake.
Thank you so much for reading this far, and any input!