Running Selkirk DSP through a "thimble"?

[VicSloan]

Hello everyone, I've enjoyed this forum for a long time but this is the first time I've posted anything.

I bought a house here in Oxford County, Maine with this neat-looking (well, I think so, anyway) woodstove setup. Some previous owner put in a Dutchwest 2461 that connects to a block chimney through double-wall Selkirk DSP. I assume they used double-wall because the clearance to that post you can see in the background is about 7 inches.

I'd like to cover that opening in the wooden wall. The clearance around the pipe is about 11 inches on the top and bottom and 7 inches on each side. I'm imagining a sheet metal rectangle with a hole in the middle, and some kind of trim ring to go around the pipe, but I don't know what product to use.

The problem is that I'm not trying to mate two different types of pipe- I just want something that will go around the outside of DSP. The outside diameter of this pipe is about 6 and 1/2 inches, and I can't find anything in the Selkirk catalog designed to go around the outside of DSP.

I wonder if some kind of modified flashing would do the job? I don't think I need a true thimble, but if there's a thimble that will fit and look nice, I'll gladly buy it.

I wonder if you guys have any suggestions- thanks for reading!

 

[begreen]

Connector pipe can not pass through a wall. It's going to need an insulated thimble to bring it out to the wall face.

Chimney info - CHIMNEY - PASSING A CHIMNEY THROUGH THE WALL

DON’T Just “Do it” - Placing a wood stove into an existing masonry chimney could be hazardous to your health and house. Read this to learn more. One of our biggest problems occurs when a customer enters the shop and states “I have an existing woodstove into a masonry chimney - I’d like to...

www.hearth.com

 

[VicSloan]

Connector pipe can not pass through a wall. It's going to need an insulated thimble to bring it out to the wall face.

Chimney info - CHIMNEY - PASSING A CHIMNEY THROUGH THE WALL

DON’T Just “Do it” - Placing a wood stove into an existing masonry chimney could be hazardous to your health and house. Read this to learn more. One of our biggest problems occurs when a customer enters the shop and states “I have an existing woodstove into a masonry chimney - I’d like to...

www.hearth.com

Ah, I see, thank you- the description of that "DSP6IWT" thimble is, word-for-word, what I am trying to do. I don't know how I missed that in the Selkirk catalog.

I wondered why the previous owner, who (mostly) seemed to do things right and pay attention to detail, left that big opening- I suppose he didn't want to pay a few hundred bucks for the thimble. I'd say it's cheap insurance if it keeps the house from burning down.

 

[stoveliker]

Is an Insulated thimble also need if that block wall does not have combustibles? (Which would include siding.)

I.e. if it.goes thru the block into a masonry chimney?

Or would a non insulated thimble suffice?

 

[VicSloan]

Hello Stoveliker- you can't tell from the photos I posted, but that "block wall" IS a chimney- here is a photo of it from the other side of the wooden wall (you can see the DSP on the right side of the photo):

 

[begreen]

I'm curious why the wall was built in front of the chimney instead of behind it, allowing the chimney to project into the room? It looks like there is a lot of dead space around it.

 

[VicSloan]

Haha yes, I wondered that too. The neighbors tell me that the couple who built this post-and-beam house around 1994 using old barn timbers copied a house in Massachusetts called the "Solomon Richardson House". I've never been to that house, and there aren't many photos online of its interior, but I'd like to visit it some time to see if the layout of my house suddenly makes sense.

Here is a map (poorly drawn by me 5 minutes ago, and definitely not to scale) of the area around the stove, and a few more photos. As you can see, the chimney is in, of all things, a bathroom that they never got around to completing; it's just a toilet, no sink, no tub, no shower. I don't know what plans they had for the rest of the bathroom, but thanks to the chimney it's cut up into useless little spaces. I do, however, like the look of the "firewood nook" that I mentioned; stove-length wood stacked up in the "nook" looks flush with the rest of the wall:

 

[begreen]

I think I'd be doing a little wall reconfiguring there instead of hassling with the insulated thimble.

 

[VicSloan]

Hey, I'm open to suggestions. The heating season still has a few weeks to go here in Maine, but after that, everything in this house is movable, except the posts and the chimney.

What if the back wall of the "nook" were moved back a few inches, to be flush with the front face of the chimney? Is there a legal, attractive way for that wooden wall to meet the chimney? Below is a crude picture of what I mean.

Or, as you suggest, having that wall be BEHIND the chimney rather than in front of it. That would make a much deeper nook, almost too deep, but I'd need some way to keep firewood 2 inches away from actually contacting the chimney, wouldn't I? Maybe just a metal box.

 

[begreen]

It looks like the firewood would be ok, stacked up against the chimney as long as it's kept well below the thimble. A metal bin could be made that maintains a gap if needed. Moving the wall behind the chimney may permit the stove to be moved back closer to the chimney as long as clearances to the combustibles are properly honored. To be proper, the wood (studs or wall) should be at least 2" away from the wood.

 

[VicSloan]

Thanks for the ideas, I'll think on this for a while before changing anything.

One more question: would you say it's legal the way it is? I suppose that would depend on the lawyer's definition of "wall" (and the definition of "through", for that matter).

 

[begreen]

It's not code legal or according to the manufacturer's requirements. This may not be unsafe with proper clearances being honored, but it would lose in an insurance case.