I have an old 1982 russo that has a nice fireview window with blower but no secondary burn technology at all that I am currently using and just picked up what appears to be a hearthstone hii. I might just consider cleaning both up and fresh paint , selling, and getting something more energy efficient. I also have an older harmon pellet stove I got in trade with all wall piping but not thermostatically controlled. I should stop collecting junk and just buy something new, my wife prob wouldn't oppose. lol. I use the woodstove in the basement of a 1500 sq ft very poorly insulated Cape with a fieldstone foundation and have a Castille pellet insert in my old firebreathing dragon of a fireplace. I am new to the forum but have been getting some good information for years from here. Thanks to all.
What should I keep?
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Keep the house. Get rid of the piles of crap and get a good wood stove. Makes ya warm and the wife will love ya for it. ;-)
I just have to get off my lazy bottom and do just that. I hate all the drama with Craigslist though. My wife does threaten she's going to put me on that show "Hoarders". In my defense I got most of my "crap" for free from customers....Makes me wonder if they were laughing at me when I left with their rubbish??? :lol:
firefighterjake
Minister of Fire
Sell the old stuff . . . apply the money towards a new woodstove that will make you and your wife happy.
+2
and put some work into sealing up the place. That will definitely reduce fuel consumption regardless of heating source.
and put some work into sealing up the place. That will definitely reduce fuel consumption regardless of heating source.
Yeah, I am a carpenter and all BUT...my house is balloon framed so blow-in is out the window and the walls are the old base-coat/skim-coat plaster. The stuff is basically cement on the walls! It would have to be a total gut job of each room and I'm just not up to it at the moment. It's sad though, I basically have all the insulation I would ever need sitting in the garage brand new in bags. I just don't have the other funds for the new wiring, lighting, flooring....in each room.
Any ideas on what I should be looking at in a new stove? Brands, models, sizes? Thanks for the feedback.
Any ideas on what I should be looking at in a new stove? Brands, models, sizes? Thanks for the feedback.
Seal up the basement leaks and insulate the attic. Our house is balloon frame too, blown in works if done by a competent pro. The new high pressure blown-in insulation is done from the outside through a 3/4" hole, easy to patch and paint after plugged.
There are lots of good mid-sized stoves out there. It all depends on what the installation constraints are and what you want it to look like.
There are lots of good mid-sized stoves out there. It all depends on what the installation constraints are and what you want it to look like.
VTHC
New Member
+1BeGreen said:
Our house is balloon frame too, and we got the walls insulated this summer/fall with blown-in cellulose. They removed a course of siding and drilled a hole into the sheathing in each stud bay and blew in the insulation. When they were done they replaced the existing siding (old cedar siding) which was painted last summer, and you couldn't even tell they were there! And, we didn't have to mess with our plaster walls!
We also added R-30 fiberglass insulation in the attic and blown cellulose into the eaves (old farm house - no soffit vents). Made a WORLD of difference! Our house is much warmer and easier to heat this winter as compared to last.
In the process of sealing/insulating the rim joist in the basement to further stop the stack effect, but as I do that it becomes harder to heat the second floor bedrooms with the wood-stove alone...
FWIW our new Hearthstone Shelburne does pretty well in our 1900sf home, but overnight burns have been a little tricky. Still learning the the new stove i guess.
The problem with my balloon framing is that the wall cavities are open to the basement. Getting in there to seal up the joists to the walls would be quite tricky with all the wiring and fhw pipes in there already. I can't tell you how bad the heat loss in my home. It is especially evident after a snowstorm.
VTHC
New Member
Massmudman said:
Could you use some of that extruded polystyrene insulation board to form a baseplate in each stud bay? I'm using that and some of that foam-in-a-can to insulate the rim joist/mud sill. It's easy to cut and would make way for pipes/electric pretty easy. It would be a PITA to cut one for each bay, but if your house is like mine the studs are 24" OC which would reduce the amount you have to block-off...
laynes69
Minister of Fire
I just went through the same exact thing with our home. We put a new woodfurnace in, and it was having problems heating below 20 degrees. We have a balloon framed victorian, and the walls were full of foam, some insulation in the attic, but a ton of drafts. Well long story short, in the attic they tried to cap the open wall cavites with boards. I found 32 open cavities in our attic from the interior walls. I removed the boards then cut a piece of aluminum and used fireproof caulking to seal the cavities. Every open cavity was sealed, there were over 32 and the old chimneys (2) were also sealed. Then I exposed the walls that had a top plate so I could clean on each side and then sealed them with either foam, or caulk. Once done in the attic, I cut batts of r30 fiberglass and placed them over the sealed cavities. Then I went to the basement, and sealed around the perimeter with urethane foam, and finally sealed the base of the walls that were built over beams. Last night it was 18 with a windchill of 2 and I went to bed to a house at 73 degrees, woke up to 69 degrees. Plus there aren't the drafts we had before. Now we still need to address a couple of unfinished rooms, with exposed lathe. But I will say its a night and day difference on the comfort of the home. I had the aluminum, but spent about 50.00 for the other materials to do it. Investigate in the attic, for I filled enough holes to equal a 6' hole in the attic. Stopping the air is the best thing to do first. Air will penetrate fiberglass and cellulose. Then insulate.
As a suggestion for the insulation, we just did two walls by removing the plaster (but not the lath), then cutting 2 strips of lath at the top and blowing cellulose. This gave us a 2X4 space, we nailed 2x2 furring strips along the studs over the lath. 3/4" foam insulation with the foil surface is approx. R=3, but leaving the additional 3/4" (2X2 being nominal 1.5" square) increases it to R=6. Drywall over that, and you have a wall that is approx. R19 with the lath still in place to preserve the rigidity of the frame (to the extent that it actually helps). 1X2 strips work well to extend the window sills, etc. and are cheap. We'll go back and do another couple walls next month, a bit at a time as budget allows. Sounds like you may be in a similar situation. However, I didn't have to worry about wiring, it's all on the interior walls from when we redid it a year ago.
I can't imagine how much skill and time it took to put it up in the first place, and here we are all complaining about the couple days it takes to gut and drywall! We felt bad removing someone's hard work of 90 years ago- much of it was still standing. Good luck!
I can't imagine how much skill and time it took to put it up in the first place, and here we are all complaining about the couple days it takes to gut and drywall! We felt bad removing someone's hard work of 90 years ago- much of it was still standing. Good luck!
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