I have acquired a wood stove from my inlaws. I will install it in the basement, and use it for emergencies only, but to buy original galvanized 6 inch chimney piping (to get beyond the height of our 2 story home), it would cost us about $1500, way beyond our budget. Can someone reccommend ways in which I can find this material that is not as costly? thanx

-- thomas saul (thomas.saul@yale.edu), September 10, 1999

Answers

Hi Tom, glad you got that installed. Is there a salvage barn in your area? Our historical society runs on where you can sometimes get buildings materials on the cheap.

-- (y2kfallback@yahoo.com), September 10, 1999.

Hi Tom, this is not an area to compromise. We have had a wood stove for several years. Certain stoves require a very specific pipe and a sobstitute will only serve to burn your house down. Yes, the stove is the cheap part of the deal. Our pipe and appropriate heat shield were around $2500. Stove pipe and fireplace pipe are also different. Each manufacturer requires their specific pipe and there should be no substitutes. Also check the National Uniform Fire Code, there will be some information there. Your local City building officials will also have specific information. Whatever the city regs state, consider they are very minimal and were not adequate for our installation. Also, most insurance companies will not cover the cost if you burn your house down, and did not install the stove with a proper building permit. You will also need to notify the insurance company and ascertain any rises or specific requirements of your insurance company. Guess what this boils down to, is either put in good new pipe (and pay the price) or risk the consequences. Remember this is FIRE, and its in YOUR house. Hope this helps.

-- Nancy (HAYSandCO@aol.com), September 10, 1999.

God now I feel usefull, I ran a chimney repair buisiness for 10 years, I have been down this road many times, infact this is one of the reasons that I got out of the biz, as metion in the pevious post you have to do it right . or dont do it at all . Even when you do it right you will still have to be carefull, there is a lot to learn and each installation will run diferently. I would not use anything less than insulated double wall stainless steel. What I have in my house was made in canada , Its stainless steel inside , about an inch of insulating material (something like asbestose but the company will not say ) and a stainless steel outer shell, I ran the air space (between the pipe and combustables) at twice what was recommened. I have run the stove for hours at 350 degrees and gone into the attic and puy my hand on the slightly warm pipe. this stuff is worth the money. If I had my way masonry would not be legal for class A (solid fuel). It is too difficult to keep the stack temp warm enough to keep the watervapor from condensing (210 deg or less) especially on the out side of the house. And all it takes is one chimney fire to ruin it. And besides all that, it will cost more to install. This is just a small part of the picture, there is a lot to take into concideration here. and just because you use it for emegency use dosent make it any safer. Your house buring down will only keep you warm for a couple of hours. I would rather be inside with no heat. On the bright side if you decide to do it right you could set it up for real use and it will pay for itself at some point. I have been using wood heat for may years and it saves me about $200 a month in the dead of winter. I run about 90% wood heat ,10% gas in an old farm house. Now after giving this speach for ten years to hundereds of people I have come to the conclution that people will belive what they want to believe (just like Y2k) ,if you tell them something they don wat to hear they will find a non expert (my brother inlaw works fo a siding contractor and he says you can hood it up to a gas funace flue) who they will belive, or they will say the hell with it and sell the wood stove (they got fo free from someone who almost burt down thiere house) . And every once in a while someone will have it install properly and have it maintained properly and just love the hell out of it. there is just nothing like good constant heat, we hate our gas furnace. I get my firewood fom a sawmill 10 mi. away for $25 a pickup load . It is all hardwood in big blocks and I pick through the pile for the oak and hard woods (type of wood is another subject). If you find someone really good to install it you can also downsize the flue an inch or so.This will save money. The size of the flue is to be determined by the size of the stove and the hight of the chimney, the longer the run the more capacity in the flue. the output size on my stove is 8" but I ran a 7" ID chimney pipe about 20' strait up (try not to have any bends if poss.) BTW I NEVER did wood stove installs for anyone (execpt myself). I didnt like to do them, and I didnt like the liability aspect , I usually referred them to a guy I was in competion with in the area who I became good friends with. He does alot of chimney ceaning, relining and metal work and I did alot of masonry repair and a lot of chimney cleanig. I hope I didnt come on too stong on some of this but I am just trying to help . I have seen postings of people talking about moving to the country and puting wood stoves in mobile homes (bad idea Gary). The bottom line is, of the many reasons I got out of the chimney biz , the biggest reason was that I just got tired of fighting human nature, every one waits till the last min.to do anything and most of my work came in the last quarter of the year. I had to turn work down because I coudnt keep up, and when I told people what they DID NOT want to hear they would not belive me ( even when I let them know that I was not just trying to make it an expesive job, (I dont install wood stoves)), they got mad. I even had 2 people burn thier houses down just as I said they would. Now I have a new job, I am a network administrator for a county facility and with Y2k comming I feel like I am back whrere I was before.

-- Jeff Statzer (jstatzer@michiana.org), September 11, 1999.