Anyone have a woodstove?

MoochNNoodles · Jan 9, 2015

DH and I are looking at having a wood stove installed in our house soon. We had a local company come by this week and I just got the price quote via e-mail.

We live on a country road. When DD was a newborn we had a blizzard come through and it knocked out our power. Being on well water out here meant we lost water too. We had DD swaddled and bundled up. it was ok during the day; but as night fell and the inside temperature got near 50; it wasn't fun. We ended up being evacuated to my mother's house. So ever since we've talked about alternatives. DH purchased a hand pump that we can use to get water from our well in better weather (we've had hurricanes here too) but the heat is still an issue. I am NOT comfortable with things like kerosene heaters. From what I have read; things like that are often behind the increase in house fires when the weather turns cold.

I wasn't totally sure we had the room for one; but we came up with 3 options and had the company come through. If I heard him right; any of them should work. I'm not sure where is the best. We want it for emergency heat so it doesn't need to be very big. I do want it to look nice enough that it's an asset to the house if we try to sell it. I would prefer it go in the living room. One corner has more space; it's where I have a curio cabinet hanging that my Grandpa built and it's also the area of the room we use for the kid's toys. Rearranging that might be a pain; but in the long term it would look nice there. The other problem is the air return in that wall and the thermostat is on the other side of that wall.

The other corner available is where I have a small bookshelf for the kid's books. I was concerned that we didn't have enough space there with our L-shapped couch but apparently it's ok. I do think we'd have to move the curtains on the window next to it if we have the stove going. This was the first corner I thought of because it would be out of the way. I need to consider the kids keeping clear of it when it's hot. Also that the cats don't jump on it.

Does anyone have any tips or advice? Or thoughts on placement? DH's parents house had a fireplace; but I don't know that they ever used it for heat. He's familiar with camping/fire pit type fires. We will need to be sure we both have a better idea what we are doing with it.

AbbysMom · Jan 9, 2015

I had a woodstove in my last house. It was centrally located in the house and did a great job heating. I miss it. We put a woodstove insert in our fireplace and it just isn't the same.

My biggest concern is how will you keep the kids away from it?

I'll dig out pictures of our last one and this one.

AbbysMom · Jan 9, 2015

Here's the one in the last house -

DSC03197.JPG

AbbysMom
Jan 9, 2015

Here's the insert in this house -

IMG_3920.JPG

AbbysMom
Jan 9, 2015

jcat · Jan 9, 2015

AbbysMom said:
My biggest concern is how will you keep the kids away from it?

My parents put a metal "cage" around theirs to keep the grandchildren and pets away from it. I think it was made out of a sales rack my father got from a retailer, but a friend liked it so much that she made one out of fencing and zip ties.

MoochNNoodles · Jan 9, 2015

I took pictures of the 2 main corners where we are looking to put it...but my son has dumped several toy containers so it looks like we are total slobs...

I may try to straighten up in a bit. Pictures would probably be really helpful!

MoochNNoodles · Jan 9, 2015

AbbysMom said:

I like how that is done with the brick work! It makes it look more like a traditional fireplace and even gave you a mantle! My in-laws have a gas stove (that looks like a wood stove) in their basement and it had a slate back that was pretty. One day they came home and all the stone work had fallen off! They had everything inspected to be sure the stove and gas line weren't damaged; but they never put the stones back up. I noticed the wood stove company had pre-made hearths; so maybe they have something for the wall too. Almost our entire house is carpeted; so we are going to have to do something for that. I'd LOVE to just have wood floors installed so they can do the hearth around that; but I don't think our tax return will be THAT good.

The chimney pipe will have to go straight up through the ceiling to the roof. I'm just assuming I'll have to move my cabinet. It's the best corner for it in the house; but it's too precious to risk it.

jcat said:
My parents put a metal "cage" around theirs to keep the grandchildren and pets away from it. I think it was made out of a sales rack my father got from a retailer, but a friend liked it so much that she made one out of fencing and zip ties.

I found a metal safety gate made for around fire places and wood stoves. The one corner would be hard to install a gate. Or harder. It has brackets that attach it to the wall. I did ask on a parenting board and a few people said their kids have learned to keep clear of it. My fear is falling into it! I've already started talking to them about it. My 5 year old understands more than my 2 1/2 year old of course; but I'm still hoping it's putting the idea in his head.

catapault · Jan 9, 2015

We have a Vermont Castings cast iron wood burning stove that we like so well that it was moved from Connecticut to New Jersey when we relocated a number of years ago. We had to have a double wall chimney pipe and a hearth put in. We've heated with wood as a supplement to the furnace for a very long time. It's lovely warm heat, and the name of the game is "can we keep the furnace from going on."

View media item 253686
The stove works most efficiently when the doors are closed. This stove has a mesh screen that covers the opening when you want to enjoy the ambiance of a fire.

It is better if the stove is somewhat centrally located so the hot air can better circulate. You will also need to think about dealing with the ashes and hot coals.

As you can see one of our cats really enjoys the stove.

View media item 253687
What will be your source for fuel? For efficiency and good heating you want to burn well seasoned dry hardwood. The chimney should be cleaned every year.

We also have a well for water. Used to have a smaller unit but finally have a whole house generator. It's not only water and lights, it's the refrigerator and freezer that were a matter of concern. After Superstorm Sandy we were without power for 2 weeks. I was doing laundry at friends, even at my veterinarian's!

di and bob · Jan 9, 2015

I've had wood stoves all my life, and have never had a small child 'fall' into it. Usually there is enough hearth around it to make it harder to walk into, or get close enough to. The heat coming from it is usually enough to keep everyone away, I've never had a cat jump on a hot one either, they seem to know. Putting a steamer on top usually limits the space available on the top to discourage jumping. I love having one, and they definitely are a lifesaver during an electrical outage. Just be so careful where you put the ash, it starts way too many fires. I keep mine in a galvanized trash can outside for days until I'm sure it is cool. I think you'll be happy with one, good luck!

MoochNNoodles · Jan 9, 2015

Thank you; it's good to know cats jumping on them hasn't been an issue! I'm more so worried about DS knocking his head on it. Hes bumped it on the TV cabinet a few times.

He is ALL boy!

We will have to purchase some wood for it. We have a stack of pine in our backyard from some trees we cut down when we moved in (they were dying rapidly!); but I know that's not ideal for burning. We've used it in our outdoor fire pit.

We have a burn barrel in the backyard; I wonder if that will do for hot ashes for now.

DH is ready to head to the dealer tomorrow but I told him he needs to consider what might not be included in the figures they gave us. I'd also like to have our taxes done first.

I think this is the one we were looking at: http://www.lopistoves.com/product-detail.aspx?model=242

micknsnicks2mom · Jan 10, 2015

AbbysMom · Jan 10, 2015

The wood stove in my last house was in my carpeted living room and adjacent to my linoleum kitchen floor. There was slate under it. There are very specific fire and building codes that have to be met. When we sold that house the realtor found out it had never been inspected. We had to get it inspected and approved before selling. It first failed as something wasn't sealed. I took a pic of a pic of the slate floor, also a cat.

image.jpg

AbbysMom
Jan 10, 2015

ETA - I should also mention that the black piece of metal you see in the pic of our current one was is required by the building department/fire inspector. It's the only way we could get approval.

Winchester · Jan 10, 2015

A few years ago, Rick and I debated about a wood stove or some kind of pellet stove, but ultimately decided not to buy one. I'm too paranoid about fire as it is, esp with the cats. He doesn't really care for the wood smoke smell either, so we just said we weren't going there. We have also talked about putting some kind of electric or gas fireplace in our bedroom or down in the basement (we've been working on remodeling the basement now forever). I'd love to have a fireplace in the bedroom.

As I mentioned in another thread, Dad bought an old, huge wood cook stove and installed it in their basement. He heated their entire house (and the water; Dad had the pipes of the water tank going around the stove somehow, but I don't know how) with that cook stove. It was a big old black thing. Mom made many loaves of homemade bread in that thing. Lots of roasted chickens, stews, and soups. She heated water in it when the power would go out. She hung clothes in the basement and the clothes would be completely dry within hours. And even during the really cold winter days, it was nothing to walk into the house and see Mom walking around in shorts because the house was toasty. I used to love to stop in because it was the only place I knew I could get warm and stay warm during the winter. I'd stop in for coffee and pretty soon the sweatshirt would come off, followed by the sweater. In an hour or so, I was sitting there in jeans and a t-shirt, warm as could be! Dad cut holes in the kitchen floor, the bathroom floor, and in their bedroom floor and put vents in, so the heat would rise into the house.

My sister and BIL live in a 3-story old house (circa mid-1800s) that they've completely renovated and it's just gorgeous now. Four fireplaces in that house! One in the kitchen (which is also in the living room; you used to be able to literally walk through it until they installed gas inserts in them. One is in the basement, one is in the attic and one is in their master bedroom. They put gas inserts in three of them, but closed up the basement fireplace.

MoochNNoodles · Jan 10, 2015

mickNsnicks2mom said:
This is the other option that I think we are going with (also an older picture). The thermostat is on the opposite side of the wall where the cabinet is. I think with this wall the pipe will stick out the roof on the front side of our house instead of the back. I'm not 100% sure. It might be right near the ridge line. That means it we need more piping too of course. DH measured the other corner and the cabinet can be moved there. It has a few inches of clearance on each side but my curtain may touch it.

PC250432.JPG

MoochNNoodles

Jan 10, 2015

Winchester said:

A few years ago, Rick and I debated about a wood stove or some kind of pellet stove, but ultimately decided not to buy one. I'm too paranoid about fire as it is, esp with the cats. He doesn't really care for the wood smoke smell either, so we just said we weren't going there. We have also talked about putting some kind of electric or gas fireplace in our bedroom or down in the basement (we've been working on remodeling the basement now forever). I'd love to have a fireplace in the bedroom.

As I mentioned in another thread, Dad bought an old, huge wood cook stove and installed it in their basement. He heated their entire house (and the water; Dad had the pipes of the water tank going around the stove somehow, but I don't know how) with that cook stove. It was a big old black thing. Mom made many loaves of homemade bread in that thing. Lots of roasted chickens, stews, and soups. She heated water in it when the power would go out. She hung clothes in the basement and the clothes would be completely dry within hours. And even during the really cold winter days, it was nothing to walk into the house and see Mom walking around in shorts because the house was toasty. I used to love to stop in because it was the only place I knew I could get warm and stay warm during the winter. I'd stop in for coffee and pretty soon the sweatshirt would come off, followed by the sweater. In an hour or so, I was sitting there in jeans and a t-shirt, warm as could be! Dad cut holes in the kitchen floor, the bathroom floor, and in their bedroom floor and put vents in, so the heat would rise into the house.

My sister and BIL live in a 3-story old house (circa mid-1800s) that they've completely renovated and it's just gorgeous now. Four fireplaces in that house! One in the kitchen (which is also in the living room; you used to be able to literally walk through it until they installed gas inserts in them. One is in the basement, one is in the attic and one is in their master bedroom. They put gas inserts in three of them, but closed up the basement fireplace.

Click to expand...

I'm not the most comfortable with fire myself. DH will definitely have primary stove duties. Since we aren't using it as primary I'm more ok with it. He should be around when we have it lit. Or be able to add wood before he leaves My father's house has holes in the floors so the bedrooms were heated by his wood stove. He had it removed years ago though. I'm not sure why. But he does have a whole-house generator so backup heat isn't as big of a concern.

As we've been thinking about all this; I think of how far removed we've come from when fireplaces or stoves were standard. They were necessary for survival. We depend on electricity so much. Fireplaces and wood stoves have become luxury items now.

Winchester · Jan 10, 2015

The big thing now, at least around here, is those pellet stoves. The ones that are outdoors, but heat the indoors of the home. Several municipalities in our are have amended zoning ordinances to prohibit them. Why? Because most pellet stove owners either don't understand or don't want to make the "chimney" high enough so that the smoke actually goes into the air. We have a situation along the highway in our area where the pellet stove owner has his chimney so low that it's creating a heat inversion some mornings. All the smoke is down around the ground, not in the air where it should be. And, as a result, you literally cannot see to drive properly! It's a big fiasco as it's all you can do to see the driver's tail lights in front of you. You can't see the traffic light until you're right on top of it. We're waiting for an accident. There are other places that have this problem, too. It's easily repaired, but the homeowner won't do it until he has to and nobody will take the responsibility to make him fix it. And there's no zoning in our municipality either.

micknsnicks2mom · Jan 10, 2015

MoochNNoodles said:
This is the other option that I think we are going with (also an older picture). The thermostat is on the opposite side of the wall where the cabinet is. I think with this wall the pipe will stick out the roof on the front side of our house instead of the back. I'm not 100% sure. It might be right near the ridge line. That means it we need more piping too of course. DH measured the other corner and the cabinet can be moved there. It has a few inches of clearance on each side but my curtain may touch it.

PC250432.JPG

MoochNNoodles

Jan 10, 2015

I'm not the most comfortable with fire myself. DH will definitely have primary stove duties. Since we aren't using it as primary I'm more ok with it. He should be around when we have it lit. Or be able to add wood before he leaves My father's house has holes in the floors so the bedrooms were heated by his wood stove. He had it removed years ago though. I'm not sure why. But he does have a whole-house generator so backup heat isn't as big of a concern.

As we've been thinking about all this; I think of how far removed we've come from when fireplaces or stoves were standard. They were necessary for survival. We depend on electricity so much. Fireplaces and wood stoves have become luxury items now.

my personal opinion is for cast iron wood stoves. the new steel wood stoves will heat up quickly, but once the fire dies down or goes out, they'll be cold in no time flat compared to a cast iron stove. it takes 4 hours minimum before my cast iron stove is cool enough to touch, and then it still feels warm. and cast iron is built to last. my dad had a jotul cast iron wood stove and loved it -- it's a very good brand.

something that might be worth considering is that your idea of how much you use your wood stove may very well change. i had my stove installed in the fall of 2012. the first and second winters i used it to heat the whole house all day and until it went out during the night, then i'd start it up first thing each morning. towards the end of last winter (the second winter), after figuring out why my natural gas heating bill had increased so much (when i was heating primarily with the wood stove), i decided to do like they used to in the "olden days" and get up and add wood to the stove through the night several times. part of my decision had to do with our local utility having had a 3-year tiered increase -- total increase for the 3 years was close to 10%. i had an alternative, and my wood stove made so much better heat than their natural gas did. and i'm spending less for the wood stove heat than i would be for the natural gas heat. this year/winter i'm heating solely with my wood stove, the gas furnace hasn't even been turned on. i will run the furnace for a few days this coming may though, just because it's good to run a furnace at minimum for 3 days each year. i do buy my firewood "green"/unseasoned and by the dump truck load (10 face cords) from a local wood pallet manufacturer. i stack the firewood myself and lay a tarp over just the top of it, with field stones to weight the tarp down. so it might be that at first you'll use your wood stove to add a little extra warmth to your house and for power outages, but then you might decide to lower your utility heating bill more by using your wood stove more.

stewball · Jan 10, 2015

MoochNNoodles said:
Thank you; it's good to know cats jumping on them hasn't been an issue! I'm more so worried about DS knocking his head on it. Hes bumped it on the TV cabinet a few times. He is ALL boy!
We will have to purchase some wood for it. We have a stack of pine in our backyard from some trees we cut down when we moved in (they were dying rapidly!); but I know that's not ideal for burning. We've used it in our outdoor fire pit.
We have a burn barrel in the backyard; I wonder if that will do for hot ashes for now.
DH is ready to head to the dealer tomorrow but I told him he needs to consider what might not be included in the figures they gave us. I'd also like to have our taxes done first. :lol3: I think this is the one we were looking at: http://www.lopistoves.com/product-
detail.aspx?model=242

I think it's very smart. Go for it. Can you pay in payments like you can here?

stewball · Jan 10, 2015

@mickNSnicks2mom. Your stove is very smart as is the gate around it. @moochNNoodles. I think the last one you showed was very nice.
@winchester. Pam was special permission needed to renovate the circa
1800 house?
I remember our stove. It was called a boiler and if it was still in existence would be over 70 years old. It was heated with coal and it heated the water too. It was in the kitchen. It had a top opening. The day I left high school I came home, opened up that boiler and stuffed my Panama hat inside. I don't know why I didn't put my tie in as well.
Such memories.

Anne · Jan 11, 2015

Winchester said:
The big thing now, at least around here, is those pellet stoves. The ones that are outdoors, but heat the indoors of the home. Several municipalities in our are have amended zoning ordinances to prohibit them. Why? Because most pellet stove owners either don't understand or don't want to make the "chimney" high enough so that the smoke actually goes into the air. We have a situation along the highway in our area where the pellet stove owner has his chimney so low that it's creating a heat inversion some mornings. All the smoke is down around the ground, not in the air where it should be. And, as a result, you literally cannot see to drive properly! It's a big fiasco as it's all you can do to see the driver's tail lights in front of you. You can't see the traffic light until you're right on top of it. We're waiting for an accident. There are other places that have this problem, too. It's easily repaired, but the homeowner won't do it until he has to and nobody will take the responsibility to make him fix it. And there's no zoning in our municipality either.

Wow. And I thought we had it bad with our neighbors' wood stove's smoke. It's not nearly as bad and not something you can see in the air. I just don't like having to smell burning wood whenever I want to open a window and get some fresh air.

Winchester · Jan 11, 2015

Stewball said:
@winchester. Pam was special permission needed to renovate the circa
1800 house?
.

No special permission was needed to do anything on the inside to add the inserts, other than a building permit. In our county, you pretty much need a building permit to breathe. You know what I mean. Any time you change an electrical wire or add one, change or add a water pipe, add a larger window, etc, you need a building permit. Even inside the house. But they didn't have to go through a historical board or anything like that, since it was indoors. (When we put our shed on our property, it took all of two weeks for the tax people to drive by and see it. We didn't need a building permit for that and we don't have zoning down here, but the shed will raise our property taxes next year.)

Outdoors, they do have to be more careful as they do have a historical board, although it's not as strict as the one in town. When they redid their front porch, even though it had never had railing along the porch, their insurance company wanted them to put railing there. They had pictures of their house from way, way back when (not sure of the year) with a man sitting on the front porch and there were no railings then. The road in front of their house crossed the creek and there was a covered toll bridge at that time....it was kind of neat to see that picture. But what really spooked us--the man who was sitting on their front porch looked so much like our father that it literally gave us goose bumps! That was spooky! Anyway, the insurance company lost because the board said no railing, which is what my sister and BIL wanted.....no railing. So they have to be more careful doing exterior work. Inside, as long as they get a building permit for work and then get it inspected, they're fine. When they renovated their inground pool, the insurance threw a fit, too, because of the fence they chose. The company lost that argument, too. My sister and BIL went to another insurance company because their old one was just too strict and it got ridiculous. (We have their old insurance company and are dealing with some issues of our own now because of our inground pool.)

Sorry for digressing a little. I was trying to explain the difference between indoor and outdoor redos with building permits and such. It can get tricky.

When I was little and we had come back to Pennsylvania to visit from North Carolina, my grandmother had an old cook stove in her kitchen. Mom said that she was trying to sponge-bathe me one morning. I was just wee little, barely walking, I was naked, and backed up into the hot cook stove. She said I screamed bloody murder, but it was OK. Of course, I don't remember that. And way back then, there were no guards or anything around stoves.

micknsnicks2mom · Jan 11, 2015

Stewball said:
@mickNSnicks2mom. Your stove is very smart as is the gate around it. @moochNNoodles. I think the last one you showed was very nice.
@winchester. Pam was special permission needed to renovate the circa
1800 house?
I remember our stove. It was called a boiler and if it was still in existence would be over 70 years old. It was heated with coal and it heated the water too. It was in the kitchen. It had a top opening. The day I left high school I came home, opened up that boiler and stuffed my Panama hat inside. I don't know why I didn't put my tie in as well.
Such memories.

thank you!

Anyone have a woodstove?

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