Winter Warming Project
January 3rd 2012 07:38
Hello, I hope everybody is having a great weekend.
Alright let's get to my last project i'll give you some pics and suggestions that I learned the hard way.
We live on a huge corner lot right in the middle of a wind tunnel. We have all new windows and had a fairly new propane furnace.
When we moved here I filled our 500 gallon propane tank that cost over 600 dollars. Well not thinking that the wind would act as cooler and my house was like a piece of meat in the freezer due to the wind wind chill. The exterior walls bled the cold through to the interior walls.
In turn this caused the furnace to run constantly and using 500 gallons of propane in a month. So we switched it over to electric heat with high hopes, big mistake. I received a electric bill for over 900 in one month. So this year we figured why fight it go old school.
A friend gave me an old parlor style wood/coal burning pot belly stove. First I cleaned and resealed it, with a little stove paint it looks new.
While its a older home it has two chimneys and the one between our living and dining room, but hidden behind the wall our furnace exhaust was tied into it.
First we removed the furnace and found our load bearing walls, so we could start taking them out and building headers. When we finally frame it up we had great access to the chimney. We were going to clean up the brick but it was just to ugly.
We decided to use a split faced stone which is easier to install than you think. To start remove any loose matter from chimney and a quick clean, then mix up mortar, apply with grooved trowel but dont get ahead of your self. Then with same technique apply to stone and stick it on chimney. To fill in empty spaces just smack extra stone with a hammer and fill in. The hardest part was tuck pointing it. ( filling in between the stone with mortar)
Just fill in best you can with mortar, let set up a little , then using end of trowel or a regular tuck point trowel run it between the stone till you get the look you want. Your next step will be taking a hand brush and knocking off dust and pieces of mortar that made its way on your stone. Finished product should look similar to whats in the pics.
I will get to the floor prep later this week.
I do however want to cover stove install. We used double wall pipe with a manual damper and a barometric damper for better heat control, for safety I also put an extra heat shield above the elbow near ceiling. With double wall pipe you can get clearances down to about 8 inches from any combustible material, I just felt more comfortable with the extra heat shield because we are burning coal and it burns hotter and longer than wood.
Now this is very important, you need to have an inspection of the chimney done if your in question of its ability. This also is important, you have to update your homeowners insurance and let them know of your install because if you dont and something happens insurance will give you nothing. When you purchase your stove for the install remember if it is a newer one that is UL listed it will be alot cheaper on your homeowners insurance.
Later I will get into how to adjust and operate your pot belly coal stove.
Thanks and I hope this helped, if you have any questions or need some advice let me know.
Alright let's get to my last project i'll give you some pics and suggestions that I learned the hard way.
We live on a huge corner lot right in the middle of a wind tunnel. We have all new windows and had a fairly new propane furnace.
When we moved here I filled our 500 gallon propane tank that cost over 600 dollars. Well not thinking that the wind would act as cooler and my house was like a piece of meat in the freezer due to the wind wind chill. The exterior walls bled the cold through to the interior walls.
In turn this caused the furnace to run constantly and using 500 gallons of propane in a month. So we switched it over to electric heat with high hopes, big mistake. I received a electric bill for over 900 in one month. So this year we figured why fight it go old school.
A friend gave me an old parlor style wood/coal burning pot belly stove. First I cleaned and resealed it, with a little stove paint it looks new.
While its a older home it has two chimneys and the one between our living and dining room, but hidden behind the wall our furnace exhaust was tied into it.
First we removed the furnace and found our load bearing walls, so we could start taking them out and building headers. When we finally frame it up we had great access to the chimney. We were going to clean up the brick but it was just to ugly.
We decided to use a split faced stone which is easier to install than you think. To start remove any loose matter from chimney and a quick clean, then mix up mortar, apply with grooved trowel but dont get ahead of your self. Then with same technique apply to stone and stick it on chimney. To fill in empty spaces just smack extra stone with a hammer and fill in. The hardest part was tuck pointing it. ( filling in between the stone with mortar)
Just fill in best you can with mortar, let set up a little , then using end of trowel or a regular tuck point trowel run it between the stone till you get the look you want. Your next step will be taking a hand brush and knocking off dust and pieces of mortar that made its way on your stone. Finished product should look similar to whats in the pics.
I will get to the floor prep later this week.
I do however want to cover stove install. We used double wall pipe with a manual damper and a barometric damper for better heat control, for safety I also put an extra heat shield above the elbow near ceiling. With double wall pipe you can get clearances down to about 8 inches from any combustible material, I just felt more comfortable with the extra heat shield because we are burning coal and it burns hotter and longer than wood.
Now this is very important, you need to have an inspection of the chimney done if your in question of its ability. This also is important, you have to update your homeowners insurance and let them know of your install because if you dont and something happens insurance will give you nothing. When you purchase your stove for the install remember if it is a newer one that is UL listed it will be alot cheaper on your homeowners insurance.
Later I will get into how to adjust and operate your pot belly coal stove.
Thanks and I hope this helped, if you have any questions or need some advice let me know.
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