Hello!

Last year, I purchased my house, a nice bungalow with a finished basement. The ceiling in the basement is a drop ceiling, employing the large, replaceable tiles typical of office environments.

I am considering purchasing a used Findlay Chatelaine stove from a friend. It's a big stove, and I'm intending it to supplement my heatpump on extremely cold winter days/nights (I've got a lot of wooded land), and for alternate heat (in addition to the propane stove in the living room) in case of power failure.

I'm considering placing it at the opposite end of the house from the furnace, underneath the sleeping area (specifically, the master bedroom). The floor to (drop) ceiling height in the basement is about 7', and the ceiling is roughly at grade level, perhaps a scant few inches above. To make matters worse, I have to consider drainage if I have to dig a box for the chimney exit as the water table can get quite high in the winter and spring. The basement windows have leaked in the past due to water accumulation and (then) poor drainage.

The stove has ULC placement dimensions on the back, which a WETT inspector told me was all I needed to comply with to make my insurance co. happy. The stove also has metal fire tiles inside, vs the typical drick or ceramic or whatever the yellowish tiles that modern stoves use. It also has a saggy looking plate inside, near the top and back, almost near the smoke exit. What is that for? The inspector told me the stove was in good shape and would be a good purchase so I'm comfy with that, but still like to know all the details... I have this thing about burning down my house when it's -40C. :)

My questions are mostly related to placement. The front, back and side placement should be no issue. I'm concerned about placement of the flue pipe though... it might be close to a window opening. Anything to worry about there? More importantly though, what do I do with the drop ceiling in the vicinity of the stove? Can I replace those tiles with cut pieces of insulating board? What about the track that carries the tiles - anything to be concerned about there?

I do intend to install a floor grate to allow heat from the basement to rise into the hallway outside the bedrooms, but I don't want it in the master bedroom as I'd like to sleep comfortably there when the stove is running. :)

Perhaps a dumber question, but can I place the stove pretty much anywhere and simply duct the smoke where I want? The room I'm considering used to contain a pool table judging by the indentations in the carpeting, and would be rendered useless for future table installation due to the large hearth requirement of this stove. There are other areas of the basement well suited to placement of the stove, but are not neatly situated near a back or side wall (I'd really like to hide the chimney for obvious reasons).

Thanks for any tips!

Jon

-- Jon Earle (je@kronos.honk.org), October 03, 2001

Answers

Hi Jon, here is an excellent site on wood heating it covers everything, and there is a board for asking questions, www.woodheat.org

-- Thumper (slrldr@yahoo.com), October 04, 2001.

Hi, Jon:

I live in the Rocky Mnts where we have few 'true' basements like yours. I have a walk-out basement, meaning that one side of the basement is built into the earth while the opposite side is open and the ground slopes down from there.

I am currently installing a stove with a similar predicament - I have a drop ceiling. What I found was that I needed to buy triple wall prefab chimney and have it exit the wall just below the drop ceiling. I've doing it about 6" below the drop ceiling, which is right at ground level on the 'buried' side of the basement. I will the run up the exterior wall of the house to 10' above the eve. The triple wall chimney is very well insulated and under our code is approved for 0 clearance to contact with wood. Double wall prefab chimney is not allowed here.

I'm going to monitor how hot the drop ceiling gets about the stove and think about replacing the 2x3 panels with sheets of metal cut to size and painted white. No, they won't have the same texture but will fool most people unless the inspect them really closely.

Good luck!

PS - I did read once that stoves placed in basements tend to draw poorly. I'm not sure that that would pertain to me wtih my walk-out basement, but you might consider a draft inducer if you do not get a good draw.

-- Justin Shelton (justinshelton@netscape.net), October 04, 2001.