Putting in a Wood Stove

[fallen1817]

Hey Everyone,

I live in a single level bungalow 45 Mins NW of Edmonton. My wife and I are discussing putting in a wood stove for some added heat, and added ambiance.

Our ceiling is vaulted, and the corner where I would want it is ~8'.

What sort of cost would I expect to have someone put this in? I don't need anything fancy. Would it just be a general contractor that would handle this, or do I need to look for someone else?

Thanks for your feedback,

Jeff

[Tundra Monkey]

Not sure on your cost down there but I had a top of the line Blaze King installed a couple years ago. Total all in cost was about $10k but I have 2 floors worth of exterior chimney on there.

Point of this is that you are going to want an installer that is WETT certified for your insurance company......and you can expect a small increase in your home insurance as well.

<edit> Have a look at what you can get for rebates on your stove. The cost on the Blaze King (king size) was $3500.....but the efficiency rebate thru the Govt. on it at the time was $1000 back. Any of the $2500 stoves we looked at had a couple hundred come back in rebates. It made for a no brainer decision for us.

[elkhunter11]

When we did the basement reno last summer, we had a higher end wood stove with electric fan and extra exchangers installed, and it ended up costing us around $8k. We had a specialty shop do the work, and insurance wanted the WETT paperwork before they would cover us using the stove. Our insurance company also requires an annual chimney cleaning.

[riden]

Make sure you get an insurance quote first. I saved $1000/year when I took mine out. But I am more than 9 km from a fire station

[blacknorthernjk]

Super easy self install now days as well. Particularly if you can avoid trusses or ceiling joists for a clean straight run. I installed my own in a morning, with restructuring of joist and rafter to boot.
Then have it WETT inspected and everyone should be happy

[flyguyd]

I put a little Jotul in the wifes book nook which opens up in to the living room a few years ago. Only takes a 15" log maximum. She loves the ambiance it adds to the room and the little bugger throws a surprising amount of heat.

[Big Grey Wolf]

Installed a high quality wood heater when built the house, gas company has replaced the gas meter twice in last 5 years, they cannot believe a 2000 sq ft house has only $57 a month gas bill.

[Fisherpeak]

Originally Posted by Big Grey Wolf

Installed a high quality wood heater when built the house, gas company has replaced the gas meter twice in last 5 years, they cannot believe a 2000 sq ft house has only $57 a month gas bill.

Ha, like my place, Selkirk chimney and a Blaze King. Chimney is a straight shot from the basement through the roof. 5 cord a winter saves about $2000 a year on gas. I got a guy delivers my wood for about $125 a cord ,half rounds of big Larch and Fir. I LOVE wood heat. Stove in the basement warms the house great unless it`s - 30, then the furnace kicks in. Previous owners had a furnace and a gas space heater (ripped that out, put in the stove) , Equal payment plan was $250 a month. Now we send $50 a month and have a credit.

[otto389]

We put an addition on our house two years ago. And we took out the old original fireplace and put a stove in the corner as well. I can't exactly remember all the codes involved but as I remember it...the chimney had to be taller than anything within 10 or 12 feet of it. So our chimney is up about five feet above the roof where it comes out. So in total we have about 14ish feet of chimney pipe. Our contractor told us that we HAD to hire a fireplace company to install the stove and chimney. So our cost for them to supply and install the chimney, as well as provide the wett inspection was about $2500. The stove was about $1800.

I quickly learned two things...I bought WAY too big of a stove. It keeps about 1000 square feet at a fairly constant 30 degrees with no effort at all. I just can't dampen it down enough. But I think that in a couple of years I will move it downstairs to heat the whole house and then buy a smaller " mood" stove to put in its place. And, the second thing is that I now burn as much wood in a week as I used to go through in a day when we had that old fireplace. And judging by all the wood I continue to bring home and have stacked up around my yard I seem to be having a hard time adjusting to that..lol.

[Fisherpeak]

My chimney is 5 feet higher than my roof peak. Selkirk 8 inch internal diameter is about $110 a foot.so from the basement ,through the bedroom and through the attic and roof is about roughly 30 feet. Ain`t cheap, but worth it. Least it was then, not sure what Selkirk cost now. Oh, Otto put the damn thing in the basement. Heat rises. If the basement is warm then the whole house is.

[MOUNTAIN MICKEY]

Bought a great wood stove for $50.00 many years ago. Enjoyed it for a lot of years. Then it happened. Insurance company did a $330,000 renovation to my home. Best $50 investment of my life.

[Arty]

Originally Posted by fallen1817

Hey Everyone,

I live in a single level bungalow 45 Mins NW of Edmonton. My wife and I are discussing putting in a wood stove for some added heat, and added ambiance.

Our ceiling is vaulted, and the corner where I would want it is ~8'.

What sort of cost would I expect to have someone put this in? I don't need anything fancy. Would it just be a general contractor that would handle this, or do I need to look for someone else?

Thanks for your feedback,

Jeff

Masonry mass-heaters produce fantastic heat, and have been very common in Nordic countries for centuries.
http://www.mha-net.org/

You burn a small-to-medium, hot fire in them very quickly. That heats the masonry, which then throws off the heat to the house throughout the day.

Three big advantages are that the heat from a charge of wood will last all day, and because the burn is hot and fast and uses large amounts of air it is very efficient and clean-burning, and because of the burning gas pathway more heat is extracted than in other systems.

Inside, the burning gasses are routed first up over the firebox, then reverse back and down, then reverse back more and up the chimney. That captures as much heat as possible before being exhausted, sort of like an engine intercooler.

[Treehound]

I'm shopping hard for a replacement stove and love those masonry stoves. The soapstone is very beautiful but the price is just too much. If I were building a new home I would go for it and put it in the center of the house.
I can't stand the look of normal wood stoves like Blaze King. They work great but big ugly black stoves. No class or style. Jotul makes a few with nice designs.
I've settled on Hearthstone as a nice compromise between the two worlds of heating. The soap stone not only looks great but works much like a masonry stove (on a smaller scale) I'll be getting the Equinox. Beautiful and functional. Haven't heard of any problems with them. Should have bought before the USD took off though.