Jotul F45 Chimney Installation Questions

[begreen]

It's pretty common for folks to upsize their stove after a few years when they realize they've bought too small for 24/7 burning, especially in cold climates. Are you sure the F45 is sized right for your needs? How large an area will the stove be heating?

 

[msal]

It's pretty common for folks to upsize their stove after a few years when they realize they've bought too small for 24/7 burning, especially in cold climates. Are you sure the F45 is sized right for your needs? How large an area will the stove be heating?

~1350 sq ft ranch. The stove is in the corner of the living room. The layout is a little different than usual since the living room is in the middle of the house (open concept living/dining/kitchen) with one bedroom on one side and the other 2 bedrooms down the other side. This puts the stove pretty much right in the center of the house which I think is a benefit for us, rather than having all bedrooms down one hallway. Built in 1995 and seems to be pretty well insulated, good windows, etc. We've also got ceiling fans in almost every room which I'm hoping will help with circulation. One of my concerns with a larger stove was heating us out of the living room, which is where we spend the majority of our time. I didn't want to underburn all the time either and have issues with creosote. I had a pretty lengthy thread on here when I was deciding how big to go (tempted by an NC30 for cheap money) and landed on the F45. We had also kicked around the idea of putting a bigger stove in the basement (unfinished) but decided that we wanted the stove to be a highlight of our house/living area.

Don't make me second guess myself now ! I just finished installing the ceiling support a few minutes ago...

 

[msal]

I measured the pipe adapter sticking down from the ceiling. Looks the center of my pipe is 15 1/2" from the back wall and 14" from the side wall. I only needed 12 1/2" for the F45. I'm not sure if this extra space is enough to accommodate a bigger stove down the road if we should need it (hopefully we won't).

 

[begreen]

You should be ok either way. If you do go with a larger stove later on it can be connected with an offset if necessary.

 

[msal]

Alright, I finished installing the chimney yesterday! Glad to have that out of the way. While I was up there I finally took down the ugly dish satellite that we inherited on the roof. My wife was pretty excited about that. It went smoothly which was nice with only a couple minor hickups (one being a wasp next that I must have made angry at one point).

I headed out to the store and picked up an 4'x8' sheet of 3/4" oak plywood. It was a little pricey but I want to be sure that I am working on a solid base for my hearth. I also picked up 2 sheets of 3'x5' Durock (enough for the hearth, not the walls) and a container of 1 1/4" Durock screws.

We went with 12"x12" slate tile for the floor... I'm a little nervous about this because I know it's more difficult to install than typical tile. The tile model # SHDCALGLD1212G. It looked good in the store but there are a few concerning reviews on HD.com's site regarding tiles having a very uneven thickness, and many pieces not being exactly 12"x12". Since I've never tiled before I'm worried I will be in over my head with these and end up with cracks once I put the wood stove on the hearth. I also went with a thinset that was supposedly better for heavy/large tiles. It was an open bag special for 50% off and seemed like a good match with the tiles. I grabbed some spacers and a thinset trowel as well. I didn't bother as of yet with grout or finish.

My wife really likes these tiles, but I'm half tempted to return them for something easier to work with. What do you guys think? Maybe I'm making it out to be harder than it is. It is a small space that I am tiling after all...

EDIT: My wife isn't as attached to them as I thought. We are considering returning them for easier to work with tiles. Still interested in what you guys think though.

 

[msal]

The slate tile has been exchanged for ceramic tile that looks similar. It was also much cheaper which was nice. We bought enough for the floor and walls, although we are still not sure if we'll use it for the walls. I've got the 3/4" plywood set up in the basement, started dry fitting the tiles and marking my cut lines. I lined up the stove in the 'final' spot and marked out the minimum floor requirements with tape, then figured out my hearth size around that. I'm going with a 54"x54" square, with the corner notched. I've already split a tile horizontally for the notched corner. I'm using both halves for the notch rather than going with a smaller notch with just a single half, if that makes sense.

One thing I wasn't sure about, and that was the corner requirements for floor protection. The manual lists 16" from the door opening and specifically mentions going 'forward' from the door opening. Then 8" from the side. Nothing specifically about corners. What I did was tape the floor around this entire rectangle around the stove as my minimum, and planned the hearth around that. If I could 'cut corners' on that rectangle I could reduce my overall hearth pad size. They aren't really specific about this in the manual. Not sure if this will make sense to you guys, kind of hard to explain. I guess if you tied a piece of 8" length string from the front corner of the stove and drew a circle with it, then tied a piece of 16" length string and tied it to the side of the door opening and drew a circle with it, you would be able to 'cut the corner' of this rectangle. Again, I decided to air on the side of caution and just cover the entire rectangle.

 

[msal]

Hi guys, just another update for anyone who is still reading. The base piece (3/4" plywood) for my hearth is now installed, screwed directly into the sub-floor. I cut out a piece in the existing laminate floor, making sure to account for the trim that will go around the outer edge of the hearth. I've got one piece of Durock cut to size and one to go.

A couple of quick questions... I had read about applying a thinset layer between the Durock and the plywood. Is this really necessary? Seems like overkill since my plywood has a lot of screws in it, and so will the Durock once installed.

Do I need to do anything special on the seams of my Durock pieces? I only have a single seam, but it's somewhere around where one of the back feet will stand. Should I just make sure to fill in the seam with thinset when laying my tile, or do I need to do some extra steps here?

We got some pretty good rain here in the last 24 hours (located in NH). When I was screwing in my hearth base, I noticed a drop of water on my head! After shining a flashlight up the chimney I'm fairly certain the rain was coming in from the side of my rain cap. Every few seconds I would see a raindrop fly in from the very top and stick to the inside of the pipe, sometimes coming straight down. It's definitely not seeping in through a seem of the pipe, which tells me it's coming in from the rain cap. When I first noticed it, we weren't getting a hole lot of wind and it looked to me like the rain was coming straight down outside...

Is this something to worry about? To me it just seems like the rain cap is somewhat poorly engineered and there isn't actually anything wrong with the installation. I laid down a foil pan over night and woke up to the pan being mostly wet on the bottom. It wasn't enough for the water to pool with any depth, but was enough to cover the bottom of it with drops. We got something crazy like 3-5" of rain I think in the last 24 hours, which is way more than usual.

I just realized I bought polymer modified thinset rather than latex modified thinset... is this the same thing? Here's the exact stuff from HD:

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Custom-B...lb-Fortified-Thin-Set-Mortar-MTSW50/100091767

 

[msal]

I've called the local Ace Hardware and they have fiberglass mesh tape that says its for drywall. Will this do the trick? I have some plain old paper drywall tape in the basement but I'm guessing that won't suffice...