I'm just finishing up the floorplan for an addition to our house (den / guest bedroom & bath / woodstove) and need to make some decisions on the chimney for the woodstove.
My wife and I will live in this house for the rest of our lives, so the guest bedroom and bath are designed for accessibility if ever needed.
I'd like to put this same kind of forethought into the chimney, including cleaning the chimney. The roof will be a 10/12 pitch. I would greatly appreciate any ideas on chimney systems that might be cleaned without getting on the roof while we are in the design stage.
My initial thoughts are:
1) A top of the line ss insulated chimney system from the ceiling up. Take the stove pipe down to clean/inspect. Take a short piece of stovepipe with a T on it and rig a connection for a large shop vac on the T. And a cap on the bottom of the stove pipe that the rod can fit through. Pass the rod through the cap, attach the brush, attach the cap to the bottom of the short section of stovepipe, attach the shop vac to the side of the T. Etc.
2) Fabricate a chicken ladder that stays on the roof, raised above the roof surface about 6" on heavy gauge stainless steel Z shapes so that the shingles cover the fasteners into the roof framing, on the back side of the house. (My wife will probably shoot this idea down.)
3) Building an interior masonry chimney (possibly an Isokern chimney with brick veneer) with the stove pipe connecting to the chimney at about 7' above the floor (9' ceiling) and an air tight cast iron cleanout in the side of the chimney at least 4' off the floor through which the chimney could be cleaned. The dimensions for required clearances combined with the length of the cleaning rods might make this impractical though.
Your thoughts on cleaning and on the best lifetime chimney choice would be greatly appreciated.
My wife and I will live in this house for the rest of our lives, so the guest bedroom and bath are designed for accessibility if ever needed.
I'd like to put this same kind of forethought into the chimney, including cleaning the chimney. The roof will be a 10/12 pitch. I would greatly appreciate any ideas on chimney systems that might be cleaned without getting on the roof while we are in the design stage.
My initial thoughts are:
1) A top of the line ss insulated chimney system from the ceiling up. Take the stove pipe down to clean/inspect. Take a short piece of stovepipe with a T on it and rig a connection for a large shop vac on the T. And a cap on the bottom of the stove pipe that the rod can fit through. Pass the rod through the cap, attach the brush, attach the cap to the bottom of the short section of stovepipe, attach the shop vac to the side of the T. Etc.
2) Fabricate a chicken ladder that stays on the roof, raised above the roof surface about 6" on heavy gauge stainless steel Z shapes so that the shingles cover the fasteners into the roof framing, on the back side of the house. (My wife will probably shoot this idea down.)
3) Building an interior masonry chimney (possibly an Isokern chimney with brick veneer) with the stove pipe connecting to the chimney at about 7' above the floor (9' ceiling) and an air tight cast iron cleanout in the side of the chimney at least 4' off the floor through which the chimney could be cleaned. The dimensions for required clearances combined with the length of the cleaning rods might make this impractical though.
Your thoughts on cleaning and on the best lifetime chimney choice would be greatly appreciated.