New to site & need a chimney sweep

[sloth9669]

Hello one and all...my first post here at the web site. Lots of great info here.

First off i need someone to inspect the chimney and get me up and running. Any local guys do this type of work please contact me. Live in Groveland MA 01834

The story : I just bought my first home and it has a wood stove in the basement as well as a gas ( just for looks ) fire place in the living room. House is real small 700sq feet living area. Iam gonna go with one or the other...insert in the fireplace...or new wood stove in basement ( cut vents in floor to move air up ? ) Also please keep in mind that a few years out the game plan is to add a second floor onto the house doubling the size.

which one of the 2 sounds like a better option to get up and running ?

 

[Harley]

Hi, sloth, and welcome

It would help a bit if you can give a little more info as to the layout of the house. My gut reaction, if you have to make a choice between the 2 would be to put a small insert into the existing fireplace in the main living area (where the gas one is now). That is, of course, once it has been inspected and cleaned, and given to OK to put one in there.

Cutting vents in the floors is not really a good idea to move the heat up from the basement, right now - that may be done later if it's done right. To be honest - if you just bought the house, and since we're getting pretty close to heating season in MA - you may want to hold off a bit altogether (especially if you are planning to add on to the existing house). Depending on what is there now, and what you plan to add on - it may not be the best thing to put money into an insert that may not meet your needs later, just to save some money on heating for this season.

 

[Hogwildz]

If your going to add on, put the insert upstairs, consider a large. You can keep smaller fires till the addition. If you go small, after the addition you will only still get small heat.

 

[Gooserider]

Welcome to the forum... You might want to put your location in your profile, so that it shows up on the side of your messages.

It is questionable how much you might save this year unless you have a good wood supply that came with the house, this late in the year it's to late to cut and season your own wood to have it dry and burnable, but purchasing seasoned cut & split (assuming you can find some that actually IS dry) won't give you a huge savings over the natural gas.

What sort of stove is the current wood stove in the basement? Can you get through this season on it, and replace it in the spring? One of the things that I'd be hesitant about is making major changes like a stove until you've lived in the house for a while to see how it works for you. Running on the existing stove would also give some idea of how it heats, which would let you get a better feel for whether a stove in the basement is a good idea, and what size replacement is needed.

Cutting holes in the floor for heat distribution is a VERY BAD idea - it can be dangerous, as it destroys the fireproof integrity of the floors and would allow a fire to spread more rapidly - if you had any kind of smoke leakage, it would also enable the spread of toxic fumes into the rest of the house.

Basement stoves are often not the optimum approach, though many here have them - the problem is that unless your basement is well insulated, you are likely to find a great deal of your heat energy goes into warming the ground around the house instead of your living space. Also stoves are primarily area heaters, not furnaces. OTOH, it is very hard to get heat to move down, but it will go up fairly readily. If you do a lot of your living in the basement, then you would likely have a harder time heating the basement with an upstairs insert than you would heating the upstairs with a basement stove. I would certainly tend to go with an "oversize" stove if installing in the basement, especially given your plans for future expansion.

Give us more info - floor plans, state of current insulation, how are the doors and windows, the existing wood stove and chimney setup, same for the gas stove (they are in separate flues I hope?) and so forth - the more info you can give us, the more help we can be.

Gooserider


Gooserider

 

[sloth9669]

First off thank you all for the good words.

I do not intend to burn much if anything this year. Living with the rents while all the fixing up goes on. So this is all planning for next year. I just would like all i can get done, done before i move in and it becomes that much harder. This first and only floor is 700 sq feet. Very small but first house and the prices were they are its what i got.....also a 2 car garage which ill love come snow fall.

Here is a good idea of what the house looks like ( no laughing its best i could come up with ). Insulation will all be updated my self in the walls as well as the attic. The basement has a stove in there yet to take a good look at it. There is 2 flues in the house one for the wood stove in the basement the other the boiler/water heater/gas fireplace **( note the inspector told me the gas fireplace has to go )** to many things in one flue so its a wood stove in basement or insert till i get a high efficiency boiler and vent it out the side of the house not the flue thus freeing it up and then i can hook up the other wood burning device.

only 2 windows have not been changed both doors on the 1st floor are slated to going and a ridge vent is going to be cut in the roofing. Attic is getting new insulation...and i don't know if i should insulate the basement floor ???? The house was owned buy and old guy who i guess didn't like the cold because there is a boiler ( forced hot water ) a wood stove, and a 220 electric heating system in the house along with a 220 in the garage. But for me i love heating with wood...i know i may not be able to do all my heating with it but as a supplement heating iam all about it.

For anyone who made it this far in reading thank you for your time and thoughts.

Andy In pic on the left

 

[sloth9669]

umm floor plan i drew was350kb wont fit i need 300 or less any idea how to get this thing on here if not ill just mail it to anyone interested.

 

[Gooserider]

Well, looks like firewood supply is no problem.... :coolsmile:

As to the floor plan, I don't know what file type you have it in, but what I find works fairly well for me is to convert it to JPEG, and shrink it to 640 x 480, and about 3/4 on the quality slider.

Gooserider

 

[sloth9669]

this is a distorted look at the floor plan.....also iam looking for a chimney sweep to come inspect everything so if anyone knows someone please send the contact info on over.

 

[Gooserider]

Don't have any specific references, but check the Chimney Safety Institute of America website - they are the primary certification outfit for sweeps in the country, and have a "Certified Sweep Locator" that lets you search based on your zip code, etc. It's sort of like the AASE cert for car mechanics, doesn't guarantee the sweep knows his stuff, but it's the next best thing to a personal reccomendation, as it shows at least some level of training and experience.

BTW, if the staircase is open, your floor plan doesn't look to bad for a basement stove, though it's not great that the stove is tucked into the corner next to the boiler. The central staircase location will help get heat into all the rooms, and it should be possible to get a decent convection flow going up and down the stairs, possibly with the help of a few fans.

Gooserider

 

[GVA]

not trying to give you a plug here but
(broken link removed)
maybe you should contact webmaster and join the industry side of the forum
you may draw some more business.
Welcome to the forum....

 

[BrotherBart]

not trying to give you a plug here but
(broken link removed)
maybe you should contact webmaster and join the industry side of the forum
you may draw some more business.
Welcome to the forum....

:coolsmirk:

 

[elkimmeg]

Boy what a nightmare for combustion make up air. A furnace and stove in that basement sharing a gas stove in the same flue?

My suggestion is not to limited if the chimney is safe or stove is safe But are you safe occupying that home
How easy would it be for the combination stove furnace come on and back draft the gas stove right into your living space

Congrats it has been only a week since the last person wanted to cur hole in the floors I detailed the reason this should not be done.

In your situation you well need all the safety you can get the risk of reducing safe exit time for little or no heat is a price one pays

If the time comes nobody has extra time never mind reduced time Personally the gas setup would be out of there in a heart beat and the openings blocked up tight

Sounds like a bad accident waiting to happen

Welcome to the hearth We need more info about your existing stove model manufacturer ect

 

[sloth9669]

Thank you all again for the good words...about the flues the first thing iam doing it pulling the gas lines and plugging up the hole in the flue for the fireplace. This way just the boiler and water heater vent out one. The second flue i have a choice of hooking up the fireplace and adding and insert...or keeping the wood stove in the basement. that is the choice i have to make until i get a high effiecenc boiler and vent it out the side of the house thus freeing up the flue for the second wood heat option. The home inspector pointed this all out to me and directed me to get a sweep for a more detailed opinion. I will keep you all posted as my progress goes and photos of the house to come....i sign the 21st and its mine.

 

[Gooserider]

Thank you all again for the good words...about the flues the first thing iam doing it pulling the gas lines and plugging up the hole in the flue for the fireplace. This way just the boiler and water heater vent out one. The second flue i have a choice of hooking up the fireplace and adding and insert...or keeping the wood stove in the basement. that is the choice i have to make until i get a high effiecenc boiler and vent it out the side of the house thus freeing up the flue for the second wood heat option. The home inspector pointed this all out to me and directed me to get a sweep for a more detailed opinion. I will keep you all posted as my progress goes and photos of the house to come....i sign the 21st and its mine.

I'm sure Elk will correct me if I'm missing something, but removing the gas insert will mean you should be OK with the boiler and DHW heater in the same flue, just be sure to block up the hole for the gas insert w/ masonry, not just a thin plate.

I think you would also be safer burning the wood stove next to the boiler if one or both are equipped with an outside air kit so that they aren't fighting over the same combustion air supply.

Gooserider

 

[sloth9669]

Thank you for the link to the chimney sweeps i sent out a few emails and having a guy come right over to fix the flues inspect the flue some loose bricks on the outside and check the wood stove out...will be a nice $500 buck day...but better then building a new house.

 

[elkimmeg]

having a guy come right over to fix the flues inspect the flue some loose bricks on the outside and check the wood stove out...will be a nice $500 buck day...but better then building a new house.

Man am I in the wrong field I get $30 for my inspections

 

[Gooserider]

having a guy come right over to fix the flues inspect the flue some loose bricks on the outside and check the wood stove out...will be a nice $500 buck day...but better then building a new house.

Man am I in the wrong field I get $30 for my inspections

I think some of us have been telling you that for a while... :cheese: I've thought for a long time that a person with your skills could make a lot more on the private side of things doing inspection type stuff on a voluntary basis - possible marketing angles -

1. Home inspections for the home purchaser - market on the grounds that purchaser pays and will get a THOROUGH inspection w/ photos, written descriptions (that might be tough) etc. as opposed to a "walk through" - increased power as a price negotiating tool and/or enabling the purchaser to avoid booby traps...

2. "State of the House" evaluations - market to current home owners on grounds that you will do thorough inspection and supply a list of problems / suggested improvements with ratings on them as to difficulty (IE is it a DIY project or a pro-level job?), cost, urgency (what happens if I don't fix for a while...) and benefit payback. I know there are lots of things wrong with our house for instance, but we have a very finite budget for repairs, and I would consider it a worth while investment to get a list of what I should be doing first.

3. "Experienced Eye" for home-owner getting a major project done - Act as the watchful eye on customer paid jobs to make sure things are being done right - I think I'm more educated about building stuff than the average not-in-the-trades guy, and I still don't think that if I were to hire a contractor to do a major renovation / addition, etc. I could really tell for sure if the job was being done "right" or not. It might be a worthwhile investment to have a periodic checkover by an outside expert to see that everything was being done to the expected standard... This one would probably not be all that different from what you are doing now, except you would be functioning as a 100% benefit to the customer, instead of being perceived as a gov't snoop coming in to make everyone's lives harder... (wouldn't make you any more popular with the contractor, but it is still a reflection of the difference between voluntary and forced action)

Gooserider