Stove location. Living room or family room.

[muscamoot]

Is the LR used more in the summer or does that family hang out more in the Family Room year round. If the LR is not used much, change it into a game room with a ping-pong or pool table.

Living room is rarely used. Most (married) people would just put fancy furniture in there and rope it off to look nice.
That is were the Christmas tree would go.
Me being single, I mostly use it as a music room. There is a piano in there, a few guitars and amps.
I also keep my Festivus pole set up year round in there.

If I ever sell the house, then I am not sure most people would want a wood burning stove in there living room.
Although the Fireview is a nice looking stove.

 

[begreen]

I don't think heat getting up the stairway will be that major an issue with the stove in the family room. Also, the piano might be a good reason to keep the stove in the family room. They stay in tune better with consistent temp and humidity. (Not sure if this a big deal if the piano is electric though.)

Question, is there is a cathedral ceiling in the family room?

 

[muscamoot]

Heat has a way of finding it's way around. If you get a good convection style stove I think it will heat pretty good from the family room. My layout is less than ideal but it heats this place just fine and the heat finds it's way up my closed in staircase pretty well. I usually have a 4-6 degree swing in temps from main level to the upstairs which is fine for sleeping, the lower level evens out pretty easily.

That is good to know. I am leaning toward the family room #2, even though the chimney draft might not be best and I would have the ugly 10" braced chimney up on the roof. I hope the side door would open enough to give me the needed space to load. Its going to be tight, because I have that doorwall along back wall and the hearth will be just a few inches off to the side of where it opens to my back deck. Need to place stove with rear corners 12" from both corner walls.

One of those 55" pre-made corner hearths will just fit. Just.

 

[begreen]

Is there any possibility with some room reconfiguration of placing the stove on the common wall with the LR? What is above the Family Room at that location?

What stove have you picked out?

 

[muscamoot]

Family room, to me the stove isn't just a heater-I want to enjoy it too.

Yes, but maybe I would spend more time in living room if stove was located there?

By the layout, it looks like a living room stove would heat primarily the LR and upstairs. If the intent is to heat the house it looks like the family room location is more open which means the stove is going to do a better job of heating where people hang out the most. Some heat will get upstairs, but not all of it. If you are comfortable with the upstairs being a bit cooler (~5º?) for sleeping, then that could work out fine.

Good to hear the heat will find its way upstairs. Only 5 degrees difference would be outstanding. And I assume you feel the draft with the mostly outside chimney would function properly?

You would not mind the 10" brace chimney on your roof?

 

[begreen]

We have about 7' sticking up on our roof. Fortunately it's location is one that is not very visible from most locations in the yard so it works well. 10 ft is getting up there and will be visually dominant. My preference would be to locate the stove on an interior wall to minimize this issue if possible.

 

[muscamoot]

I don't think heat getting up the stairway will be that major an issue with the stove in the family room. Also, the piano might be a good reason to keep the stove in the family room. They stay in tune better with consistent temp and humidity. (Not sure if this a big deal if the piano is electric though.)

Question, is there is a cathedral ceiling in the family room?

Again. Good to hear about heat getting upstairs, and as long as the eyesore chimney functions properly I think I will go with family room #2. Piano is not a factor. It is an old Kimball which I was forced to take lessons on as a small child.
It already has some water stains on it from ex wife putting/watering plants on it. Needs to be refinished and tuned.

 

[muscamoot]

Is there any possibility with some room reconfiguration of placing the stove on the common wall with the LR? What is above the Family Room at that location?

What stove have you picked out?

No. Again, this would bring the chimney up though the upstairs hallway.
Woodside Fireview I hope.

 

[ironworker]

I have almost the same layout with a 6' opening between living room and family room and have my stove in the living room and I am very happy with it, the heat goes thru 40" opening and right up stairs to upstairs, in your family room the heat might have a hard time getting upstairs.

40" opening? Do you mean 72"?

Problem with opening the wall is placement of furniture. Cant figure where my beloved couch would go.

If I put a 6' opening in wall then I would still need to decide where stove would go. 1 or 2?
I thought about leaving wall as it is and adding a couple openings along the top between the studs. But still 1 or 2?

Thanks to everyone for the help. Its a tough choice.

I have 2 openings, a 40" one right next to stairs and 6' going into family room.

 

[begreen]

Got it, thx. It's hard to visualize without the second floor plan.

 

[muscamoot]

We have about 7' sticking up on our roof. Fortunately it's location is one that is not very visible from most locations in the yard so it works well. 10 ft is getting up there and will be visually dominant. My preference would be to locate the stove on an interior wall to minimize this issue if possible.

Roof is a 10/12 pitch so I figure at least 10'? Not happy about that. Ugly. So if you were me, and it was your house, would you go with #1 or #2. I am sensing some flip flopping here. Same as me.

 

[begreen]

I'm a process thinker and like to cover all options, including some not deemed possible before committing. In our house I took out our fireplace and reversed the layout of our living room. The work was enough that I thought about it for several years before executing the plan. At first my wife resisted, but the final result is such a nice improvement that it's now hard to think of it any other way.

For example, if the upstairs hallway was wide enough I would consider boxing in the chimney and adding a linen closet alongside to make it intentional looking. You've had a lot of time to think about this and have a much better advantage in being able to see the rooms and align the 2nd floor layout. So if you think it's going to hurt your eyes, you are probably right. I removed a second stove in our entry area because I didn't like a prominent 8' pipe on the roof at the entrance.

 

[begreen]

I would take pictures of some of the options, print them or bring them into Photoshop (or similar program) and insert the new look. See how it feels to you. If the roof view of the family room is visually dominant on the house, a 10ft stack will be prominent, especially with a couple braces needed. Here's how the stack looked on our house and how it looks now after the remodel.

 

[muscamoot]

Got it, thx. It's hard to visualize without the second floor plan.

Upstairs. Its close to scale, but my original downstairs drawing living room stove would be moved to right so chimney comes though closet. Kneewall area could be used for chimney, as is my family room #2 stove position would use.

 

[muscamoot]

Ten foot chimney would come out roof about four feet to the right of the doorwall. Would not be a good thing, but only other option is stove in living room.

 

[muscamoot]

The other option I had ruled out because I read about outside chimney draft issues, is to put stove along right side wall of family room (#3) and have chimney go out wall with all outside chimney. Maybe I should consider this?

 

[begreen]

Whee, that looks like fun. Well the stack would be less visually dominant than that yellow wiggly guy and in the back yard. But it sounds like you are set on the LR. If so, it will probably need a fan to assist circulation to the main part of the house, but that can be done.

 

[rdust]

The other option I had ruled out because I read about outside chimney draft issues, is to put stove along right side wall of family room (#3) and have chimney go out wall with all outside chimney. Maybe I should consider this?

I like this option, a good class A at the proper height will draft just fine even if it's outside. It would follow the house up and be less of an eye sore.

 

[muscamoot]

Whee, that looks like fun. Well the stack would be less visually dominant than that yellow wiggly guy and in the back yard. But it sounds like you are set on the LR. If so, it will probably need a fan to assist circulation to the main part of the house, but that can be done.

No, I am not set on LR, but maybe if I leave my airman up all year long he would distract from the large chimney.

 

[muscamoot]

The other option I had ruled out because I read about outside chimney draft issues, is to put stove along right side wall of family room (#3) and have chimney go out wall with all outside chimney. Maybe I should consider this?

I like this option, a good class A at the proper height will draft just fine even if it's outside. It would follow the house up and be less of an eye sore.

Sounds like that may be the new plan then. I read that it would not draft properly. I am leaning #3

 

[rdust]

Woodside Fireview I hope.

I believe the fireview is going to more of a radiant style heater, not sure if this is the best choice or if one of the more convective designs would be better for the layout. You'll still get natural convection either way I believe. Once you get the location picked out you can worry about the stove choice.

 

[begreen]

We are cross-posting. With a straight up pipe, I don't think you would have a drafting issue with the stove at location #2. Yes, an outside pipe can work too, especially with the extra height it would require to clear the roof sufficiently. So #3 could work.

More process thinking here. I'm wondering if location 2 could be moved into the room more so that maybe the existing linen closet could be extended to include a pipe chase?

 

[muscamoot]

We are cross-posting. With a straight up pipe, I don't think you would have a drafting issue with the stove at location #2. Yes, an outside pipe can work too, especially with the extra height it would require to clear the roof sufficiently. So #3 could work.

More process thinking here. I'm wondering if location 2 could be moved into the room more so that maybe the existing linen closet could be extended to include a pipe chase?

Your first suggested possible stove location would not be good because of the location of the kitchen table in the dinette area. The second position may line up with the linen closes above, but having half the back of the stove out in the open would not be pleasing (to me) and the chimney would still be about nine feet from the roofs peak, so I would still need about a nine foot tall chimney with braces up on the roof.

Thank you for the suggestions.

 

[muscamoot]

Woodside Fireview I hope.

I believe the fireview is going to more of a radiant style heater, not sure if this is the best choice or if one of the more convective designs would be better for the layout. You'll still get natural convection either way I believe. Once you get the location picked out you can worry about the stove choice.

Why would a convection design be better for my layout (#3)? I like the looks of the fireview, but am impressed with the burn times claimed for the Blaze Kings (expensive).

 

[eclecticcottage]

If you get a good convection style stove I think it will heat pretty good from the family room.

No joke-When I first get the Lopi going and heating up, I can feel the cool air being drawn in from the rest of the house as it starts 'convecting'. We set it up so the stove sits on the back wall of the living room facing a hall which leads to the rest of the house (if you picture an H it's basically how our house is, each end of the H, the | part is open, one is the living room the other is the kitchen and dining room. The - is a hall that the bedroom and bath come off of). The blower only helps it move around even more.