What would you do?

[mfglickman]

Do you have vents in the ceilings to your upstairs? We are opening the original square vents that were shut from when the house had a coal stove. Our guess is that the two upstairs bedrooms on the opposite side of the house will need supplemental heat if anything. I will have to let you know how we make out with our insert. I'm going to try to stay optimistic because I want to be self sufficient with heat.

We have vents in the ceilings in the old part of the house where the kids' bedroom is above. That works OK, gravity and all that being our friend. We wanted to add those same register/vents to the addition, since the woodstove is in there and let's face it, kids end up in our bed too half the time, so that room should be warm. HOWEVER I learned that this is a HUGE no no in terms of modern day firecode. Which makes sense if you think about it. So I'm leaving the existing ones, but not adding any more.

Be optimistic by all means! But I wanted to throw in my $.02 before you do your installation to think hard about where you could put that stove and how you'll circulate the air if you put it where you say - 'cause for me, it doesn't work and I found out the hard way once the 700 lb stove was installed.

 

[Ed Williams]

Finding a stove that can be installed as a hearth stove in your situation, and meets all your expectations, I think is gonna be tough. Another option not discussed is to decommission the old fireplace and the old chimney, partially rip out the old appliance, brick up the fireplace opening, extend the hearth and install a freestanding stove with a straight up flue all its own. Just some more food for thought. Rick

View attachment 111348

You could approximate this installation, but tap into a liner tee near the ceiling height in the FP chimney, avoiding running new chimney through the second floor, and less expensive than lining all the way down to the lintel. This assumes the FP chimney is in good enough shape to put a liner in the top portion. Also, you would get more usable heat via the tall connector pipe. Single wall connector provides more heat, and less cost if you can provide 18" clearance from pipe to combustibles. If you need double wall/close clearance connector pipe, cost may be a wash, or a bit higher this way. Given the brick up the wall, I really like this look.