I got a WS IS ordered to heat my freestanding workshop, super excited to be warm working on everything this winter! It was a cold hard winter last year, which was our first year in the Southern Appalachians. I’d appreciate some advice on installation. It’s going on slab with concrete foundation up the wall about 8.5 feet, then Sheetrock wall up another 8ft. So the ceiling is about 16.5ft up. Planning to go straight up through the ceiling and the roof just above the ceiling. First, do I need a hearth or is the foundation sufficient as a non-combustible? I’m assuming I don’t need one, but any suggestions or preferences about what the stove sits on? How high up can I run single wall pipe before I lose too much heat? I guess I need double wall pipe next to the combustible wall. Thinking I’ll buy supervent from Menards online. Has anyone hired a sweep to install their chimney without buying the parts from them? Thanks, so pumped to join the club with a WS and hopefully a VF100 soon!
Plenty safe setting it on the slab. Mind your pipe clearance to combustibles required above the concrete foundation. I'd use double wall connector pipe from the stove on up to the ceiling for sure with 16.5' before the roof penetration. Cat stoves typically run a rather low exhaust temp. Double wall will help keep exhaust from condensing and creating excessive creosote buildup. Menards is my go to supplier of pipe! Never had any real trouble other than a couple pipe ends that needed some massaging after shipping. I like a piece of telescoping double wall right on the stove for bottom up cleaning. 8.5' of uninsulated concrete foundation is going to suck heat big time. As it does in a basement install. Rule of thumb seems to be up to a 1/3 rd of heat produced is lost to the crete and ground in a un insulated basement install. Food for thought. Just a few of my thoughts/opinions. Others will surely chip in with there opinions. Enjoy.
Congratulations on the new stove. You'll love it! I would not be concerned with a hearth in the shop but would recommend double wall pipe with it being that high before exiting the roof.
Ok, double wall all the way up then! Thanks for the help folks! I’ll get back here and post pictures once I get it in, should be sometime in the next month I think.
In my detached shop I installed a cheaper noncat stove on the slab with 14’ ceilings several years ago. It’s 71 out there right now, mid 30s ambient and windy. I got a permit for it and they required the stove be 18” off the slab so I built a concrete block pedestal type hearth. Really, I think you should consider the ugly but powerful wood furnace for the shop and the IS for the house. So often I walk into the cold shop and have to run the stove at max output all day to heat the slab, the equipment, and the air to 70. You want power!
I don't think the furnace would do well with cold temps and trying to pump huge BTUs into the space in a short period of time. The VFs, and most (all) modern clean burn wood furnaces are more of a marathon runner rather than a sprinter. In other words, it would probably heat the space easily, if you wanted to keep it at a constant temp 24/7...
If you stay with the stove in the shop as opposed to a furnace type, a piece or two of reflective material behind the stove can reflect the heat back into the shop instead of putting heat into the concrete wall. My basement install has a piece of corragated metal roofing mounted to the wall with long screws into anchors with 1" long 3/8" pipe spacers to keep some airspace between it and the wall. It seems to work well to re-gain the radiant heat that would have been lost to the concrete. The wall stays much cooler and the metal panel really doesn't warm up that much either (barely above ambient air temp).
This is a good idea, thanks! I think I will put up two 4x8 sheets next to each other. I was planning on a small fan blowing cold air towards the stove from wherever I am in the shop, and another blowing warm air towards my location from the stove.
My Ideal Steel is in our basement too. It is a walkout or daylight basement so the back of the house is exposed and finished with stick building (with insulation in the framing) but the other 3 sides are brick. The previous owners just painted the brick and never insulated the brick walls so I think I'm loosing a good amount of heat through the walls. I want to insulate these walls and will but my stove sits in one of the corners and I don't want to pull it away from the brick any further as the horizontal run through the brick wall is already 12 to 16" before the chimney goes up on the exterior of the house. Should I leave the stove 7" from the brick and build a none combustible wall between the brick and stove? or move it away 5 more inches and insulate the wall with framing and such... Things that roll around in my head and keep me awake.
