Hi folks. Relatively new here, but I've burned for years. Stoves, and pellet inserts mainly. Long story short, we had a woodstove in our finished basement when we bought our home four years ago. We had a house fire on 2/23, and it burned to the ground. Everyone got out safe except for our cat who was older and very spoiled. Smoke detectors did their job, and we're here to talk about it. We'll be rebuilding, and will have a fireplace with insert on the main floor in the livingroom where we can keep an eye on it. Mrs. does not want any part of a stove, so in the interest of domestic tranquility, I'm looking for a good quality wood burning insert that puts out good heat. Thanks in advance for the suggestions, folks.
Nice to meet you, so sorry to hear about your home but glad you are all ok!!! Sorry about your cat. What caused the fire? We have a pre epa insert, but only use it during very cold weather or power outages now, I tried a pellet stove and I liked it.
Wow! Glad everybody got out! Sorry to hear about your loss. Welcome to the club, Scout24 ! Glad you found us and joined up! Was the fire caused by the wood stove??
First off, so sorry to hear about the fire and loss of your cat. What kind of opening are you working with? My Quadrafire 4100 insert is my primary heat source in my 1700 sq ft ranch. The insert is on the main floor.
Thanks, folks. We're rebuilding with a modular, so the opening size is kind of up in the air right now as we're in the design phase. The investigator was very thorough, and showed me what he thought happened. We had a block foundation with a lined block chimney. House was built in the late 90's. We moved in 4 years ago. There is a terra cotta liner in the chimney, and a thimble of the same material that comes through the block wall in the basement for the single wall pipe off the stove to go into. Previous to us, someone had studded out, insulated, and finished the basement. This enclosed the thimble in the wall. At some point, the botton third of the thimble cracked and fell in the wall, exposing the back of the sheetrock and the paper faced insulation in the wall to the single wall pipe. The fire was probably smoldering in the wall for hours before we were woken up by the detectors. We have burned 4-5 cords a year since we moved in, and have had the chimney professionally cleaned every fall. Below pic shows thimble, and smoke staining on the block wall behind the sheetrock. And my Hearthstone stove...
Yikes! That's a scary reminder! And I understand your wife's reluctance to have another wood stove. I had a stain on the wall like that also behind my oil furnace (before the wood stove was installed.) And the sill plate on the top of the block wall is black. I found this after demo'ing my oil furnace out and removing the paneling. I believe it may have been caused by a clogged flue and the oil furnace. The oil furnace flue pipe was inserted into a "hole" in the block chimney. Then patched up with furnace cement. This is where my clean out is now for the wood stove. I had the rigid SS liner (professionally) installed for the new wood stove after installing a new oil furnace on the other side of the basement with a direct vent. I used a wire brush to remove most of the black stain Close up of the sill plate. I'm not sure if it is just stained from some water damage or black because it is charred
Yikes! When you say the wife doesn't want a stove, does that mean she doesn't want a freestanding stove? Or that she doesn't want to operate a wood burner herself? I'm not sure I see a reason to pay for a fireplace if you're just gonna put an insert in it. Unless that's the only setup your wife feels safe with. A freestanding stove would be cheaper and more efficient. If your wife won't be operating the stove then a catalytic stove would be a big help by going longer between reloads.
She's against another freestanding stove since this one will be upstairs where we can "keep an eye on it" and not in the basement. She's ok with a woodburner, which I want, but wants it inset into the fireplace. Gotta keep momma happy, and having one at all after this is probably a big step for her right now...
Consider having a look at the Blaze King Ashford 25 or Scirocco 25 models. Both catalytic. New home's normally equal fine insulation values and are generally nicely sealed. I'd definitely consider a cat stove for these reasons. They can be turned down for a milder/longer heat output duration. Surely there are other makes of cat inserts to consider. I am just familiar with BK as a owner/user. I have a Scirocco 20 freestander that I just reloaded this AM after 19hrs. With plenty of coals to restart my fresh load. Some food for thought
Thanks, folks. I know nothing about the newer catalytic stuff having only known pellet and "box to burn wood in" stoves. Lots of research to do!
Scout, fyi, the "preformed" fireplace opening that was in this house severely restricted our choices of inserts, nice big opening but the back and sides are tapered. So, we bought a tiny insert that would fit inside the tapers, looked silly, the shroud was too small (and in the end the firebox was too small for us too). Anywho we now have our old pre epa woodstove 1/2 in there and 1/2 on the hearth. Not sure if they still use prefab fireplaces or what comes in a new manufactured homes but though I might mention it.
Holy [email protected] can be replaced, life can not. My house was built by the most incompetent, cheap@$$ fool on the planet. I overlooked the terrible tape/spackle job, the tragic finish carpentry etc., but this one made me purple with rage. When I bought the house, there was a Fisher Grandma Bear woodstove in the rec room....they seller said that they used it to heat the whole house during the winter. Great, I thought. The problem with it was that every time I used it, there was an overpowering smoke smell....I checked every joint in the stove pipe, looked for cracks or broken welds in the stove itself etc and could not find the source. After a year of heating with the smoke dragon, I switched to a Harman pellet stove and part of the installation included running 4-inch flexible stainless pellet pipe down the chimney and through the terra cotta wall thimble. No smoke smell. After three years, my wife wanted to move the pellet stove to the corner of the rec room so I had to rip the sheetrock off the wall, demo the terra cotta pipe thimble, put new insulation in etc. Well well well, guess what I found? Yup, a 3/4" gap between the terra cotta pipe that leaked smoke inside the wall every time I used the woodstove. All it would have taken was one decent ember to fall through that gap and a fire would have resulted. How this passed inspection is beyond me. Enjoy.
Not me. One example. My friend bought a newly inspected house. I was hired to install an on demand hot water heater. I took the cover off of the new 200 amp main breaker box. 60 amps fed it from the pole. On demand requires 90 amps. If I had hooked it up the main wire could have melted. Nice "inspection".
Truly, truly frightening, golf66. Glad it didn't happen to you! And Rearscreen- electric is a whole 'nother story!
