Zorak had yesterday off, in honor of Veteran's Day. We celebrated by working on the stove installation. (Sweetheart, thank you for your service to your country. Can you fix this, too, please?) No rest for the capable!
Oh, and for those who asked, this is the stove we purchased. If you want, I can list the pros/cons that led us to this one. It was a ball park homerun over anything carried at Lowe's or Home Depot, for overall utility (construction, design, and features), as well as overall value.
We have nothing to show for it yet, really, unless you count CAD drafts, which just don't make for interesting blogging. First, we had to figure out where to put it. (Check.) Then, we had to come up with a good, fireproof platform to put it on. (Not-so-check.) Or, sorta-check. It's hard to say, with us.
The floor is laminate, which is fantastic for living with five children! Not so fantastic for coping with hot cast iron. According to the spec sheet, just a layer of stove board would suffice, but we're all about over-engineering, if nothing else. So, here's the plan:
* 3/4" plywood base, extending to the specified dimensions around the stove. (Ideally, we'd screw that base to the floor, but just on the off chance that anyone would ever want to move the stove, screw holes would entail removing the floor from all the way at the other end of the kitchen, including moving the mongo-stove, just to replace the planks with holes - that would probably cause a lot of angry language and possibly some domestic abuse, which we wouldn't want to wish on anyone. So, we're going to put the spongy shelf liners - you know, the ones your Grandma has on her shelves. You can't slide anything across those. Ever.)
* Thinset/mortar atop the plywood base, to which we'll apply brick pavers in a lovely, semi-decorative design, thus providing the first layer of fireproof barrier beneath the stove.
(Editor's note: we wanted to put a layer of hardibacker between the plywood and the bricks, and would recommend anyone who has floor joists with the integrity to handle the weight do so. The stove isn't terribly dynamic - I mean, if it MOVES, you've probably got bigger issues than just the plywood base. But, it wouldn't hurt to have that additional support. We, however, haven't got such noble joists, and the more we thought about it, the more terrified we became of putting THAT much weight on that spot of floor. So. Just in the spirit of full disclosure.)
* The bricks are not a solid layer, but rather a full perimeter, with interior bricks placed to support the legs of the stove. Atop this, we'll put a stove board, thus providing another fireproof layer, as well as creating dead air space within the structure.
(Again with the editor's notes... man, this editor is busy today! If your joists can handle it, go with the full-brick option. But if you've seen the posts supporting the spine of this house, you understand why we chose to get creative with the goal of weight-reduction. Those posts will be replaced one day, and we'll probably re-do the brick layout then, but we have full confidence that this current design will provide more than ample protection for the floor.)
We'll trim it out nicely, for aesthetics. Finally, the stove goes atop all of that (which probably sounds monstrously tall, but it's not), and then we will have heat.
Wait. No, we won't have heat. THEN, we've got to transfer the attic assembly to the new location, repair the hole in the roof from the removal, put a new hole in the roof (with all the joyful flashing and caulking that entails), hook it up, double-check to make sure EmBaby hasn't put another baby doll in the firebox (that's a disturbing thing to see, first thing in the morning!), run a few initial light-n-pray leak tests. And THEN we'll have heat!
See? Nothin' to it!
Kiss those babies!
~Dy
7 comments:
Oh gee, since you made it sound so difficult we will never get one now. ;0) blessings.
Oh, Abiga, "difficult" is in the eye of the beholder! It only has to be this complex if you're married to an engineer-type. And the, he thinks it's fun. I'm sure the experience, as told through my non-engineering filter, is a WHOLE different animal, kwim?
Oh Dy,
What a beautiful wood stove!
Don't really need one here in San Diego. :-(
How's Embaby?
Hoping all of your family is well.
~sdWTMer
MIL planned her wood burning stove when she built the house. She has brick 6x6 hearth that the stove sits on. (It was the wood stove that her mother cooked on in the 1930's and 40's) And she has a dedicated chimney.
We hate the hearth because you can't help but catch the corner when you walk by. An oval would have been better, but no one asked me.
However, the kiln she has is on a stove board over linolium. It hasn't fallen through the floor....yet. But it hasn't scortched the floor.
Where exactly is the stove going?
Sounds like quite a job, but that stove is so pretty. The idea of picking up fuel from your own back yard to heat the house has Tremendous appeal to me just now, as we shiver and nurse along the gas & oil! (And I know just what you mean about not wanting to put too much weight on the floor. The support beams in our basement have huge, scary cracks in them, and every so often Ed looks at them and says he really needs to get around to getting more metal supports. I tell the kids Not to jump or walk heavily in the house.)
Love the link ~ great looking stove! Great store: Tractor Supply? Love the name, will have to see if there are any in our neck of the Pacific Northwest. We have a Del's Farm Supply, but it doesn't appear to have near the offerings of "TS".
Enjoy it all! You've got a lovely shade of prosperity going down their in the south:)
Thanks for sharing.
Pamela
Post a Comment