Wood Heat Thread ~ post pics

I've got this year's wood squared away, but I fell behind this year because I dislocated my shoulder at the end of July and lost about 6 weeks before the doc would let me swing my splitting maul again. So I'll have to do double duty next year to get ahead of the curve again.

 

Almost done stacking what I have cut and split. It is about a cord and a third so far. Trees in back should put it close on 3 cords when done, plus I have a little over a cord that I moved with me.

 

Looking for advice with for a prefab'd fire place.

Yeah, it sucks, but the house I bought has a prefabbed fireplace. So an insulated box with a wood-burning insert stuck in there. Doesn't even have real brick, just ceramic molded sheets with the lines etched in to look like brick that cover the sheet metal of the insert.

Anyways...... What's the best route to go about get this swapped out for a wood stove? There is one fireplace store in town but they have absolutely terrible hours, aren't open weekends, and I can never seem to catch them on the phone. I'd really like to have a stove versus the terrible in-efficient fireplace that I might be losing more heat out of than generating. I still burn the hell out of some wood in it, but it's starting to take its toll as there are cracks starting to develop in the fake brick sheets inside of it.

Anyone have any experience with something like this? At least here in NC, I have plenty of oak to burn which is a good change from the pines/fir back home in Idaho.

 

Any pictures so we can see what it looks to be? Is it a prefabbed model like what you'd see in mobile home or something similar? Is it built into a corner/wall or is it free standing?

 

Cleaned out the secondary combustion tubes and air chambers, replaced the ceramic insulating blanket over them, then resealed, regasketed, and reblacked the cast iron and pipe on the Cellar Monster today. Also sanded off a couple of baked-on rust stains from a leaky pot from last winter and polished off a couple of scuffs in the soapstone from god knows what. Now she's like a brand-new stove again and we're ready to tell Old Man Winter where he can stick his icicles.

 

Pictures as requested. It is built into the wall. Made by Superior Fireplace.

 

Masonary chimney ?

 

No, it appears to be just an insulated rectangle with the stainless chimney tube up the middle. It has the same vinyl siding on the chimney as the rest of the house, I don't believe they would throw vinyl over brick.

 

You'll have to pull the existing clearance unit and reconfigure the bottom section of the insulated chimney to come out the wall , extend your hearth , fix big hole in the wall

 

Love cutting wood. Picture of last winter cutting up a downed fur tree on the back 40

 

X2.
Unfortunately there's no easy/cheap way to retrofit one of those units, unless you mickey mouse it. I've seen them before where people have ripped the doors off the fireplace, extended the hearth, put a woodstove on it and shoved a round stovepipe up the existing square clearance unit.
Technically it works, but by no means does it meet code. For very good reasons. NOT a safe setup.

 

Well I certainly appreciate the insight. That's all depressing to hear as all I see are dollar signs in those words. I'm thinking it would just be much better to keep being inefficient with burning wood in the current insert more for atmosphere than actual heat output. I would absolutely love a wood stove, but I'm not sure I would love it $3000+ compared to keeping the fireplace.

 

Beautiful straight tree... could have been a ship's mast.

 

Do they not make masts from FOHC lumber ?

 

The English navy used to use whole white pine trunks for ship's masts. Called them King's Pines here in New England, and anybody who was caught cutting one was subject to a fine of 100 Pounds. Lot of $$ in the 1700s.

Not sure if they used to cut them into parts and then reassemble them to eliminate the heartwood, though.

 

Poaching trees and getting caught in southern Wisconsin will cost you $10000 per tree
We had a problem with poaching of black walnut in the area last spring

 

Around here it is market value plus if I'm not mistaken.
The usfs sells permits for cheap to help with winter clean up along the road sides.
The state on the other hand would rather see it rot then someone use it for heat...

 

Downed wood is part of the natural regenerative cycle of the forest , so I can understand having differet priorities depending on the land use

 

Yeah the general consensus now is to leave the slash in the woods during cuttings.

 

Slash offers cover and structure for stuff much like a ocean reef. And as Oz said shortly replenishes the soil.