Fox T-Bird/Cougar Forums

My 110 year old house had a 40 year old combination wood/oil furnace when I bought it. This furnace was getting very long in the tooth, to the point it was getting unsafe. Last year toward the end of the heating season I noticed it was filling the house with smoke. I took it apart, got out a mirror, and inspected the inside of the heat exchanger, and discovered it was rusted out (thus removing the barrier between the fire and the ducting). In short, it was shiznit.

The thing was a pig anyway, burning 7-8 cords of wood per season PLUS several hundred gallons of oil. And I never did feel comfortable with a fire burning unattended in the basp00get. Time to go.

I didn't want another oil appliance because furnace oil is $4/gallon around here. When I rewired the house I installed electric heat, but that's still a hellish expensive way to heat this old  shack.

Enter the woodstove. I'd wanted one since I bought the house, but the furnace  shiznitting the bed kinda rushed it along. The sale of the T-Bird funded the project (fear not, I will save up to get a replacement Cougar, Mark VII or four-eye Bird next year). It's an EPA certified "clean" stove (the fire burns the strangest way I've ever seen) and it heats this house like crazy. The old furnace could barely take the chill out of the air; the night before last it was -9 celsius and windy and the house was a sauna. The furnace would burn about a dozen and a half sticks of wood per day, this stove burns about 7 or 8.

The new stove itself:

To vent the flue gases I had a few choices: Either install a stainless steel insulated chimney on the side of the house (expensive and not ideal as I wanted to mount the stove central to the house) or tap into the existing masonry chimney, which has a stainless liner. I remembered when I redid the interior that there was a breech in the brick chimney in the living room, so I cut some drywall away and found it:


Unfortunately there was no breech in the stainless liner inside the masonry:

Now, that lack of a breech may seem like a simple problem to overcome, but this was the biggest headache to this entire project. My plan was to disconnect the furnace in the basp00get, pull the stainless liner up 8 feet, turn it 180 degrees so that the breech in it lines up with the breech in the livingroom, and away we go. Sounds simple, right?

Well, my house is 1.5 story, the roof has a 12/12 pitch (that means 45 degree slope), and the chimney is right at the peak. And I am deathly afraid of heights. I figued I'd get a chimney guy out to do that part. I called every one listed in the phone book. Most didn't return my call, one guy shoed up and said it'd be no problem and I never heard from him again, and one guy showed up and said it'd be a HUGE job, and would cost at least $1700. I figure this was a "shag off" price, and I took it as such. I ended up gathering my wits, getting help from a friend with no such fear of heights, and doing the chimney mod myself. I have no pics during the chimney mod because it was dirty work and I didn't wanna stop it to take pictures...
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I hope you get it burning sone. Wood stoves work great. When I lived with my father inlaw it kept the house too hot.

...Anyway, I got the chimney done. This was only half the battle. Now that I was sure I could put the stove where I wanted I had to build a hearth pad. My floor is very uneven (the joists are logs) so first up was to build a plywood platform. I also had to repair the holes in the drywall that I made while working on the chimney. I covered the plywood platform with ceramic tile:

And then finally the stove was placed on the pad:

Once it was set up on the pad I connected the stove pipe, and it was time for some HEAT!

Now today I was able to get the tile up on the wall. The wall tiles need to be grouted, and then some minor trim installed, that wall painted, and the stove project will be complete!

So in doing this project I've added HVAC tech and brick layer to my resume... God, owning a house, especially an old one, is a PITA...

Nice work. You did a great job on the hearth area.I can certainly appreciate what you're going through.Our house was built in the 40's. No cellar or upstairs....thank God. We installed central heat and air,removed the floor furnace,ave remodeled every single room except the rest of the bathroom (I just refloored it). One step at a time. It can get expensive,but we learn a lot. Again Carmen, Nice work.

I hear that

Very nice, looks like a finished product alright. Glad to hear you're nice and toasty now lol.

Awesome job, and looks like a good little wood burner, too.

My 32 year old house is starting to get it's share of problems. Some of the wiring in the basp00get needs to be redone, several of my pvc water pipes leak, and a couple of my drains as well. The basp00get wall is bowing in on the south side, and has 3 or 4 big-assed cracks. The carpet is all faded and we're going to start with the mudroom over the winter and work our way in, new tile flooring, new(er) paint, move the washer/dryer upstairs, and put a smaller deep freeze in as well. Also my porches are rotting and falling in, I cut off half of the back one and redone it, still have to do the front, thinking about eliminating it till spring. Also need new storm doors, and almost done putting metal on the roof. Whew, lol.

I really like it. Nice job. I'm a bit envious. We have a wood pellet stove. It's a cheaper py one and I can't wait to pick up a nice harmon. We have an old cast wood stove for back up but it doesn't get used.

Looking good, sir, looking good :cool:

My brother has the very same (identical, actually) unit in the basp00get of his 80-year-old Pittsburgh house. It radiates an insane amount of heat when it's cookin', and his furnace only kicks over when it's really cold outside. The heat rises up through the stairway and feeds the entire first and second floors. He even puts a pot of water on top to act as a humidifier, and the water evaporates very quickly. That's a very nice (and cheap) bonus to the whole thing; you should consider that.

You said it burns in the strangest way - his does also. I asked him about the odd-looking flames and he told me that it recirculates the smoke to maximize efficiency (secondary burn?) and to reduce schmutz in the chimney; much like an EGR system, I'm assuming. He also said the "glass" on the door was some kind of NASA-grade ceramic material.

Nice choice.

Nice unit , glad to see you will be keeping warm up there in the Arctic Circle