Stove in basement delima and questions?

[bord]

Bought a house about 8 years ago and included was a Fisher Grandpa Bear, I believe?, in the main living room area. Stove is about 32-36 inches? wide with 2 front doors. I love this stove and it puts out serious heat. We just remodeled this family room, took down wood paneling and put up drywall and pulled the carpet and installed hardwood. This combined with years of my wife nagging about the mess, dust, smell, intense heat I finally agreed to take the Fisher to the basement. I knew it wouldnt be efficient so here are my questions...

Its a full basement, unfinished bare block with 7 foot celing. I can keep the basement 80+ degrees no problem by just feeding the stove of the morning and again in the evening. Stove is located directly under the family room but its on one end of the house. On mild days above 50 degrees enough heat trickles up to keep the house in the upper 60's. When it drops below freezing its kind of pointless to even have a fire. Again, I knew this was going to be the case.

I'm not trying to heat the whole house, just supplement our central air system and propane stove on the other end of the house. Plus I enjoy cutting and gathering firewood.

Thought # 1. Build a wall in the basement that closes off the section directly under our family room, where we spend most of our time. Insulate this new basement room and install drywall or some other wall covering? Cut out 2 grates/vents directly above the wood stove and use my central air fan to draw heat out of the basement and to the return located in the center of the house. I have an HVAC buddy who can get me some kind of code approved vent/grate thingy that auto close in case of a fire. I like this idea the best as I can do the work myself for fairly reasonable expense. Plus I dont have to be as careful with my mess in the basement.

Thought # 2. My wife has a friend with a Hearthstone SoapStone stove which is beautiful. This friend claims there is little to no smell and very little dust. This would go in the main family room. The downside is these things are mega expensive and I would still have to deal with tracking in dirt and debris bringing wood in. I could practically drywall and insulate my entire basement for the cost of one of these.

Thought # 3. Install gas logs in family room and forget wood alltogether. This sucks because I have access to as much hardwood as I can cut and gather.

 

[beerman6]

#3 should be erased from this forum AND your brain!

 

[cnice_37]

What kind of house is it? My first thoughts are 4 vents, 2 on side with stove for warm air to get to first floor, 2 on far side for cold air return.

I like my stove on the main floor for aesthetics and getting my wife to shed clothing. But it is messy (wood in house, not wife disrobing...)

 

[FatJay]

I"m considering putting a stove in my basement, currently I have the one in the den and a fireplace in the living room, in close proximity to doors. My biggest concern with the one in the basement, is I have no door to the outside, which means I have to haul wood in the back door, through the den, down the hallway, then to the basement. Sometimes wood is nice and clean and doesn't make a mess. Usually, it isn't clean and creates a huge mess. My fiance wouldn't complain much hte first few months, but after that she'd get pretty tired of cleaning I"m sure, to the point that I'm fairly certain I'd no longer be allowed to have fires down there.

If you have a basement door that leads outside, however, that's perfect. I just wish I had one.

 

[Rsquared]

Thought # 3. Install gas logs in family room and forget wood alltogether. This sucks because I have access to as much hardwood as I can cut and gather.
We will forgive this momentary lapse of reason this time...


I like your Thought # 1. That is my vote..

 

[Fred Wright]

I wouldn't build a wall around a wood burner to get heat upstairs but that's just me.

When I lived in VA we had a big honkin' Riteway in the basement. That's where the flue thimble was so it's where the stove went. Set of double doors to the yard, loading in wood was a breeze. It heated the place very well and the floors were always warm.

We kept the upstairs basement door open so heat would get to the rest of the house. I wanted to install a grate in the hall floor, above the stove but the missus (at the time) nixed that idea. Couple years later we divorced, I got a duplex apartment with central heat/AC and it didn't matter anymore.

I've been in older houses that were built before forced air heating. They mostly had a free-standing heater, or furnace under the floor with a grate in the ceiling directly above. Heat rises through the grate and warms the rooms upstairs. In summer they'd lay a rug over the vent to cover it.

 

[bord]

What kind of house is it? My first thoughts are 4 vents, 2 on side with stove for warm air to get to first floor, 2 on far side for cold air return.

I guess its a ranch style. Our bedrooms are on the far end, kitchen and dining room in the center and largish family room on other end where the stove/chimney are located. Wonder how 4 vents would work when the heat pump fan come on?

Also, yes I have an outside stairwell going down into the basement. Its great exercise, doesnt matter if my shoes are muddy, and I can store quite a bit of wood down there!

 

[bord]

I wouldn't build a wall around a wood burner to get heat upstairs but that's just me.

Not building a wall around it, closing off an area of my basement approx 22x15. Creating a new room if you will by building a simple wall.

 

[whatscooking]

#4 Let your wife see how cold the house is now and let her ask you to bring the stove back up. We have a soapstone stove in our house and this thing heats super.

 

[MotorSeven]

Bord are your basement walls underground? The reason I am asking is that a plain jane cinderblock wall has a R-Value of 1(that's right ONE). So if the house does not heat up when it's really cold outside it's because your basement walls are letting all that basement stove heat outside. Insulate them if needed and save wood/frustration/heat.

I am heating with a stove in my basement and have not cut a single hole in the floor yet.....(spiral staircase is on the way, so that's about to change), but without a cold air return your main floor will not heat to it's potential. Most wood heated basements use the stairwell for it's cold air return so try leaving the basement door open or cracked next time you fire up the stove.

Be careful about chopping a bunch of holes in the floor, only do a couple at a time, run the stove and test things out. You can also use computer fans and a 2-3" tube to push warm basement air up through a small hole in the main floor...it has been done successfully.

 

[blackdogon57]

A properly installed/sized modern wood stove should not smell or make a mess in your house. The best place to put the stove is the place in the house where you hang out the most.

 

[dave_dj1]

If you do have cinder block walls in the basement and they aren't insulated, I would first insulate them with some high-R (1") then either leave the cellar door open or what we used to have growing up was a half door inside the regular door. Then maybe a register above the stove. As a child our house was a ranch with cinder block foundation, no insulation on the blocks and a wood stove in the basement, we were never cold. We had a wonder wood stove. Are you getting heat out of your stove or are you trying to get long burn times (stove is not living up to it's potential)? Maybe your house is bigger than the stove can heat? I'know with enough tending you will be able to heat the house fine with the stove. Do you have combustion air intake? Maybe the stove is starved for air?

 

[Arbonaut]

#4 Let your wife see how cold the house is now and let her ask you to bring the stove back up. We have a soapstone stove in our house and this thing heats super.

Thought # 5 Send her over to the mother in law's get beer and get wasted.

 

[PEKS]

I carry my wood thru the house to the basement, no mess..
Haul it large storage containers, stock up good, do not mind the hike at all..
Heat circulates through the cold-air return from vent installed above stove, basement door stays open..
I like the basement, wife usually doesn't, works for me..

 

[danrclem]

I would have to go with idea #1.

I have a Granpa Bear in my basement wich is sectioned off so it's not heating the entire basement and it stays comfortable upstairs even in single digit weather. My house is well insulated though.

 

[mga]

so, you have a car that's paid for, but doesn't get good gas mileage and you spend 40 bucks a month more for gas.

to correct this, you run out and but a new car, put a few grand down and now make $300 monthly payments for the next 72 months.....all to save $40 a month.

likewise, you're going to spend several thousand dollars remodeling and installing all kinds of stuff to save on a gas bill to heat your home?

first thing you need to do is get your whole home updated. ie: insulated and sealed. it's pointless to do anything if it isn't efficient. even burning wood...free or not...is a waste if you are losing heat.

once done, then carefully invest in a good wood heater that will satisfy the whole house...not just a room in the basement when the temps outside are above 60.

 

[Kevin in Ohio]

I"m considering putting a stove in my basement, currently I have the one in the den and a fireplace in the living room, in close proximity to doors. My biggest concern with the one in the basement, is I have no door to the outside, which means I have to haul wood in the back door, through the den, down the hallway, then to the basement. Sometimes wood is nice and clean and doesn't make a mess. Usually, it isn't clean and creates a huge mess. My fiance wouldn't complain much hte first few months, but after that she'd get pretty tired of cleaning I"m sure, to the point that I'm fairly certain I'd no longer be allowed to have fires down there.

If you have a basement door that leads outside, however, that's perfect. I just wish I had one.

You might want to consider what My Dad did 30 years ago. Make yourself a wood "chute". His holds about 3/4's of a cord. You fill it from the outside and it has a angled lift door to divert rain water away. Inside there is another door for access in the basement. Keeps a lot of the dirt and bugs out of the house. We dug it out by hand and laid sheet limestone rocks and mort back up. Poured a tapered floor with drain to the curtain drain on the foundation. Floor is about a foot lower than inside door. No problems in 30 years.

 

[buggyspapa]

Against fire codes?

I thought I'd read that cutting holes in the floor for returns was a no no according to fire codes. I'd love to do it in my rented place and keep the stove in the basement, but the landlord is fire-paranoid and would go nuts. (Why he has a stove in the house is beyond me.) I tried heating from the basement last year, but even with insulated walls, it is too much of a heat sink to warm the upstairs efficiently, and moving the air up the stairs is a PITA.

I don't think the brand of stove is going to have much effect on the amount of mess. You're still dragging the wood through the house and ash out.

 

[bubba3228]

A properly installed/sized modern wood stove should not smell or make a mess in your house. The best place to put the stove is the place in the house where you hang out the most.

+1
I had an add a furnace in the basement, moved an older VC to the main level and am so much happier with that. If you like your basement set up keep it, build your mancave and enjoy. Add another stove on the upper level too and have the best of both.

 

[MotorSeven]

Every house is different and your right, basement heating is not always the best way to go, but it does work in many houses. The jury is still out on mine, once I get the staircase in & the two exposed walls insulated I will be able to give it a thumbs up or down. The reason I went with a basement stove is for several reasons. The size of the stove(100,000 btu an hr), I built the basement 10' tall so I can drive my tractor right in there with a pallet of firewood on the forks. I have garage door and a walk out door so access to the stove is a breeze.

Upstairs I cheated and put in a propane fireplace insert................:shut-mouth: