11/6

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WE HAVE HEAT!

We worked all day yesterday to get the chimney and wood cook stove installed. There was heavy fog up until 11:00 AM, so we had to wait till then for the metal roof to dry to get out on it.

For the roof cut-out, I marked it from below and drilled out the corners so it could be marked from above. I then cut out the metal with tin snips, the roofing felt with a utility knife, and the sheathing with a circular saw. The tin snips left a very jagged uneven cut, and took nearly a half hour to do. If I had to do it over again, I'd use a circular saw with either a demolition or diamond-tipped blade to cut through the entire roof from above. I'd also cut the square out a little bigger than necessary to we wouldn't have to wrestle with the support box to get it into position.

The support box was not that difficult to install perfectly level, and was mounted to a box framed around it using headers and mini-sections of rafter to support where I'd cut out a rafter to center the chimney.

The 5' chimney locked into place reasonably plumb, but has a wobble to it as the bottom of the support box is not a very heavy-gauge sheet metal. Installation guidelines say only a chimney over 5' needs supported with brackets to the roof - but the chimney has such a wobble we worry a good gust would tear it off so we'll have to order the support brackets [another $100].

The rubber boot gasket was not fun to put in. We cut it so it slid tightly down over the chimney so there would be a good seal. But because of the angle of the chimney versus the roof, the 17" boot hardly covered the 13" roof hole for the support box. And when we sealed it down with polyurethane and rubber-gasketed metal screws every inch or two around the perimeter after molding it to the ribbed roof, the boot pulled the chimney out of plumb. Next time for sure we'd order a larger boot. But the boot itself has some manufacturing errors. For one the flat base of the boot should extend longer on the down slope side like conventional flashing. The other is that though the gasket part of the boot is labelled for where to cut according to your chimney diameter, it should also have marked how to cut for the chimney-roof angle. An oval cut would keep the boot-gasket from pulling the chimney out of plumb. If we'd cut a little deeper on the up-slope side the chimney would not have been pulled up-slope.

Anyway we got it in and also got covered in sticky polyurethane [supposedly longer-lasting than silicone]. We also sealed the top of the boot against the chimney with a fireproof Metacaulk - a red non-toxic putty, than when moistened with spit smooths out nicely. The chimney cap just took a moment to lock on to the top of the chimney. The support brackets with not only support the chimney but pull it back to exactly plumb [it's not really visibly out of plumb from below, so it's not that bad].

The girls gathered firewood, I positioned the sheet of Durock we got from Vic and screwed it to the floor marking the exact stove position so the flue outlet-chimney position would be exactly plumb. We'd researched all kinds of different insulated hearth ideas till we talked to a retailer who dealt mostly in these types of cook stoves. He said it doesn't get hot underneath the stove at all - his cat sleeps under it. He had a balloon at a party get stuck under it and it didn't even pop. So we opted for a temporary sheet of 1/2" Durock and 4 tiles 1/4" thick to get the right stove height [the entire lower story when it is floored will have some type of tile].

Putting the pipe together didn't take long, the gaps in the oval flue outlet were caulked with Metacaulk which requires no curing time so we immediately fired up the stove. It works like a dream. No smoke, the cook surface got very hot very fast, the water in the reservoir started heating up, and the loft part of the cabin went up to 75 degrees [35 outside]. The girls room did not get nearly that hot though as heat rises from the stove and tends to get trapped in the loft.

We're going to try several ways of fixing this. First we're going to insulate their ceiling to hold the heat they do get in. Keep the french doors wide open to see if over time their room gets warm. If this doesn't work we'll install vents in the lower loft wall that we share with the girls' room. This way heat can move through here to them. Ultimately the entire wall needs removed between the main part of the cabin and the addition, which of course would help tremendously. We'll take it one step at a time.

Rachel got the stove going this morning. A light frost outside, and already sixties inside. Very nice. The stove burns the wood very efficiently - nothing like a campfire.

Today we're going to straighten up the kitchen after yesterday's construction, stockpile wood in a corner of the cabin, cut more, and start insulating the ceiling of the girls' room.

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