Hey!
This is kind of a combo question, but here's the situation.
We're planning to install some form of heating, most likely geothermal, but I want to be able to support it with a wood stove unless we go with a wood furnace, but enough about that.
The problem is that the local chimney sweep says nothing flammable can be closer than 2dm to the chimney, but how can we find this out without having to tear up the floors on at least two of three levels... the attic was fine, he said, but the middle floor needs to be checked. :S
Is there any way to x-ray the floors or use a stud finder or something similar that can be used for this purpose?
Sure, we could install pipes in the chimney, but we have 9 flues, five of which are smoke flues, two are 5m, two or three are 7m, and the last one to the basement is 10-12m, it would be cheaper to build a new chimney... :|
This is kind of a combo question, but here's the situation.
We're planning to install some form of heating, most likely geothermal, but I want to be able to support it with a wood stove unless we go with a wood furnace, but enough about that.
The problem is that the local chimney sweep says nothing flammable can be closer than 2dm to the chimney, but how can we find this out without having to tear up the floors on at least two of three levels... the attic was fine, he said, but the middle floor needs to be checked. :S
Is there any way to x-ray the floors or use a stud finder or something similar that can be used for this purpose?
Sure, we could install pipes in the chimney, but we have 9 flues, five of which are smoke flues, two are 5m, two or three are 7m, and the last one to the basement is 10-12m, it would be cheaper to build a new chimney... :|
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2dm??? Get someone else there...
Is it an old house where there was previously a fireplace? Then it should be okay anyway through testing over X number of years.
One option could be to install a stove or whatever you plan to have and have the chimney sweep measure the temperature on the chimney when you fire it up. Most likely there won't be any issues (check this with an expert on site, there might be something I'm overlooking here...).
Is it an old house where there was previously a fireplace? Then it should be okay anyway through testing over X number of years.
One option could be to install a stove or whatever you plan to have and have the chimney sweep measure the temperature on the chimney when you fire it up. Most likely there won't be any issues (check this with an expert on site, there might be something I'm overlooking here...).
Yes, there have been a total of 4 fireplaces plus a coke oven in the basement towards the end before we took over.
These were removed in the 70s, I think. We currently have a wood stove, but the idea was to install a kitchen stove as support for the geothermal heating in the winter and possibly a stove in the TV room.
It was when I mentioned the kitchen stove that he started rambling about it being classified as a new installation and should be this and that, etc. etc. blah blah.
I don't know anything about this and I don't bother discussing with "officials."
I'll simply have to contact someone who works with this and see what they say.
Regarding wooden floors, we have them, but those who built this house were very serious, so there's not a nail head visible in the floors from -33
These were removed in the 70s, I think. We currently have a wood stove, but the idea was to install a kitchen stove as support for the geothermal heating in the winter and possibly a stove in the TV room.
It was when I mentioned the kitchen stove that he started rambling about it being classified as a new installation and should be this and that, etc. etc. blah blah.
I don't know anything about this and I don't bother discussing with "officials."
I'll simply have to contact someone who works with this and see what they say.
Regarding wooden floors, we have them, but those who built this house were very serious, so there's not a nail head visible in the floors from -33
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Since you don't have any nail lines, another solution, apart from a stud finder, is to carefully remove a baseboard that runs perpendicular to the direction you believe the joists are running. Since you have old wooden floors, you probably have a fairly large gap between the floor and the wall where you can see the joists. At least, that's how it has been in our house, which has wooden floors from the 1920s. This way, you will at least get an indication of where the joists are in relation to the fireplace. Then I agree with kalubah, 2 decimeters sounds a lot. My chimney master said when I called him about our chimney that combustible material should be at least 1 decimeter from the chimney, end grain was allowed as well as wallpaper on the chimney, but it should preferably be painted with heat-resistant paint.
That thing about heat-resistant paint, I consider it overrated in this case. For if you can't hold the wall, you have bigger problems
I assume it's the chimney sweep you call and talk to in this case, or is it another authority?
I assume it's the chimney sweep you call and talk to in this case, or is it another authority?
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Yes, I can probably agree with you about the paint. If the chimney gets that hot, I highly doubt that 10 cm to combustible materials would suffice and the paint probably wouldn't hold either in that case. It was my chimney sweep who mentioned this, but I haven't noticed anything on our chimney at least, and it's painted with regular plaster paint. Go ahead and call the chimney sweep, as they're also the ones who will need to inspect everything later on, so they should be able to give you advice on the applicable regulations.Repaterion said:That thing with heat-resistant paint I think is overrated in this case.
Because if you can't touch the chimney, you have bigger problems
I assume it's the chimney sweep you call and talk to in this case, or is it another authority?