Getting started

[Tom]

I just want to thank everyone for sharing your pictures and ideas in this site. I've spent several enjoyable hours living vicariously through you all.

2 years ago I left work thinking that I'd be back after my spinal fusion. This was to be my 3rd back surgery since 1995. I haven't worked since. I had the 4th surgery Nov. 2009 and am now disabled.

Now before anyone starts feeling sorry for me, I want to say that I have much to be thankful for. I'm not stretched out on a bed 24/7. I take narcotics every day to deal with the pain, but when the weather is clear, I can be useful, and I can still hunt... as long as my son will drag a deer for me.

I have 11 acres of hardwoods and I'm planning on building a small cabin. I'm thinking that 12 x 16 should do. I've built a few sheds and chicken coops, but never anything nice enough to live in. I guess that I'm saying that I'm far from being a builder, but I'm not a complete novice with a hammer and saw. I'm just hoping to get some pointers along the way.

I'll be heating with a wood stove. I've been looking at some piping on craigslist, but my first question is, do I need double walled pipe or triple wall when I got through the roof?

[Redoverfarm]

 

Tom sorry to hear of your troubles concerning your back. I also had surgery in 95 for my back.  Still isn't 100% but I have just learned to live with it.  Get's me down a couple times a year but I ease off the work and let it subside foir a couple of days and then back to the grind.  In regards to the stove pipe just make sure that it is at least double wall.  They make a multitude of designs from triple wall to double wall insulated in both stainless and regular pipe.  You will need a transition to go through the roof from single wall to double/triple and ultimately to it's termination above the roof.  Single wall is often used traveling from the stove to that transition to give heat through the room off the single wall pipe.  I am sure there are several on the forum that can guide you with the best application that they have used.

[ScottA]

 

I'd go with double wall insulated stainless pipe through the roof. Inside can be single wall as John said. I feel your pain. I had back problems for years but mine finaly healed up. No surgery though, thank God.

[SkagitDrifter]

Wecome Tom-
Way to grab life by the horns and keep charging ahead!

Something to consider when deciding which pipe to use is the single wall pipe requires you to have greater clearences to combustables- If I had used single wall my stove would have had to be almost a full 24" away from the back wall.  By using double wall pipe I could set the stove closer thus saving more floor space.  Be sure to check clearences in the install guide for the stove you are using.  Something to think about.
I'm sure some of the more seasoned guys will chime in with more info- anyone see Don around?
Good luck Tom and all the best.

[MountainDon]

Where are you located, Tom? How cold does the weather get. Small cabins, if insulated and not drafty don't require much heat once the temperature is where you like it. Our 15.75 x 30 foot cabin in the NM mountains can easily be overcooked even with the smallish VC Aspen wood stove. There is not a lot to choose from in small wood burners. Something to think about.

[Tom]

Don,

Don,
I enjoyed following your building process. So glad that fire didn't get your place.

I'm located in SW Michigan. Stare at your right palm. I'm located straight across from the bottom thumb joint. We Michiganders can't read maps; this is why we're always staring at our hand 

You just looked at your open palm, didn't you 

We start getting snow in late October, and it finally leaves around mid April. The temps are generally around 25 to 30 degrees during the day and single digits to teens at night. We alway shave a handful of those nights that dip below zero.

I've considered the possibility of over heating, but after heating with wood for 15 years, I really miss it (recently sold my home). There's something about a fire that makes me feel at home. I figure that I'll just have to open a window a bit.

There's no electric running to my property at this time. It's about 500 feet down the road, but they want 10K to run it to me and I'm too much of a Dutchman to part with that kind of $. I suppose that I could find a small propane heater, but part of the draw of a cabin is the self sufficiency.

Thanks for the input. I'm always looking for new ideas and input

[John Raabe]

Tom:

Yep. Hard to beat wood heat for ambiance and bone warming charm. Get a smaller heater and you will learn how much to load into it. In my place I'm used to building two fires a day in the cooler days - morning and evening. Only in deep winter can I keep a fire going all day.

Welcome to the forum. 

[MountainDon]

I figure that I'll just have to open a window a bit.

Some days I have opened the windows a lot at our cabin.      Some days I have managed to build small enough fires and manage to stay in the comfort zone.      I like the wood burner myself. I mentioned the possible overheating as some folks are surprised. With you alredy having experience you are ahead of others with less or no experience.

We too make 2 fires on some days in the colder weather. Pine needles make for great tinder in the stove.

[Tom]

Yup, plenty of experience heating with wood... just no experience in putting a stove in  I'm not near there yet though.
I don't know if this will help any newbies who are just starting out with wood heat or not, but I learned after a couple of years, not to discard the small logs when cutting wood. Those logs that are 3 inches and smaller are the ones that will throw off heat when you need to warm the house up quickly. Save the big ones for getting you through the night.
At night I always filled the woodstove with larger aged logs, and then I'd add one that was a little green as well. This always left me with good coals in the morning