installing wood burner in an old village house without a chi

[tubsedwardmusic]

We would like to install a wood or pellet burner in a room that doesn't have a chimney. It's a downstairs room. We thought about running the flue through the external wall at ceiling height but are not sure if this is possible as the wall's are 2 foot thick and made of stones/rubble. If we tried to hack a hole for the flue would we comprise the stability of the house? The other option we thought about was going straight up through the ceiling and roof but when we had the house renovated all the ceilings were rebuilt with concrete and re-enforced steel. Can anyone advise or should we stick with electric and paraffin heaters. Thanks

[Enrique]

Hi tubsedwardmusic,
Welcome to The Forum.............
My wood burning stove saga.......I'm currently on Mk 3
What to avoid........ 1 & 2
Mk 1 stove in room exit pipe out through wall about 2/3 up the wall, right angle bends and running up the North side of the house. 120mm exit hole......lots of flaky soot and pipes rusting out fairly quickly.
Mk 2 stove in room pipe up through ceiling and out of upstairs room at 45 degrees , West side of house, worked ok some ingress of rain water.........we're up on a mountain and exposed to the Westerlies.
Mk 3 same a Mk 2 but with heavy duty pipes inside the house and insulated pipes outside. Seems to have been good this winter no rain water ingress........Sid will say we've not had any rain to shout about......
Both Mk 2 & Mk 3 had/have 150mm exit hole. so not going to compromise house structure .

These old camp houses like to breath so good air flow throughout, helped with fire.
Use this one fire to heat all of the downstairs rooms. Upstairs not used.

Electric is expensive and those gas fires not very good with fumes and condensation.

Lots of other Members are all Electric and others use the Gas fires........so its just a personal choice.

[scotty]

There is only one problem you face. Getting a good installer. I have a "Clearview" stove here in Ireland. A proper installation by an experienced guy will mean you wont have any leaks. Try finding an installer and speak to more than one of his previous customers. You wont regret the building work once you start getting the heat. And wood in Spain is inexspensive. Where are you based ?

[peteroldracer]

"And wood in Spain is inexspensive" Are you sure you haven't put a stray 'in' before the 'expensive'?
We spent a fortune on firewood before giving up and settling for the clean aircon heating!

[Enrique]

Depends on your location, here deep, deep into olive country a huge trailer will set you back 250 -300 euro ,take two of you a week to stack and last a couple of winters.
Peter has a point....no dust , instant heat and all done on a timer............

[TorreDelAguila]

TEMusic,

If your proposed stove (wood or pellet) is to back on to an outside wall, then it is straightforward enough to construct an outside chimney stack, from the ground up to a safe height, against the house wall.

The stack can contain a stainless flexi-flue (easily swept), and will provide a good updraught for a wood burner. The constuction could look very attractive, and could be clad in local stone. An easy build.