I decided to looking into installing a wood stove in my house. A little background information, I recently moved into a house (in Montreal) that was built in the 60's. The insulation and windows are poor to say the least. The heating system is a forced air oil furnace. As I had moved in at the end of last winter, I saw how much oil had cost, for just a few months, and I really didn't want to pay that much again this winter.

Since oil has skyrocketed in price during the summer, I figured I'd look into an alternative heating solution. As I grew up in a house with a wood stove, I looked into installing one for my own house. I also considered it as insurance against if the electricity ever went out in the winter time. I would be able to not only heat the house, but also cook on the stove.

Other considerations that came into play is that I have access (although not unlimited) to free wood, and most importantly, my wife approved. Anyway, here are the things I learned along the way.

Check with the town to see the requirements. My town needed me to install an EPA certified stove. Your town might have more stringent regualtions on placement away from the walls, permits, etc. They would not recommend any installer, I guess for legal reasons, but you might as well ask.

You, also need to check with and notify your home insurance company to see if they have any specifications that need to be adhered to for proper coverage. They can deny any claim whatsoever if you have a wood stove installed and not tell them, even if the claim has nothing to do with the wood stove itself. In my case, they needed a certificate of professional installation.

I also had to install a new metal chimney. You cannot hook up a wood burning appliance to a chimney being used for oil burning. Let me tell you, depending on how many feet you need, the stainless steel double wall insulated chimney costs more than the wood stove. Since I had to install the stove in the basement I needed over twenty feet of chimney piping.

You also have to decide if the chimney pipe is going to go inside through the house, or outside. This makes a difference in price, as if the pipe goes outside, it takes more junctions and becomes more expensive. Although, you don't really have a decision, it depends on your house design usually.

Deciding on what wood stove I wanted was a difficult choice. I went to three different suppliers to get information about wood stoves. They all had nice beautiful brochures. I detail in my choosing a wood stove article how I decided on the one I purchased.

It is also important to tell you, go to as many places as you can for estimates. I had three estimates, ranging from $3800.00 to $5600.00 for basically the same setup and stove. Guess which one I chose. So do your homework!

Becuase of layout considerations with the house, there was only one place that could install the wood stove. It had to go in the finished basement room. This was fine with me, as the basement was the coldest part of the house and not very livable in the winter. I had two estimaters come by and give me quotes, and both said that this was an adequate spot to place the wood stove.

It turns out that a wood stove in the basement may have some down drafting problems (which it does on mine). Nobody told me about this, and neither did I read about it in my research. Read about down drafts and the stck effect here. The first few times I lit my stove, smoke poured into the room. Eventually I figured out how to avoid this from happening. My wife was really pissed, I can tell you.

After choosing a stove model and finanlizing everything, I had an install date in the middle of October. Unfortunately, I had to push back this date till November because I was not finished with the room preparation, namely, the laying of ceramic tile in the corner of the room which I was doing myself. That's another article though. ;)

November came around, and luckily there were not many cold days. The installation took all day. With two guys, it took a good 8 hours. They had to drill a hole through the basement foundation and then send the chimney pipe up about twenty feet, though the overhang, and another 3 feet higher than the roof.

Unforunately, the pipe came up almost exactly under the point of my roof (at the top of the triangle if you will). They needed to divert the pipe to one side so as not tho go through the exact middle of the point. This cost me an extra $150, but they had mentioned this before hand in their quote, and I was somewhat expecting it. So it was not a surprise. They did a great job, despite it taking long.

Make sure you read the operating instructions before you first light it. I know, it seems easy to just light a fire. But make sure you have the baffles at the proper positioning, all the fire bricks are in place properly, etc.

Lastly, I will warn you. The first few times you light the stove it probably will stick as the metal cures and oils burn off. It smell spretty bad, but after the fourth time there was no more of that chemical smell coming off the stove.

Overall, my advice is:

1) Get as many quotes as you can. Not just on the actual model of the stove, but on the cost of the installation of a new chiminey as well. Get the quote on paper, with any additional cahrges that may be incurred. Ask as many questions as possible.

2) Check with your town about the requirements. If your installer does frequent work in your area, they should know the 'rules', but never take their word for it. Always verify for yourself the requirements needed to pass inspection so that you can check them before the installers leave.

3) Check with your insurance company. They will tell you what they need for proper continuation of coverage.

4) If it is a new install, allocate time to to do the preparation work, as in laying down the tile and installing wall shielding, or whatever your town code requires as a fire barrier.

5) Read the instruction manual before lighting your wood stove for the first time.

Well, there it is. I hope that my experience of installing a new wood stove can help you.

I would love to hear your comments regarding this issue.