Couple years back my Embridge gas bill skyrocketed and I decided to get a wood stove. Trudeau's carbon tax sure doesn't help either. After not being able to find anyone to install it and just being given the run around I decided to do it myself. Figured I'd share the process.
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Bought it at Canadian Tire, it's an Englander 15-w06. Had fun transporting it to the basement, needed help for that one!
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This is location where it went. Had some work to do to make it suitable such as adding cement board, finishing walls, etc.
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Lots of work had to be done above, such as moving my outside garden hose, as ceiling is to be covered with cement board and I really don't like idea of inaccessible plumbing. Also moved a bunch of electrical to clean up that ceiling area as I also wanted to add a 6" vent intake pipe that I will connect to a fan later down the road.
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Walls mostly done, and ceiling done. That pipe in the corner is a fresh air intake.
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Fresh air intake covered.
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Tiles all done, and also added thinset to all the cementboard seams. Also eliminated an ethernet jack since I accidentally cut the wiring and realized it was easier to just eliminate it completely. There is another on the other side anyway. I may use this for automation stuff in the future. All those outlets are a bit on the redundant side but they were added well before I planned to put a wood stove there so they stay.
At this point we were in May 2023. Decided to take a break for the summer as I was still hoping to find someone to do my chimney. Had someone start then never finish the job so did end up doing it myself.
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In November 2023 I started working on the basement again, won't go over the details of this part of the project, but I wanted to wall in my server room so I did. This was always planned either way, but now was the time to do it.
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Stove now moved in it's proper location. This was end of 2023.
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Stove pipe staged
At this point I had to do the chimney but it was winter so decided to wait until summer. I did lot of other work in the basement such as drywalling the rest of the side where wood stove is.
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Opened up soffit to start prepping the hole for the chimney to go through.
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Chimney going through soffit.
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I was debating on whether or not I should go higher at this point as it needs to be 2 feet higher than the highest point of roof within 10 feet and I was kind of borderline. Opted to go for another 3' length since I had it anyway.
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Got the whole setup WETT inspected and passed with flying colours, am pretty nappy! Still need to close up the soffit but other than that the stove is ready.
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First fire! This is a small kindling fire to break it in. There is another break in fire to do that is slightly bigger but will do that when it's colder out. It was +30 out when I did this, I just couldn't wait!
Overall this install was more complex and involved than I anticipated especially as I originally wanted to hire it out but couldn't find anyone to do it. Probably would not have taken nearly 2 years had I just opted to do it myself right away though, as I spent a lot of time waiting for people to call me back who never did.
Looking forward to using it throughout the winter as I will save a lot on natural gas. Normally I try to keep the house cool to save on gas and suffer a little because of it, now I don't have to do that.
