Coal Chute Into Garage, Then Into Basement. PICS

I would build my own removeable chute system inside the garage to get the coal from the delivery truck to the base of the wall where your cat litter box is. You can make it in 3 lenghts of 7' or 2 lenghts of 10 1/2' or whatever the measurements are that you need to get you from the front ( top of garage door opening ) to the back ( bottom opening at the base of back wall sloping down to coal bin opening to the basement ) Make your coal bin on the the other side of the wall in the basement and the coal will drop right in. You can make supports for the chute and place them every 5' or so to support the span of your removable chute. You can set up the temperary chute when you are getting coal delivered and then store it along any inside wall of the garage when not in use.

buck24 wrote:I would build my own removeable chute system inside the garage to get the coal from the delivery truck to the base of the wall where your cat litter box is. You can make it in 3 lenghts of 7' or 2 lenghts of 10 1/2' or whatever the measurements are that you need to get you from the front ( top of garage door opening ) to the back...

I hate to be blunt but it is pointless if it won't run down the chute and with that length it isn't going to run down the chute because you can't get enough angle, it would be easier just to dump it into a wheel barrow and wheel it over to the hole.

Here is something else, Your insureance co. mite not like the hole in the floor of the garage leading to your basement. Fire code wants a 6" curb between the garage and the rest of the house. An opening from the outside is you best bet and the safest.

If I were you I'd build an outdoor bin and be done with it....no holes in the floor or foundation....no window or other opening......no mess....it's removable if you ever change your mind in the future.....
Look through some bin pics in that thread for ideas...as I remember there are some very nice designs by some of our members....you can even match the bin to the house with the same siding....
Just a thought......

Yea, I thought about making some kind of chute to the opening of the garage but that still doesn't help with the required angle to make the coal flow. The problem with an outdoor bin is that I'd have to wheelbarrow it all into the basement and I'm not sure if a wheelbarrow will fit through my sliding glass door basement walkout. It looks like the best bet is to put some kind of opening on the outside near the gas pipe or to try to go through the garage man door.
Thanks for the ideas...
Greg

PM member DVC500atlast and ask him about transporting coal through a door. I know he does something like this but I can't recall if it's a hinged door or a slider. He uses a 4 or 2 wheeled cart to move ~ 200 Lbs of coal inside to the DVC500. I think he got the cart from THD, either a rubbermaid two wheeler or a 4 wheeled tri-cam dump. The 4 wheelers are 37 or 38" W and the 2 wheeler is 33" W.

bear creek burnout wrote:If I were you I'd build an outdoor bin and be done with it....no holes in the floor or foundation....no window or other opening......no mess....it's removable if you ever change your mind in the future.....
Look through some bin pics in that thread for ideas...as I remember there are some very nice designs by some of our members....you can even match the bin to the house with the same siding....
Just a thought......

I second the idea of using an outside bin. You could move the coal by 5 gallon buckets as you needed it or have enough buckets on hand for a week's supply to be stored inside. Instead of having a huge pile of coal in the basement you'd have 6 or 7 buckets full of coal. A 5 gallon bucket will hold approximately 40 lbs of coal or about a day's worth of coal in many hand fed stoves. The buckets can be found for nothing sometimes or are inexpensive at the HD.

You could design the outside bin so that you'd wouldn't have to manually fill the buckets; just let gravity do it's job via a chute and sliding door. Stick the bucket under the chute and open the door, you're done. This sounds a whole lot easier and flexible to me. It would be cleaner, too. I know there are pictures of such designs on the "pictures of coal bins" page.

Any updates on this project? I am about to do this on my new garage addition. We were able to do it at my dads place with a core drilled slot on a angle, and a box in the garage with a ramp in the box. Just looking for a better way.

I've thought about an inside bin many times. The nice part of an outside bin is; All the mess stays outside. For that reason, I still have my bin outside. It's gravity fed, as Lisa mentioned. Chute fits a 5 gallon pail. If I were you, that's what I'd do. This way, should you ever sell your house, the buyer won't see a hole in the foundation wall. The big question I have is; How are you going to carry ashes out, or coal in? Oh, I'll bet the cellar entrance it just inside the walk through door. You could put a basement entrance from garage. I see them all the time, including new builds. Actually, more so on new builds. Very handy as well. If it were me, it'd be an outside bin, and cellar entrance from garage. If you insist on a garage delivery, and into basement, you could use a big dump cart. Fill the cart at the overhead door. Wheel it across the garage floor, and chute it into the basement. Back to truck for refill, and repeat.

Original poster here, for what it's worth, I never did the coal thing. Geothermal is the way to go. This would have been a huge mistake, I realized there's no way I'm going to shovel coal, it's ridiculous when you realize how cheap geothermal has become to install and that I can heat the house for $500 a year and also cool it for under $100 and not have to shovel coal.

gbig2 wrote:Original poster here, for what it's worth, I never did the coal thing. Geothermal is the way to go. This would have been a huge mistake, I realized there's no way I'm going to shovel coal, it's ridiculous when you realize how cheap geothermal has become to install and that I can heat the house for $500 a year and also cool it for under $100 and not have to shovel coal.

I agree wholly. I have customers who have geothermal heat. Very cheap heat. But, if you want to heat with coal...............

Cheap to install?????????????? Even the ones who promote geothermal do not mince any words about how costly it is to go geothermal . It is definitely one of the ways for those who find any thing more than setting a t-stat difficult. I personally like HOT heat, COAL IS HOT heat !

After tax credits I was at $11,000 for geo , for my 2400 sq foot home, 3.5 ton loop, 3 ton unit. Appraiser says it added $5000 to value of my home. Coal furnace would not have added value to home, if anything would have lowered value as most people don't want coal in a modern home. If I remember correctly it would have cost me $5000 to $6000 for coal furnace. Geo just worked better for me than coal and I'll rave about it anytime I have the chance to, even on a coal forum.

windyhill4.2 wrote:Cheap to install?????????????? Even the ones who promote geothermal do not mince any words about how costly it is to go geothermal . It is definitely one of the ways for those who find any thing more than setting a t-stat difficult. I personally like HOT heat, COAL IS HOT heat !

Last I knew, it was quite costly to install. If you've ever seen geothermal set-ups, they look quite involved. I was talking cheep to operate. One customer has a 3500 square foot house(New). It cost him $100.00 per month for heat. Now that's cheep! Personally, I like coal heat. Geothermal may be something I'd consider if building another house. I'd still have coal heat.

So it only cost you $11,000 !!!!!!!!!!!! After the rest of us paid for part of it with our tax money !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!