Stove In Basement-Bulkhead Tips?

So many of you guys put stoves in the cellar and want to heat the 1st floor.Why don't you put in a furnace? 1 return and a couple of feeds and your done.Flex duct is cheap and the whole house will be even temp wise and you don't have to worry about insulating the walls in the cellar.Some heat will be lost in the cellar but that good( keeps the floors warmer).If you want to finish the cellar later fine run another duct and finish the walls.
Just my .02
DON

Oh yeah ashes.Put a metal garbage can outside the cellar door and empty ashes there.When it's full wheel it to the front and let the garbage man take it.As for the bilco door build another door at the bottom of the stairs.Nothing fancy just an exterior door PAINTED with some weatherstriping and a sweep.

BIG BEAM wrote:Why don't you put in a furnace?

$$$$$$$$$

(I paid around $1200.00 for my TLC 4 years ago & my daughter just paid $1600.00 for hers. (I'm guessing a good furnace would be double or triple that amount plus the plumber/HVAC's fees)The stove heats small ranch houses just fine if you are creative with the air circulation & my coal usage is about 2 tons per year. If it ain't broke, don't fix it

Naw the hitser is a grand and I don't think you'll need a plumber for flex duct.The hotblast I have is a grand too at TSC.
Like I said just my .02
DON

Naw the hitser is a grand and I don't think you'll need a plumber for flex duct.The hotblast I have is a grand too at TSC.
Like I said just my .02
DON

Lots of good suggestions. I put in my $.02. Insulating the basement walls will make a huge difference. Before I insulated my basement walls, the snow would melt around the outside of the basement wall. I used foil covered foam board first directly on the block. My basement is dry. I wouldn't recomend that if not. Then I framed walls, wired and insulated using R13, then drywall. That's a toasty basement.

Cutting holes in the floors to the first level is a violation of fire code in most areas. If done it should include the use of fire damper type registers that will slam shut in the event of a fire.

Ashes should only be transferred and dumped outside. Period. They're young. If I carry the ash tub from my boiler up outside basement steps to the outside, they can carry the tiny little ash pan from the TLC.

What type of heat do they have now?

coalkirk wrote:Cutting holes in the floors to the first level is a violation of fire code in most areas.

I know but I have done it for almost 30 years........Shhhhhhhhhh
( my house & theirs are low ranches that are easy to jump out any window quickly in case of fire & trust me, we all have plenty of working smoke & CO alarms.)

coalkirk wrote:Ashes should only be transferred and dumped outside. Period.

Agreed!

coalkirk wrote:What type of heat do they have now?

FHW by propane

They could always carry the ashes through the kitchen and then outside. I do it all the time and have never spilled any ash. A lid would be a fail safe. How are they planning on distributing the heat form the stove to the upstairs?

I have a raised ranch stove in living room upstairs, had the blukhead but put 8x8 addition. Downstairs I have 2 finished rooms in front and what I call a unfinished back basement that has washer,dryer and furnase , thats where I keep the coal and I carry the ash pan down stairs and dump it into a metaltrash can. I do not find it that messy. There should be a small area under the stairs thats useless maybe section off a transfer area

I'm doing what CapeCoaler is doing, Lots of ash pans (baking pans nearly the size of a real pan), a 30 gallon metal rubbish container supported by a metal frame so the container lies on an angle on the concrete floor near stove (minimize carrying hot coals) , carefully open can top, put filled ash pan in, close up top, at end of week bring can outside with 6-7 baking pans inside. all dumping of pans is outside with me upwind. CO Detector tells me if the hot coals are giving off excess CO which I doubt. Thats the plan anyways.