A Stove in the Forest

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I began searching first for someone who would sell me a door and heating coil for the stove. I found out that iron stove manufacturers will not sell you only a door, because they must spend an inordinate amount of money getting state approval to market their products and they are afraid that if someone buys the door with their state number on it, he will then manufacture his own stove without having to spend the bucks to get his design approved. Finally, I found a guy who built Russian stoves who would sell the components. I came to suspect that he didn't believe anyone would really follow through and build his own stove and that by selling me the parts, he would get me "hooked" and eventually get a contract to build my stove. Anyway, after some time, he came up with the tempered glass door and water coil I wanted. He also imparted a little advice. He was familiar with the design we had gotten from the library. He said it worked, but it was too light in a few places. He recommended we put another complete layer of brick around the outside. This made the already large project much bigger. But, his rationale seemed justified, so we did it. Total bricks needed now: 1,900.

I needed just one more specialty item: the pipe to run through the floor. Copper tubing would have worked, but I was a little concerned that in time it might react with chemicals in the concrete and corrode. Once the stuff is in the concrete, you aren't going to be able to replace or repair it. At the same home show, I had seen a display by a Swedish manufacturer of a floor heating system using plastic pipe. It was a threelayer sandwich of very tough plastic. Theoretically, it should outlast the house. From the distributor, I got complete specs, list prices, etc. However, when I wanted to order, they informed me they were just the distributor and that I would have to buy from one of their dealers of which there were three in my area. When I contacted the dealers, they informed me they only sold to contractors, and unless I had a contractor's license, it was no sale. At this point, I got a little irate—an emotion that sometimes pays off. I called the distributor and verbally chastised him for selling me on a product I couldn't buy. He apologized and agreed to sell me what I wanted direct, at dealer cost! His hotshot dealers just did themselves out of some business.

One nasty thing about a wood stove is that you have to haul out the ashes. I am a spiller by nature, and hauling ashes over the living room carpet seemed like a sure source of complaints from my wife. Since the heat pipes were not going in the living room where the stove was to be, we made the living room floor on the low side out of wood. The stove went in this wood portion of the floor. We poured a big chunk of concrete as a base for the stove, then put the cleanout under the floor.

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