wood stove in garage

[scale]

I have a large wood stove in my detached garage here in MN. I havent used it. It was here when i bought the house some 15+ years ago. My garage is larger and i thought it would be nice to have heat out there in the winter months. I use the garage as a shop and not a traditional garage.

The previous owner had a wood shop in there and used it all the time.

I live in the city and dont have the time to tend to the fire as starting it and lettting it runs its course of heating things up and then going out would take a 8+ hour day. Id love to have that kind of time.

It does leak at the garage roofline and i am getting ready to re-reroof the garage. The exposed part of the chimmney is weathered at on the bricks and aged.

I should note i also have the old gas furnance from the house out there that is functional although i dont use it either. That would be way more conveinent to fire up as needed.

one of the reasons i bought the house was to have a shop this size and to have heat out there. That appears to have been a pipe dream fantasy as i dont have time to use it at all. All i have time to do is work 10+ hours a day and pay bills apparently. Life doesnt work out the way you expected it would.

Anyway.....


Do i keep the wood stove there in hopes it causes my homes value to "go up" so that the next owner can aspire to have a heated shop or do i tear it out before i reroof?

My gut tells me to tear it out and sell it and that it is i pointless to keep in there as the insurance company would not insure the place with it in there if it was being used and actually cause the value of my sale to go down on inspection.

That didnt happen to me. They didnt say anything about it....but it would be my luck that would happen if i went to sell.

I am almost certain the insurance company would get pissed if they knew it was there......even if it wasnt being used......and i know there are laws and rules and that bs about solid fuel burning stoves in garages either attached or detached.

Id hate to see it go if it could get me a few more bucks at sale time but also id hate to put a new roof on and then be fubar on the sale of the house based on the fact that it is there and now having to tear it out and THEN repair the large roof hole.

IN the back of my mind, i want it keep it but it seems dumb for all the reasons i pointed out above. Id have more room if i got rid of it.

Thoughts? I know wood stove threads have probably been done to death but i guess here is one more.

 

[maplepuck]

check with a realtor to be certain of the process of wood stoves in your area; mine, every wood stove needs to be "certified" before much can happen with the sell.
if yours becomes to costly, then scrap it.
consider how long you plan on living there, and if your dreams do come true with your time and shop increasing.
I love my wood stove, but my use of it right now depends on the time i have to spend with it.

 

[Flail]

If you were doing woodworking as your primary job it would be fine. You are not though. Think how fine it would be to turn on the gas furnace and have a warm workshop 15 minutes later.

 

[scale]

right.

The fact i have both wood and gas out there makes me think i should just get rid of the wood. I could sell the stove i guess.

Leaving it there for when i sell could bite me or make me a few bucks. I dont know which......and i am not sure who to ask.....a realtor.....city firewall...insurance company.....each has a different interest......profit, safety and money.....

It has been pretty clear in my experience that the insurance company doesnt have you in their best interest at all......only your money. It is a business and all businesses care about is money. Period. I have been denied many storm damage claims in the past which is now leading me to spend upwards of 15k on a new roof that they wont cover. Sadly had i just put my money away for the last 30 years i have been paying them i could just buy the roof outright myself but since i am paying them for apparently nothing i guess all that money got flushed down the toilet. Thats another topic.....just a complete scam.

I just want to do what makes the most sense in the end and not screw myself down the road with costly removal after the roof is redone.

 

[Boilerhouse]

I have an outdoor boiler and heat my garage and house with it. If I had natural gas in the garage, I would not even think of a woodstove. With the price of nat gas, it is not much more expensive than wood and there is zero work. As far as value at resale, it could go either way...some may find it appealing, some may find it appalling. Wood may be cheap, but it is a dirty fuel and lots of work.

 

[Spareparts]

I have wood in my shop, Chain saw to cut wood, wood splitter, trailer to haul wood, mess I have to clean up when done splitting, ashes to clean out, floor to clean up, nope selling it all and getting a Pellet stove, less mess and good heat, not to much of a mess. And I will have more time to actuallywork on my projects and not babysit a wood stove.

 

[PNWguy]

This will all depend on where you live; check local regulations.

Where I live, you pay extra for insurance if you have a "wood burning appliance" inside. You may be able to get reduced insurance if you remove it. You also can't sell a house with an old woodstove; it needs to meet current air quality specifications.

Again, it will depend on where you live, but in general, I wouldn't pay extra for a place with an old wood stove.

At the very least, I'd put an insulated cap over the chimney (and a big bright note inside the stove).

 

[NUTTSGT]

I like my wood stove and it's the sole source of heat for me. However, I have the time, place to cut and a means to cut and split it. Best of all, I enjoy it and it's great exercise for me.

The best of both worlds would be to have both. . . . if you have the time and place to cut wood. If you're buying wood, there's not much advantage with the exception of heat during a power outage.

 

[scale]

THanks. The more i read, the more i just want to trash the whole thing. So much for the dream of a heated shop. I can always revert to the gas system if i need to of course by that time they will have some stupid rule against that too.

 

[sublime68charger]

pic of your setup?

due you have access to wood to burn?

I would run gas for the quick time when your only there for a 1 hour or 2.

when you have a day free start on gas and then change over to the wood to keep the place warm the whole day.

though can you live with out the space that the wood stove takes up?

just my thoughts.

 

[scale]

pic of your setup?

due you have access to wood to burn?

I would run gas for the quick time when your only there for a 1 hour or 2.

when you have a day free start on gas and then change over to the wood to keep the place warm the whole day.

though can you live with out the space that the wood stove takes up?

just my thoughts.

I dont have any pictures but that stove does take up a bit of room and that would be nice to have back. The exposed brick chimney that is starting to age could be fixed pretty easy but i just dont know if it is worth it.

I suppose i could fix the chimney, cap it and ditch the stove thus setting up the next buyer of the house with a good chimney. The chimney takes up space too though......and if it is going to be a hassle to use the chimney due to insurance for me or the next buyer it might as well be trashed than fixed pointlessly. I dont know. I see a lot of other garages in the neighborhood with metal chimney stacks which means they likely have gas heaters in their garage. I am keeping an eye out for chimneys on garages at this point. Not to many brick chimneys but i haven't been really looking that long.

 

[Adk Mike]

Masonery chimneys are obsolete. I would get rid of all of it. Wood stove chimney the works.
Get yourself a Modine Hotdawg. Over your head and out of the way. A wood stove and wood takes up valuable floor space.

 

[scale]

Masonery chimneys are obsolete. I would get rid of all of it. Wood stove chimney the works.
Get yourself a Modine Hotdawg. Over your head and out of the way. A wood stove and wood takes up valuable floor space.

THe modine hotdawg is 45000 btus from what i see. That might not be enough.

I have myself one of those propane bullet heaters that is supposed to put out 35000 and that thing couldnt heat up jack squat. Even standing right in front of it it took forever to thaw me out....not to mention the fumes but thats another story. I tried that last year for some quick heat out there for some small projects. IT was worthless.

Perhaps a ceiling mount unit would be the way to go though. The floor mount gas furnace (the old furance from the house) hasnt been used in years. THE gas is turned off at the house and the whole system needs to be bled just to light the damn pilot light. I dont much like having it lit at all times for obvious reasons. I believe it has a pilot anyway. I shut off the gas to it one year and it has never fired back up on its own and i havent looked into it much to figure out why. I figured when i turned the gas off to the unit at the house the pilot light went out and needs to be relit before using the thermostat to actually turn the heat on. I do remember when i did use it that first year it seemed to work real well. It doesnt take up too much floor space. About the size of a small fridge. Do the ceiling ones light on demand? Putting one overhead might be nice for that little bit more floor space.

 

[sublime68charger]

If it was me I'd keep the wood stove and fix the chimney to make it functional.

But I can get wood to burn for just my own sweat equity of cutting the wood.

I have a wood burner in my garage and I can gain 10 degrees a hour on temp once stove is lit and going.

Is your garage insulated?