Wednesday, October 04, 2006

I'm totally going to hell

Or my house is going to burn like hellfire damnation.

I sent in my questioneer to my insurance company for the woodstove and I lied. Sort of. On the part when they asked when the stove was installed, I put “unknown” as if the stove was in already when I got the house, which isn’t true. But it’s not completely untrue either, because I have NOT installed the stove yet. And I don’t know WHEN I’ll install the stove. So, “unknown” is nearly the correct answer.

I am usually a by-the-book kind of person when it comes to structural and fire safety, but with my 4” x 8” ID chimney, there is no way I’ll be able to install a liner in the chimney, which is required by code. So, I will not get this inspected when it’s complete, because I know it won’t pass due to the lack of liner.

I questioned an inspector over the phone what the danger was with an unlined chimney and he stated Carbon Monoxide poisoning. That is certainly a danger, but with a detector, I felt it wouldn’t be worth tearing down and rebuilding a 16’ chimney. I am, however, following every other rule made by Portland code like the 1” space, non-combustible wall, hearth, annual chimney cleaning, etc.

So, I’m going to see if I can slip this through. I figured if a wood stove worked in this house at one time, why can’t it now?

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