The Yurt Chimney

Jafo · Sep 7, 2012

This will take probably 3 weeks to get done, but I have begun the process of getting the wood stove installed at the yurt. Yesterday I purchased a 21 foot 2 inch steel galvanized pipe to use as the chimney support (with a cap). The ground is extremely rocky; imagine digging through a stone driveway. Chances are, I will only be able to get a foot or two down into the ground, if I am lucky. I figure using the pole I could create a large pad of concrete if necessary to make up for not being able to seat it deeper. My brother is coming up to visit me in a couple weeks and we are going to put it together then.

My wood stove has a 5" exhaust, so I bought a 6" to 5" reducer too. My plan is to use single walled stove pipe up to the wall, then use metalbestos insulated pipe to go through the wall and then steel pipe for the chimney.

I found some good info here:

Stove install complete! | littleyurtontheborderlands

Where someone did basically the same thing. I just wanted to get this thread started now because some people may have some suggestions that I might want to consider before breaking ground. I hope to take a lot of pics of the process!

Corinarose · Sep 8, 2012

Chimney

Hi I am new to your site.
I installed my chimney in my yurt last year. Its braced but I do think it might be overkill. I do know another person who has some good pics you might want to check out. Her name is Maria and she has pics posted on White mountain Yurts.
There are several pics of her yurt on the site.
I can take pics of my chimney. My chimney post is a 4x4 that is attached to a cement sonotube that is 3' in the ground. Its then supported on 3 sides. I've seen some other designs that I like better but it happens that my chimney is on the side of the yurt where the land falls away making it a steep area. Getting a tall enough ladder is actually a challenge.
I am adding another section to the chimney as the draw was not sufficient and I had smoke coming into the room every time I opened the stove.
Thank you for creating this site.
Corina

Karl · Sep 9, 2012

Chimney support

We used two 16 foot 4x4s spaced thirteen and 3/4 inch apart with 2x4s. I ended up having to add four four inch blocks of 4x4 to affix the chimney braces, but he chimney support fit fine on the main frame. I managed to dig 30 inches before hitting the flat surface of the outcrop ridge we built on. Water runs off right around us but digging is a pain. I used 6 bags of Quikcrete to cement the frame in and put up several diagonal ground supports. Today we got ferocious winds and storms and it held up well. It was really hard to put up the support with two people, I'd recommend three. The chimney is lighter, but still really heavy, so three people would be better for that as well. Tomorrow we are going to do our stove break in fire and then see how well it heats as it is supposed to get chilly here in NE Vermont, we are about 20 miles from Canada.
'.

Jafo · Sep 9, 2012

It was pretty cold in my yurt last night, and we won't be hooking up the chimney for another couple weeks. I won't be there during that time either. I have had enough of no heat I can tell you that lol!

Karl · Sep 9, 2012

We are burning our first fire now. Doing a low fire break in for the stove. Tomorrow is supposed to be really chilly. I am really pleased with the stove so far.

Jafo · Sep 19, 2012

Karl, how has the stove broken in?

bss · Sep 19, 2012

I will be digging and pouring a footer and installing a new chimney and vertical supports at our yurt in the next couple weeks, and will post photos of the process. I *think* I have a plan that would even make it possible for one person to do the job if necessary.

Jafo · Sep 19, 2012

We are doing ours this week.. I just hope we can get down in the ground deep enough. Worst comes to worst, we can use guide wires, but I would rather not.

Definitely looking forward to the pics!

bss · Sep 19, 2012

As long as you can get the center down deep (enough to set the pole into) with a digging bar, you can always pour concrete in the top half of the hole. Then use a shop vac to suck out the small hole. If that makes sense?

What kind of straps or hardware are you using to secure the chimney pipe to the galvanized pole? I have considered doing it your way, but don't know where to get a twenty foot long pipe, or if it legal to carry home on top of my truck. It would be a heck of a lot easier though. Do you think it would be strong enough to support a metalbestos chimney?

I don't like the idea of guy wires either, for several reasons.

Jafo · Sep 19, 2012

The ground where my yurt camp is, is extremely rocky so who knows how far down I can go. We can always pour a slab too.

My brother showed me last weekend what he plans on doing. I am not sure I can explain it, but he has these horizontal piece of aluminum that strap to the pole, then the chimney pipe straps to that. The best I can describe them is that they look like that racking you see at a home depot or lowes where they stack all the lumber and product on. It looks like one of those uprights cut into little 20" pieces. When he gets up here tomorrow or Friday, I will take pics of what we plan to do.

You can find that pipe at any fencing supply store or many hardware stores. Just make sure it has a cap on one end. I put it on the rack of my little Nissan truck and was perfectly legal. It is definitely strong enough to hold that metalbestos pipe.

bss · Sep 19, 2012

Do you think the pipe is strong enough to lean a ladder and man against 15' in the air? That would probably be schedule 40, right?

I guess you could use U-bolts with a piece of wood or metal on the chimney side to attach the bands to, and maybe a metal plate or something with u-bolts for the bottom box support. This may be a better option than trying to muscle 200 lbs of lumber around. Cheaper for too, plus it won't rot. I would be interested in seeing pics of the hardware for your setup.

Karl · Sep 19, 2012

Stove and Chimney support

Hey Jafo,

I've got some free time since I quit my job today. It ended in a interview with HR that may get me another job. The world works in mysterious ways.

The stove is working well! We hardly get any smoke in the yurt, so the draw is very good. So good in fact, I will install an extra damper, the stove has built in one for cooking, but I want one on the outlet to adjust the burn rate better.

Chimney support is holding up rock solid. It didn't move at all last night in the 50 mile gusts we got. This was cemented in 4x4's, 29inches deep with six bags of Quikrete. I am keeping the extra chimney pipe and still deciding on whether to add it in or not. Overall things are going well and now I have time to finish some projects, and hopefully find a job with hours that don't consume our lives, and is somewhat enjoyable.

Jafo · Sep 19, 2012

Ahh so you are only using two of the 3 foot sections for the chimney?

Karl · Sep 19, 2012

Chimney

Yes, we used two for 6 feet of chimney above the clean out tee. We may or may not add the third for 9 feet.

Jafo · Sep 22, 2012

Ok, I have a ton of pictures here, please bear with me.

Here is my brother cutting the hole in the wall:

And the "through the wall" kit:

Jafo · Sep 22, 2012

Ok, here is the T outside:

The hole we dug:

This is how we are temporarily supporting the post:

Jafo · Sep 22, 2012

Ok, here wis the pipe before we pour:

First row of rebar:

Yes, we mixed all the cement by hand, two bags at a time, 1,200 lbs. Notice how we put up cardboard against the yurt. Since we were mixing cement right there by hand, we wanted to make sure we didn't splash any on the side cover: