Trials and tribulations of owning a house

[Gusington]

^What about in a rural area - lots of people where I live have external propane tanks where there are no utility connections.

[Con]

Decide what the primary purpose is that will drive the features
1. Aesthetics - do you want something pretty to look at but its not your primary heat source
2. Resilience - do you want something that will heat the core of the house if you lose power
3. Efficiency - looking to wean off electricity or oil heat

If you are going for 2 you need to think basic propane stoves with no motor/blowers etc, for 3 you want something with blowers and heat exchangers, for 1 you can use a fireplace setup but you really wont get any benefits for 2 or 3.

I have a pellet stove in our main house, solar power for resilience (I will use a battery storage when we get our next car as bidirectional or vehicle to home charging  is going mainstream), a wood fireplace and a propane stove at our condo.  Of them all I love the wood fireplace the most all due to aesthetics crackling fireplace smell of wood etc.  But in terms of cleaning, stacking wood and keeping the place warm it sucks donkey ass.
The propane stove is a good alternative as a backup energy supplier in case we lose the electrical heat in the condo and has its efficiency pluses but I really am not keen on it.  I am planning on converting it back to a wood fireplace and building it so that we can have the option to have the wood fireplace switch to propane in the future.  In order to do this spend the money on the flue and chimney setup.  Propane stoves have a simple venting system but its not suitable for a wood fireplace due to the much higher heat and carbon monoxide produced by burning wood.

Con

PS We have an external tank for our propane stove

[Gusington]

I hear you on the wood fireplace but after 20 years I have become so attached to it...I will never give it up.

The wife and I are also building a 3 season room and we wanted a new fireplace but unfortunately according to code we cannot have a fireplace in there. A pellet stove is another option, though.

Are the pellets hard to come by nowadays with the whole supply chain thang? Even before COVID I have buddies who found it hard to find those damned pellets.

[Con]

Pellets are not hard to come by but consistent quality is lumpy especially if you go with big box store brands - looking at you Lowes and HomeDepot

I prefer a high quality consistent hardwood brand - my goto pellets are Barefoot made from sawdust left over from hardwood construction projects.  Here is where it gets interesting - not many dealers for Barefoots where I am and if you have to look further away than that adds to the costs.
If you are only going to be heating the room when you use it you will probably only need 1 ton and many dealers have a 2 tom min order if they are going any distance.
Pellet stoves are also tricky in that the best thing you can do to have a good consistent trouble free season is clean that sucker out religiously at the end or before another burning season.  I dedicate an entire day to cleaning out my pellet stove, including cleaning the venting pipe.  I look like a character chimney sweep out of Mary Poppins when I am done.  I have even had to use my kids to snake their arms into the pellet venting when my cleaning brush broke off in there.

A really good source for all things pellet/wood stove related is Hearth.com  These folks have really helped me out over 15 seasons of owning a pellet stove.  They have good advice on what brands to go with and how to keep it running smoothly.

[Gusington]

^I am the same when it comes to our wood fireplace. Cleanliness = safety!

We have some great local shops around here for fireplaces and stoves, I could go there for pellets (hopefully) if we do get one.

[steve58]

We are/will be out in the country.  We will have a 250 gal propane tank out in the yard somewhere.  Not pretty, but necessary.  Going to have a propane stove/oven.  I just want to be able to keep warm in the winter during power outages, so we will also be installing a ventless propane gas fireplace insert in the family room and probably a smaller wall or portable propane heater in the basement.  Just want enough heat to keep us and the pipes from freezing.

Online I've seen some people complain about soot with propane fireplaces.  Doing a little research it seem more from improper setup/adjustments.  We've had gas (natural) before when we lived in GA, just never had propane before.  Just looking for any input from anyone who has it now or has had it...

[Gusington]

^Propane is popular here in semi-rural NY, and safe as long as you keep your system clean and maintained, with proper outdoor tanks.

I couldn't believe it when I learned this, but many people DO NOT KNOW to store propane outdoors only. Never in a garage or basement.

[Jarhead0331]

Really annoying situation here.

So I have a workshop and armory in one corner of my house. It is basically two small rooms separated by walls and a door. It used to be a utility room with the water main and electrical box and a dark room for photography. I ripped out the plumbing in the dark room, cut down some of the built-in tables and cabinets and now use it mostly for gun, ammo and kit storage. The other room I use as a workshop. It has a tile floor, but no ceiling, no sheetrock on two sides and some exposed concrete foundation wall.

In any event, I finally spent a crap-load of money on some ModWalls from https://tacticalwalls.com/  in order to save some room, and because they look really badass. The ModWalls have pre-drilled mounting holes spaced 16-inches apart because most normal structures have studs spaced apart at 16-inches. After clearing out the space to mount them, I pulled out my handy stud finder and was shocked to find that none of the studs seemed to be spaced at 16-inches. In fact, they are pretty all over the place. This former dark room was obviously installed by the last owner on the fly and whomever framed it out played pretty fast and loose with the spacing.

So this leaves me with two options basically. One, find a space to mount them in the mostly unfinished workshop, which is not really where I want them, but that room does have some exposed framing with studs that are 16-inches apart. Two, try to mount them in the "dark room" as planned, but mount into studs on one side and just sheetrock on the other. I suppose I will have to use anchors, but how much weight can they generally support? These ModWalls are going to be holding rifles, handguns, a helmet and fully loaded plate carrier. I would say all together it could be 70-100 pounds.

Thoughts? Solutions?

[steve58]

No solutions, just some thoughts...

I think studs can also be spaced at 24 inches?  Not a carpenter/builder, so I could be wrong.

I've found that stud finders tend to be hit and miss, literally.  I've been using them in our new house to detect studs (to hang mirrors, etc), and what they'll "find" on the first pass, they'll miss on the second.  I think I'm on my 3rd one.  Returned the other two mostly because they were so inconsistent.  One nice new feature of the newer stud finders is electrical detection...that part seemed to work better on the stud finders I've tried, than actually accurately finding the studs... 

I've seen drywall anchors that are rated for 100 lbs, but never had to use them.  I think you'll be OK using drywall anchors, but I'd try to hit studs wherever possible.

[Jarhead0331]

No solutions, just some thoughts...

I think studs can also be spaced at 24 inches?  Not a carpenter/builder, so I could be wrong.

I've found that stud finders tend to be hit and miss, literally.  I've been using them in our new house to detect studs (to hang mirrors, etc), and what they'll "find" on the first pass, they'll miss on the second.  I think I'm on my 3rd one.  Returned the other two mostly because they were so inconsistent.  One nice new feature of the newer stud finders is electrical detection...that part seemed to work better on the stud finders I've tried, than actually accurately finding the studs... 

I've seen drywall anchors that are rated for 100 lbs, but never had to use them.  I think you'll be OK using drywall anchors, but I'd try to hit studs wherever possible.

Thanks. Yes, 24-inches is another possible spacing, but these aren't that either. lol

I have a really good stud finder that has a series of lights that actually lets you see the thickness/width of the stud. I know its reading accurately, because the opposite wall of where I want to mount the ModWalls happens to be in my boiler room, which is also partially unfinished and the framing on that wall is exposed so I can see the studs. They're all over the place. 

[GDS_Starfury]

16" spacing....  :DD
my first real question is are you installing this stuff yourself?
my second question is did you factor in the weight of your "tactical" walls along with the guns and whatnot?
one easy fix is to rip out the drywall and install half inch plywood screwed into the framing and hang everything off that.
very similar to a proper kitchen install.
you can also use the 100 lb rated white screw in anchors.  Ive used them for years on wall mounted tvs and any valuable artwork.
set up a grid sized to the mounting points for your "wall", use them two feet apart vertically starting from the top and you'll be fine.
if you bother going the plywood route take the time and insulate the walls.

[GDS_Starfury]

I've found that stud finders tend to be hit and miss, literally. 

if youre hanging stuff like cabinets and floating whatever just use a small drill bit and go right across the wall, it gets covered anyway.

[Jarhead0331]

16" spacing....  :DD
my first real question is are you installing this stuff yourself?
my second question is did you factor in the weight of your "tactical" walls along with the guns and whatnot?
one easy fix is to rip out the drywall and install half inch plywood screwed into the framing and hang everything off that.
very similar to a proper kitchen install.
you can also use the 100 lb rated white screw in anchors.  Ive used them for years on wall mounted tvs and any valuable artwork.
set up a grid sized to the mounting points for your "wall", use them two feet apart vertically starting from the top and you'll be fine.
if you bother going the plywood route take the time and insulate the walls.

This would be like me telling you to write your own will or litigate your own case. I don't want to turn this into a project. These things are highly modular and intended to be quickly mounted without reconstructing your walls. I'm not sure what a panel weighs but they're manufactured out of HDPE plastics so I'm assuming they are fairly light.

Here is a picture of a standard horizontal panel showing the mounting screw holes spaced 16" apart. Not sure what is so ROTFLOL about that?

[GDS_Starfury]

Not sure what is so ROTFLOL about that?

expecting most framers during the last 30 years to space them properly is whats funny.

you could get away with putting in a shit ton of dry wall screws into the pre-drilled holes but I wouldn't.
the 100 lb anchors work and putting them 1 foot apart vertically and 16" laterally is more then sufficient.

[Jarhead0331]

Not sure what is so ROTFLOL about that?

expecting most framers during the last 30 years to space them properly is whats funny.

you could get away with putting in a shit ton of dry wall screws into the pre-drilled holes but I wouldn't.
the 100 lb anchors work and putting them 1 foot apart vertically and 16" laterally is more then sufficient.

OK. If you're confident in the anchors than that's a good endorsement for me. I'll probably give that a shot. Thanks!