Insuring a heated garage

[adsm08]

Does anyone have their garage/shop heated and insured, and your insurance knows about it?

I have a wood stove for the garage, meant to be used as a secondary for when the kerosene heater doesn't keep up, but nobody wants to touch this, even as a secondary source, which seems odd to me because almost every garage in my town has a chimney of some sort.

Does anyone here have a wood heat setup in the garage, and their insurance knows about it, and who is your insurer? I can find tons of discussions about who has what and how they got it approved, but nobody says who they are using for insurance.

 

[Denisefwd93]

I don't know anything about insurance but I think they give the same argument about a fireplace in the house even though many houses have them.

You're probably very aware of the dangers using any kind of atmospheric fired equipment in a garage or shop.


There are many ways to heat a shop without the furnace heater or kerosene heater in the shop but it probably isn't very cheap.

An Oil-fired furnace ( easy to find used) in an outdoor enclosure with the warm air piped into the building would work pretty well. Oil-fired burners are forced draft whereas many of the older gas furnaces were chimney dependant.

Wood or coal fired in an outdoor enclosure also could work but in all cases, keeping the shop air from entering the combustion process the equipment is the danger.

If I had my dream which isn't going to happen now that I'm old, we would have had a free-standing shop with radiant floors and central air conditioning lol.

You're probably handy enough to build your own waste oil heater, but again you want the air for the combustion process to come from outside the shop.

Hope I didn't give you a headache lol

 

[adsm08]

No, I understood all that. I would like to do oil, but I don't have the budget for even a cheap used unit right now. I already had the stove, just had to buy pipe.

I am also well aware of the "issues" surrounding any flame-fired heater in a garage. I don't store any flammables or vaporous liquids in there, they are all in the shed. I barely keep cars in there. My mom's Mustang is in there because it has no hood and registration, so it needs to be inside, and the truck has been in there for the last two weeks so my son doesn't keep asking to take it places, because it needs a crank kit.

I have the stove door 18" off the ground to keep vapors away anyway, but if I haven't blown myself up or burned the garage down with my cutting torch right on the floor I doubt I'll do it with the wood stove.

My wife did call the State Farm agent she has her life insurance through and he said he has no problem putting it through, and the only way it will ever be a problem is if they pull us for a random review, which if that happens after the policy is in effect I have the right to refuse with no consequences.

 

[kimcrwbr1]

I’m sure it has alot to do with local codes but for safety you want to pull combustion air from outside. Do you have a triple wall pipe going out the roof or sidewall with proper clearance from combustables on all the vent pipe.

 

[Ranger850]

Probably should have got it insured, then put the woodburner in there. Or is there a way you can call it something other than a garage with a wood Stove, like a " WorkShop" or "WoodShop", to get it covered by INS.

 

[Shran]

My buddy said he has his insured through Farm Bureau and they know about the wood heat and are OK with it.

I have mine insured with AAA and they told me specifically "no solid fuel heaters are allowed in outbuildings and we will drop you if we find out that you install one after obtaining a policy."

Non issue for me since I will have a natural gas unit heater in my shop eventually and already have a vented propane heater in my shed, but I would have liked to do wood.

 

[Denisefwd93]

"I will have a natural gas unit heater in my shop eventually"

Shran, if you weren't already planning on it? by all means please investigate a sealed combustion unit heater that uses outside air and discharges outside for combustion. They are more efficient also,

Modine was always the industry-standard there are others

http://www.modinehvac.com/web/pro...-unit-heaters/separated-combustion-ptsbts.htm

 

[adsm08]

I’m sure it has alot to do with local codes but for safety you want to pull combustion air from outside. Do you have a triple wall pipe going out the roof or sidewall with proper clearance from combustables on all the vent pipe.

I have nothing combustible within 36 inches of the stove itself. The very first section of pipe, which is only 6 inches long is single wall, because it is an oval to round adapter boot. The next 3 or 4 feet is UL 301 double wall, which is no closer than 24 inches from the next combustible object. At the roof it is UL 301 HT class A pipe, rated to a clearance of 2 inches, and it does come to exactly 2 inches from the roof on one side, but if I make the hole any bigger my flashing doesn't cover the hole well enough.

 

[kimcrwbr1]

Sounds about right all the pipe in the heated area can be single wall stove pipe and recommended so your putting that heat inside. You should also have a fire cabinet for all flammable liquids.

 

[Will]

You asked them?

That's weird.

 

[adsm08]

Sounds about right all the pipe in the heated area can be single wall stove pipe and recommended so your putting that heat inside. You should also have a fire cabinet for all flammable liquids.

I know I could have used single inside, but double is stronger if something would happen to go flying and hit it, plus I wanted over-kill on my clearances, which are actually larger now than when I installed it.

As for flammables, the only flammables that are stored in the garage are a singe can of PB blaster, and single can of brake cleaner, and what ever fluids are in what ever vehicle I am working on at the time. Two weeks ago I put up a tool shed to get the mower and rototiller inside, but not in the garage, and made a space to put all my fluids, chemicals, etc, so they aren't even in the garage anymore. That includes all the gas cans.

 

[det107]

The 3 bay garage I used to rent (1989ish) had no heat so a Kodiak stove was installed which was to basically heat the premises. As for insurance (some Broadway store where I got bike ins., they repped a lot of companies), I did get a quote of $75.00 per year. The only requirement was to upgrade the door & stronger lock. Plan never went forward.

 

[Denisefwd93]

Waste oil heaters make so much sense in Automotive garages but they are a lot of trouble and hard to keep running.

 

[kimcrwbr1]

I agree waste oil heaters are a pain to keep up but they do kick out the heat quickly on a cold morning. Basically a oil furnace with three times the controls. One thing to keep in mind is you can rig up some ducting to bring combustion air from outside into the fire box. That way your not putting a neg pressure in the heated space where its pulling cold air in through the cracks. You can also add a heat exchanger in the flue with a fan but then again you need to keep the heat exchanger clean on a regular basis just like a pellet stove.

 

[Shran]

"I will have a natural gas unit heater in my shop eventually"

Shran, if you weren't already planning on it? by all means please investigate a sealed combustion unit heater that uses outside air and discharges outside for combustion. They are more efficient also,

Modine was always the industry-standard there are others

http://www.modinehvac.com/web/pro...-unit-heaters/separated-combustion-ptsbts.htm

I actually have a Modine hanging unit heater already... it does vent outside but uses indoor air for combustion AFAIK. It's about 20 years old but I only paid $50 for it as-is... so if it doesn't work well I'm not out much and will buy a new one.