My wood stove

37chief

Well-known Member
Location
California
When I put in my stove I put bricks on the wall behind it. I filled the space between the wall and the bricks with cement. I should have left an air space. I have 12 inches from the stove and the wall, the code calls for 36 inches. I thought for the heat to go through 3 inches of brick, and 1 inch of cement, then 5/8 dry wall I should be ok. I am still thinking I should have left a air space between the bricks and the wall. I have never had a problem, but am wondering if I should do something now? The stove never gets over 600 degrees, and the wall much less. I put a piece of roof tin behind the stove now, the wife doesn't like the looks of it. What do you think, If I haven't had a problem in 30 years I should be ok? As I get older I think of things like this more often. stan
 
When I put in my stove I put bricks on the wall behind it. I filled the space between the wall and the bricks with cement. I should have left an air space. I have 12 inches from the stove and the wall, the code calls for 36 inches. I thought for the heat to go through 3 inches of brick, and 1 inch of cement, then 5/8 dry wall I should be ok. I am still thinking I should have left a air space between the bricks and the wall. I have never had a problem, but am wondering if I should do something now? The stove never gets over 600 degrees, and the wall much less. I put a piece of roof tin behind the stove now, the wife doesn't like the looks of it. What do you think, If I haven't had a problem in 30 years I should be ok? As I get older I think of things like this more often. stan
Use a small fan to blow air from the room behind the stove. (with the tin gone) the air will help heat the room and cool the wall! Jim
 
I'm with JIm on this the fan will do wonders for the cooling of thew wall a a lot for heating the room. Mom was always cold in the house at dad's with the thermostat wide open on the wood furnace and I told her to put a fan along the wall where the heater ran behind the desk . She did an found it was a lot of help for heating the rooms down stairs.
 
Been there 30 years? Must not be muchof a problem. Use a infrared thermometer on the wall on both sides. That should ease your mind. Worst case, come in from other side of wall and install metal heat shield. .
 
I should have left a air space between the bricks and the wall.
I bet you did not use insulating firebrick. I have set thousands of them. Same cream color as regular firebricks, same sizes. But they are like hard closed cell foam, but made just as fire proof.
The air space would have been an ideal thing to do, but too late now.
Mount your roofing tin one inch off the brick and one inch off the floor, corrugation or ribs running vertical.
That way the heat from the stove will warm the air in the one inch space and heat rises so it will generate a natural upward flow bringing cooler air in from the floor.
 
That's not the point. The point is, does the insurance company approve? Whether there have been any problems is moot.
I'm with you Goose. . A few here found out that their insurance would not cover them only after their house burnt from improperly installed wood or pellet stoves.
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If the concrete was poured between the brick and Sheetrock. What anchors the concrete to the sheetrock? How hard would it be to tear out and redo it?

A lot of stoves here have decorative copper, stainless or tin sheets attached to the walls using 1-2" long, 1/4 or 1/2" copper tubing with screws going through them as spacers.
 
That's not the point. The point is, does the insurance company approve? Whether there have been any problems is moot.
If he has insurance currently then insurance company must approve. If i ran to my insurance company every time the ‘code’ updated or changed i would be there often. House was built in 1918. Has wood heat. Insurance company has never been in house to inspect. I am sure electrical, plumbing, and heat would not pass a current code inspection. Everything works. Insurance company sends update questionnaire every year or so. Answer it truthfully. Then pay the bill. And to answer one last question - have insurance with probably the largest company in alabama.
 
3 feet is quite a ways. I can’t think of a stove that sat that far away from a wall anywhere that I’ve seen. It would encourage upward venting as it would make draft a bit worse if you tried going out the wall…When we had a wood stove in our basement we had about three feet (at 36 inches away from a wall you would have 4 or 5 feet at least) of horizontal run at window level then up above the roof. There was a trick to starting the fire had to be naughty and leave the door cracked for about 5 minutes. I always thought one of the heat powered fans on top would be cool. It was expensive enough I didn’t try it and we then upgraded to a pellet stove a couple years later anyway. Fan sure does spread the heat around.

I just took a picture of the tag on the back of the stove and sent it to the insurance man. There were installation instructions in the book that came with each stove that has the current recommendations and some regulations. It changed between the time I did the first to the second and the fact that one was pellet and one was just a woodburner. It is much less expensive and easy to vent the pellet stove. One is pretty committed to generating if the power is out however.
 
In my cousins house the fireplace block was built around a 2x4 stud wall. It was fine for many years but then he had a fire. The opening in the exterior stud wall should have been larger to give more masonry between the fireplace steel and the wood.
 
Check to see if you can get a metal heat shield that attaches to the back of your stove. Probably will be difficult if its 30 yrs old. I put shields on the back of both the Hearthstone's we have had in our narrow family room. There is maybe 12 inches between the stove and the sheet rock. Been fine for 35 years. But those stoves do not get nearly as hot as steel or cast iron stoves.
 
That's not the point. The point is, does the insurance company approve? Whether there have been any problems is moot.
If the insurance company approved when the stove was installed (i.e. codes changed and the current install is "grandfathered in"), then it doesn't matter. They have to pay. They can drop him like a hot potato before the ink dries on the check, but they have to pay that claim.

If the insurance company doesn't know about the wood stove, then they're not going to pay, period.
 
A light colored panel of metal with an air space of maybe 2" installed on the wall will keep most of the heat off the wall. Some refrigerator doors make good heat shields if they don't have foam stuck to the back. The ones with fiberglass insulation that comes out/off easy work good and don't look bad.
 
When I put in my stove I put bricks on the wall behind it. I filled the space between the wall and the bricks with cement. I should have left an air space. I have 12 inches from the stove and the wall, the code calls for 36 inches. I thought for the heat to go through 3 inches of brick, and 1 inch of cement, then 5/8 dry wall I should be ok. I am still thinking I should have left a air space between the bricks and the wall. I have never had a problem, but am wondering if I should do something now? The stove never gets over 600 degrees, and the wall much less. I put a piece of roof tin behind the stove now, the wife doesn't like the looks of it. What do you think, If I haven't had a problem in 30 years I should be ok? As I get older I think of things like this more often. stan
stan
Use a small box fan and cool the brick with the fan. Easy fix.
Circulate the hot air at the same time.
 
I agree with Tim in New York and 4wdtom....a metal shield half way between the stove and the wall should provide enuf ventilated buffer to reduce heat at the wall very significantly.
 
When I put in my stove I put bricks on the wall behind it. I filled the space between the wall and the bricks with cement. I should have left an air space. I have 12 inches from the stove and the wall, the code calls for 36 inches. I thought for the heat to go through 3 inches of brick, and 1 inch of cement, then 5/8 dry wall I should be ok. I am still thinking I should have left a air space between the bricks and the wall. I have never had a problem, but am wondering if I should do something now? The stove never gets over 600 degrees, and the wall much less. I put a piece of roof tin behind the stove now, the wife doesn't like the looks of it. What do you think, If I haven't had a problem in 30 years I should be ok? As I get older I think of things like this more often. stan
Years ago we had a wood stove in our living room. At that time I never thought of checking on insurance coverage. I was uncomfortable about the brick veneer and wall getting hot and I made a heat shield out of metal plaster lathe with a 1/4" rod for a border. Painted it black. The heat shield was hot to the touch, but the wall behind it was cool.
 
It's been that way for 30 years and the house hasn't burned down yet... For most folks with several decades of life experience, that would be good enough.

Personally I would find something else to worry about.
 

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