Stacking wood by stove?

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Sconnie Burner

Sconnie Burner

Feeling the Heat
Aug 23, 2014
488
Western Wi
Am I alright stacking wood next to my stove as long as I follow the clearance to combustibles recommendation? I have the stove facing 45 degress away from the pile. So at the closet point (left rear corner) I measure 13" with 12.5" inches being the clearance requirement. Or should I have it farther away? Or should I fasten some sort of fire retardant something or another to my log rack? If so what should I use that would look nice?
 
If you r stove specs call for 12.5" from combustibles, you are safe at 13". I assume your wood is always changing so you won't have any problems with long term heat that will cause problems with chairs, walls, etc. As always, if you think the wood is very hot when you touch it, move it or put a sheet of metal between.
 
Yup! Treat it like a combustible
I used to do it all the time, made for a nice dry load. I kept one rack on each side, load the older stuff, when that bin empty, fill it and work off the other one.
 
Yes . . . clearance to combustibles is just that . . . the distance to anything that can combust whether it be a wall, furniture or firewood.
 
My pre-op wood sits right there.
 

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We have our Oslo in front of the old fireplace, and I put the logs behind the Oslo, in the fireplace. Have a small fan in front of the stove, blowing towards it. I am not sure what the rear clearance is, but it is always breezy and cool behind the stove, and I feel comfortable about the arrangement.
 
newatthis said:
We have our Oslo in front of the old fireplace, and I put the logs behind the Oslo, in the fireplace. Have a small fan in front of the stove, blowing towards it. I am not sure what the rear clearance is, but it is always breezy and cool behind the stove, and I feel comfortable about the arrangement.
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It may feel breezy and cool . . . but again . . . see above. Clearances to combustibles is just that . . . no ifs, ands or buts. I've seen too many folks in my career who have just winged things and thought that they could move a wall, plunk down their chainsaw, move some furniture closer to their stove based on their gut feeling or belief system rather than what the manufacturer says is a safe distance to combustibles.

That said, you may find that your clearances are OK if you measure.
 
Fsappo said:
Now ask Jake if he ever saw a house fire started by a wood stove.
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Depends . . . do you count chimney fires? chainsaw placed too close to the woodstove? incorrectly installed woodstove? Ashes from a woodstove disposed of improperly?
 
I'm too worried the bugs in the wood will wake up and end up in my house..
 
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Gareth96 said:
I'm too worried the bugs in the wood will wake up and end up in my house..
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yup, once that wood got warm, all kinds of things crawled out. But it was in a 3 season room, off the beaten path and most of what crawled out of there was fun to play with!
 
Fsappo said:
Im sure you "saw" it all. I'm a little guilty of the wood too close to the stove thing as well sometimes.
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Here's just one example . . . lots of issues here . . . including a wall and wood too close to the woodstove . . . but that wasn't the cause of the fire or why we were called.

You can also see where we had chimney thimbles that were capped and covered over with drywall/plaster that the guys had to find and dig out.
Lyndenbrook Farm said:
Chainsaw next to the wood stove?

Who the $*&@ does THAT? And dare I ask ... What happened next?
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Very, very cold outside. Guy using it brought it inside and plunked it next to the woodstove so it would warm up and be easier to start . . . caught on fire.
 

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Here's some pics from a fire a year or two ago.

Combustibles (wall and stack of wood) were too close to the woodstove, but that wasn't the cause of the fire.

This could be one of those games where you try to point out as many issues wrong as you can . . . one "gimme" I'll mention is that there were several chimney thimbles that were capped and covered over by drywall/plaster that the guys had to dig out.
 

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Jake, what is that a crack house.... i think it would be hard to intentionally make such a mess out of it if you tried........
 
Probably a country house. I see a lot of them up here in NY. "Its been that way since my pappy got off the Mayflower and never gave me trouble! Just burn some tater peels once a week" Ive seen some terrifying installs in basements of VERY nice houses. Folks just don't think sometimes.
 
It's the stuff that is hidden by walls that scares me. Our old fireplace had two stove take-offs buried in the walls by subsequent remodels. One had wood framing right up against the cap! :eek: And then there is this travesty that happened in a friend's parents house. They had been burning in a stove for almost 30 years before pyrolysis finally ignited the wood. The builder put nothing between the tile liner and the wood! Fortunately no one was injured, but my friend's sister was reading in that bed when it happened.
bad chimney.jpg
 
Very and they were blessed by an excellent and fast responding fire dept..
 
Gareth96 said:
I'm too worried the bugs in the wood will wake up and end up in my house..
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Trick is to put them in the stove before they wake up too much. :)
 
I was visiting a person up north that had a Lopi Liberty with damp doug fir splits, criss-cross on top of the stove log cabin style. :eek: Fire was going like crazy and the house was warm. I gave him the lecture and pointed out the risks of this 'method'. So far he has taken it to heart and is staying a year ahead on his wood supply. The amazing thing is that he moved up here from Texas after his house burned down and he lost everything.
 
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