First stove! -- In need of some advice

[mincus]

Hello all,

I have been dreaming of a wood stove for many years and finally bit the bullet and bought the quadrafire 3100 step top model. I'm so excited! I'm planning a corner installation.

I'm trying to order material for the flooring and wall around the new stove. I have a few questions:

For the flooring, I looked at the installation manual (top part of page 13), and I think it says my floor needs to be 1.25" of noncombustable material. Here's the link.

1.25" seems quite thick. Am I reading that correctly? (mine is the model WITHOUT the pedestal) I had planned on putting ceramic tile on top of a sheet of cement board, which is on top of the plywood subfloor.

At this thread: I tried understanding if I could meet the requirement of 1/2" of k value of 0.84 or more. And (if I'm understanding correctly), one sheet of 1/2" durock cement board (.39 R value) and a layer of ceramic tile (.25 R value) should meet this qualification. Is that correct?

The guy at the tile shop told me that I shouldn't use ceramic tile under a stove. Any truth to that that you know of?

And for the wall:
I see that the clearance from a combustible wall is 5.5". Is that distance for if I just have drywall there? Does it change anything if I put ledger stone there? Or is that not at all required?

Thank you all for the help. Just wanting to make sure i'm doing everything correct.

 

[begreen]

Welcome. Is this a 3100 ACC? That stove mainly needs ember protection. A sheet of Durock attached to 3/4" plywood, then covered with metal or tile is ok. My guess is that the majority of hearths have tile on them. Just use a good quality tile and it will be fine.

The clearance to the rear will depend on the stove pipe used to connect the stove to the chimney. 5.5" is too little. Ledger stone does not change the distance. Will this stove have single-wall or double-wall stove pipe?

PS: There is no harm in exceeding minimum clearances. It's nicer to be generous. That allows more flexibility in case the stove is replaced with a larger model at some later date.

 

[mincus]

Yes, 3100 ACC.

It seems there is a major difference between the pedestal model and the leg model (I have the leg model). The instructions make it sound like the leg model needs more than just ember protection.

I thought 5.5" didn't see like very far, but that's the clearances that I see in the instructions (to the CORNER of the stove). The stove will be angled at 45 degrees in the corner, so the pipe won't actually be that close. The pipe must be 17.5" away according to the instructions. It will be a single wall pipe coming straight out of the top. It will get about a foot from the ceiling (the installers said I could go as close as 6 inches, but the instructions say 12"). Then make a 90 degree turn, go out of the wall, make another 90 degree turn straight up. The outside pipe is all stainless steel double wall insulated. The inside pipe is just single wall. Does that all seem about right?

Thanks, begreen for the help.

 

[begreen]

Ah, the leg version in a corner does make a lot of difference. That needs more insulation in the hearth. You'll need the equivalent of R= 1.19 in an inch of material. Durock NexGen has a 1" value of .78, so it would take 3 1/2" sheets to meet the requirement.
For discussion on this topic check out this thread.
https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/computing-r-value.19327/
Regardless of manual dimensions single wall pipe requires a minimum 18" clearance from any combustible. Double-wall pipe offers superior performance, longevity and offers 6" clearance.

 

[mincus]

Scratch that, it actually is double walled pipe. I searched the part number on the invoice, and it looks like this.

Would I be ok with two sheets of the concrete board and a layer of ceramic tile?

The installer suggested using Micore instead of regular cement board. Would that be any better? If I'm reading correct, it appears it has a k value of 0.39, which (I think) would mean a single half-inch sheet would be enough (0.39/.5 = .78).

Thanks again. Can't wait to have this stove installed! Install date is November 23rd!

 

[begreen]

1.5" of Durock or a .5" sheet of micore and the a .5" sheet of Durock on top. Either will work.

 

[mincus]

I have decided to do an elevated hearth (around 4" high). I need about 16" in front of the stove of non combustible floor. The question is, can I have some of that on the elevated portion and some of that on the floor that's level with the rest of the house?

To explain more: I want the front of the stove to be about 6 inches from the front of the elevated portion. Then I would like to have another 12" of tile in front of that (level with the rest of the floor).

Overall, does doing the step increase that 16" at all if I am going to have some of that 16" elevated and some of it not elevated?

For the elevated portion, I'm planning on doing something like 3" paver bricks, with concrete board on top of that, and ceramic tile on top of that.

Hopefully this all makes sense! If not, let me know, and thanks again for the help.