Gray Stove To Pipe Joint

[WhitePine]

Hi,

We had a new house built last year. It has a professionally installed Napoleon wood stove. The stove was installed by a non-local subcontractor found by the builder. The local dealers don't handle Napoleon.

The cement used to seal the stove to stovepipe joint has turned gray, as shown in the photo. Much of the graying occurred over the summer, while the stove wasn't in use.

Is this kind of graying considered normal? We plan to paint over it, unless there is a reason not to. Any recommendations as to high temp paint to use for a good color match to the pipe?

Also, I have an unrelated question. Is there any way to tell if the stovepipe is double or single walled?

Thanks.

 

[SteveKG]

Figure out what the flue outlet there on top of the stove is, what size. It appears from the photo that it is probably 6", but photos can be deceiving. Single-walled pipe will be that exact dimension. Hold a tape measure or ruler across the pipe and eyeball it. Double-walled pipe will be larger, because it's the inner layer of pipe that slips over the outlet in the stove. The outer pipe will add maybe two inches to the full diameter. Also, very simple to do is build a small fire. If the pipe gets really hot very quickly, it's single-walled.

Alternately, since you had the house built, there should be a manual around there for the stove. It will give the flue size.

 

[begreen]

That is single wall pipe. The crimp seems more exposed than I would like. Not sure if the installer should have notched it to clear an inside web, but it kind of looks like that.