Newbie w Installation Questions

[cchimko]

Hi Everyone,

My wife and I just bought a used wood stove that is in excellent condition and we live in a house that seems to already be equipped with a stove pipe into the chimney; however I'm a little baffled as the setup doesn't seem to be 'up to code', at least not from what I've heard. I am attaching some photos so that you can see exactly what I'm talking about. My questions are:

1. My understanding is that even with double-walled pipe, I should not have any combustible material within 12" of the cross pipe. Is this correct? It looks to me like the previous owner of our house had wood paneling right up to the pipe, not to mention the wooden light fixture cover directly above the pipe. Am I going to have to rip all of that out and replace it with brick? Are there any other options? What about the windows? Both are right within the 12" range.

2. The crosspipe is clay, I believe. I had a chimney sweep come out and look at the chimney, which they said was okay, but they said that "you need heat shielding for your crosspipe". What exactly do they mean by heat shielding? Where do I get it and how do I install it? A couple of the pictures show how the crosspipe is mortared in. Does it look like that has been correctly done?

Any advice or help would be greatly appreciated.

Also, any help in identifying the make or the model of stove would also be great.

Thanks!

Corey

 

[cmonSTART]

It looks like you have some significant clearance to combustilbes issues. You certainly shouldn't have combustible paneling that close to your thimble (what I think they are calling the cross pipe). You also may have some cracks visible in the tile liner in the thimble area (vertical lines). Cracks are common here, but you should probably have the flue video scanned before sending hot flue gases through the chimney.

 

[begreen]

Welcome Corey. Good for you checking in here. Your instincts are correct. There definitely is an issue with clearances for the thimble and there will be with the old parlor stove too. The stove will need to be installed 36" from the nearest combustible on all sides. The tile wall doesn't look like a valid wall shield to achieve a reduction of these clearances. Sorry to say, but there are new stoves with close clearance requirements that would be more practical to install here. With the light removed and proper clearances around the thimble it would be a simpler install.

What was that hole down low that is stuffed with fiberglass? Was that another chimney tap?

 

[soupy1957]

I've really come to love the Parlor Stove style wood burning stoves. Especially the ones with lots of design work. Sorry I can't give you any technical help, but I WOULD make a suggestion:

If you are going to use the Parlor Stove shown, for heating (as much as I love them), .......they are not the best for seeing what's going on with the fire ITSELF.

-Soupy1957

 

[cchimko]

Thanks everyone for your helpful responses.

BeGreen: that other hole was a vent for an (UGLY) gas heater that used to be mounted on the wall that we ripped out.

I'm beginning to suspect that what may have happened is that the thimble hasn't been used for quite a while, and that some in-between owner decided to remodel the wall and install the gas heater. I guess I might have to rip it all out. Better safe than sorry though!

Corey

 

[begreen]

Nice avatar!

You are going about it correctly. Take your time and plan well.