Alcove Definition?
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I think of an alcove as a recessed space, with a width, depth and perhaps height different from the room space. I suppose in a 30ft long wall that a recess that is 10ft wide would still technically be an alcove. Why do you ask?
most of the stove install manuals show the minimum clearances for alcoves, to include under stairwells.
Curiosity more than anything. I couldn't find a real answer in searches. the stove manuals give minimum sizes for an alcove but nothing for a maximum. Would the minimum sizes given be the max for an alcove and anything larger is considered open room? What about the quicky paint i did: A. is a "traditional alcove. What about B. would that still be considered an alcove or not? ceiling height being the same as room height.
IMO, the B pic would be considered an alcove where the stove sits. If the stove was centered in this scenario I would say it was not an alcove application. Good question!
BeGreen said:
I think this is an excellent answer but I'll add additional info in the hope it helps. There are both "minimum" and "maximum" measurements to making an alcove. I know that the "minimum" alcove height is 84" and that the "maximum" alcove depth is 36" but aside from all that, BeGreen's answer covers all the other things such as width where the minimum would basically be to the stove manufacturer's specs (IOW, the minimum width will vary based on specific stove) but there is no maximum.
So, on a 30ft wall with a recess that is 10 feet wide, at least 84" tall and not more than 36" deep, that would be a big alcove. If however that same 30ft wall had the same ceiling as the rest of the room, it wouldn't be an alcove at all. On a smaller scale such as Picture A above the alcove could happen to have the same height ceiling as the rest of the room as long as that ceiling is taller than 84". On a larger scale such as Picture B unless that area there had lower height ceiling it likely wouldn't be considered an alcove at all. Hope this helps.
Ohh, I should always start with the disclaimer that I am not an expert BUT in preparing my personal alcove I did tons and tons of research and compared local code to national code etc so I think this info is good. Hope this helps.
Edit: IIRC the height can be lower with a proper ceiling shield in some cases. However, with drawing B it appears to be getting into a grey area, especially with the same ceiling height. I would call this a room extension, but I am not the approving authority.
BeGreen said:
I'm sure the strictness of things varies but according to all the local authorities I asked, 84" is the minimum height. They would not entertain anything even slightly less regardless of shielding. In fact, the 84" height has nothing to do with clearance to combustibles. In other words say your framing was full 84" from the floor but then adding backer board and tile mortar and tile made the alcove 83" from the floor, it would fail. They were super strict about this and encouraged me to make our alcove over 84" high. I set the framing from floor at 86.75" and then with the tiling all around it is 85" tall and it passed inspection with no worries.
Ohh, I agree that Picture B, especially with the same ceiling height, would not be considered an alcove at all.
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