I had some trouble finding examples of people who had done this conversion. I don’t claim to know the codes where you live - I shared my plans with my local town inspector, got permits, and scheduled inspections at the requested intervals. For me, this was relatively cheap insurance in case I ever need to submit a claim.
This is certainly not the perfect install, but hopefully it’ll give you some ideas for your situation. So come along and see how I turned this:

Into this:
First, we start with the demolition. Removed the mantel, brick surround, and hearth.

Next, removing the 8” uninsulated chimney and the old fire box. The ‘framing’ under the stove was pretty terrifying.

Time to open up the wall, shore up some of the framing, install the new header and frame the ceiling in the alcove. Here is where the clearances are established. Everything inside of this will be non-combustible.

Framed in the new hearth and the basic metal stud structure for the non-combustible wall. I left a small gap at the top to ventilate all the hot air above the stove - although this hasn’t been quite as effective as I had hoped.

Added insulation and used the reflectix stuff as a vapor barrier (this may not count as non-combustible). Not sure, but maybe it also helps keep the heat in/cold out. You can see the floor framing for the hearth with the floor removed.

Next goes the first layer of Durock. I don’t think this is strictly required for code, and it probably reduces the effectiveness of the reflectix but it made sense to me to have a full floor to ceiling barrier - especially considering my choice for ventilation gap framing.


My clearances to the side and back are too tight without creating a ventilated air gap. There are a lot of options to create this gap. There are these single screw ceramic spacers - for my project this would’ve been excessively expensive. You can cut strips of Durock and screw them to the wall. This would’ve been cheaper but a lot of cement board cutting and I wasn’t sure I could hit the studs on the final layer of Durock blind with 4’ screws.
I chose to use skinny metal studs. I have them directly anchored to the wood studs and resting on the top of the foundation. No anchors directly behind the stove (but enough to screw the Durock to). I left the tops open to encourage ventilation air to accumulate at the top of my alcove.


And now the final push to wrap everything in a final layer of Durock. I finished my last cut at 2 am. The installlers arrived at 8 am.


It’s not an illusion. The right corner dips - we pounded in a couple shims before putting on the brick. My stove installer did the brick veneer, chimney, stove, and new chase cap. The stove is a VC Encore 2040-CAT-C.



In the alcove, the transition from double wall black pipe to class A insulated chimney in the chase occurs in this square chimney support. I think that the wood framing could be right against the support but I framed it to maintain a slight gap.

Now I know what you’re thinking, where does the ventilation air come from? My chase is directly above a similarly shaped room in my basement. I cut air holes to allow air flow from basement into cavity under hearth. These will be covered with decorative grills later this year.

I put R30 insulation on top of the ceiling joist and R15 rockwool in between them. Finished the ceiling with two layers of Durock with silicone on the seams.


The front wall is also a ventilated air space. This is the area directly behind where the mantel will be. I used leftover metal stud scraps to create little cooling fins - not sure how much these help.

Finished the Durock to the ceiling and installed a linear diffuser in the air gap. There is a weird pocket cut into my ceiling which does a great drop trapping hot air. I think my next modification will be to install a small ceiling fan in that space. Hoping the low pressure below the fan will help pull more heated air out of the top of the alcove.


And that’s pretty much how it stayed through heating season 1.
This is certainly not the perfect install, but hopefully it’ll give you some ideas for your situation. So come along and see how I turned this:

Into this:
First, we start with the demolition. Removed the mantel, brick surround, and hearth.

Next, removing the 8” uninsulated chimney and the old fire box. The ‘framing’ under the stove was pretty terrifying.

Time to open up the wall, shore up some of the framing, install the new header and frame the ceiling in the alcove. Here is where the clearances are established. Everything inside of this will be non-combustible.

Framed in the new hearth and the basic metal stud structure for the non-combustible wall. I left a small gap at the top to ventilate all the hot air above the stove - although this hasn’t been quite as effective as I had hoped.

Added insulation and used the reflectix stuff as a vapor barrier (this may not count as non-combustible). Not sure, but maybe it also helps keep the heat in/cold out. You can see the floor framing for the hearth with the floor removed.

Next goes the first layer of Durock. I don’t think this is strictly required for code, and it probably reduces the effectiveness of the reflectix but it made sense to me to have a full floor to ceiling barrier - especially considering my choice for ventilation gap framing.


My clearances to the side and back are too tight without creating a ventilated air gap. There are a lot of options to create this gap. There are these single screw ceramic spacers - for my project this would’ve been excessively expensive. You can cut strips of Durock and screw them to the wall. This would’ve been cheaper but a lot of cement board cutting and I wasn’t sure I could hit the studs on the final layer of Durock blind with 4’ screws.
I chose to use skinny metal studs. I have them directly anchored to the wood studs and resting on the top of the foundation. No anchors directly behind the stove (but enough to screw the Durock to). I left the tops open to encourage ventilation air to accumulate at the top of my alcove.


And now the final push to wrap everything in a final layer of Durock. I finished my last cut at 2 am. The installlers arrived at 8 am.


It’s not an illusion. The right corner dips - we pounded in a couple shims before putting on the brick. My stove installer did the brick veneer, chimney, stove, and new chase cap. The stove is a VC Encore 2040-CAT-C.



In the alcove, the transition from double wall black pipe to class A insulated chimney in the chase occurs in this square chimney support. I think that the wood framing could be right against the support but I framed it to maintain a slight gap.

Now I know what you’re thinking, where does the ventilation air come from? My chase is directly above a similarly shaped room in my basement. I cut air holes to allow air flow from basement into cavity under hearth. These will be covered with decorative grills later this year.

I put R30 insulation on top of the ceiling joist and R15 rockwool in between them. Finished the ceiling with two layers of Durock with silicone on the seams.


The front wall is also a ventilated air space. This is the area directly behind where the mantel will be. I used leftover metal stud scraps to create little cooling fins - not sure how much these help.

Finished the Durock to the ceiling and installed a linear diffuser in the air gap. There is a weird pocket cut into my ceiling which does a great drop trapping hot air. I think my next modification will be to install a small ceiling fan in that space. Hoping the low pressure below the fan will help pull more heated air out of the top of the alcove.


And that’s pretty much how it stayed through heating season 1.
Last edited:
