Sorry if this is a repost or covered elsewhere. Lots of people (myself included) wandered in here thinking we're going to build our own chimneys, woodstoves and long chains of carbon and then asked, "What is fire code". The national fire code for the United States is available online. Your municipality may have different codes which call for more clearances. My municipality happens to employ the national fire code with no changes. There are no municipalities which have less strict codes than national fire code. I couldn't find these links on hearth.com so I figured this was the best place for them.
General list of NFPA fire codes:
(broken link removed to http://www.nfpa.org/aboutthecodes/list_of_codes_and_standards.asp)
NFPA 211 - code for fireplaces and chimneys:
(broken link removed to http://www.nfpa.org/aboutthecodes/AboutTheCodes.asp?DocNum=211)
If you live in a state which has amended code requirements:
(broken link removed to http://www.iccsafe.org/Store/Pages/Category.aspx?cat=ICCSafe&category=1170&parentcategory=Store) Products
(You can probably get these for free talking to your local building inspector)
The IFC (International Fire Code) book doesn't discuss fireplaces unless you're re-arranging the walls of your house to install one. Then you'll also need to conform to the IFC. Unfortunately I haven't found a free and legal source for it.
General list of NFPA fire codes:
(broken link removed to http://www.nfpa.org/aboutthecodes/list_of_codes_and_standards.asp)
NFPA 211 - code for fireplaces and chimneys:
(broken link removed to http://www.nfpa.org/aboutthecodes/AboutTheCodes.asp?DocNum=211)
If you live in a state which has amended code requirements:
(broken link removed to http://www.iccsafe.org/Store/Pages/Category.aspx?cat=ICCSafe&category=1170&parentcategory=Store) Products
(You can probably get these for free talking to your local building inspector)
The IFC (International Fire Code) book doesn't discuss fireplaces unless you're re-arranging the walls of your house to install one. Then you'll also need to conform to the IFC. Unfortunately I haven't found a free and legal source for it.
