Heat Shield

[Sbeam]

Hello, I am in the process of building a hearth for a Drowlet Austral iii wood stove. I just completed my hearth and I’m about to start on my heat shield. I will be using cement board and stacked slate tiles, (I’ve attached a picture at the bottom). I read that I should use a hat channel to give it the 1 inch air gap. I also read that I need to leave a gap at both the top and the bottom to allow for airflow. Does this sound correct? I’ve been looking online and it doesn’t seem like most wood stoves have this gap. Any information is appreciated, I’m a complete novice.

 

[KDubU]

What you describe and show are almost exactly what I did at our previous house. I installed cement board 1”-1.5” from the wall using ceramic spacers and then mortared very similar cut slate on it. Yes a gap at the top and bottom is required. I then wrapped that with a decorative trim painted white and it looked great.

Sorry for the poor pic. You can see what I did on the left and the stove was disconnected because the first floor flooded due to a burst pipe. The good thing about is all new floors that we liked better plus there were monies from the insurance to all the upstairs too. Bad news was the brand new custom kitchen cabinets were right under the leak and three had to be replaced plus 2 months of renos to fix everything.

 

[Sbeam]

What you describe and show are almost exactly what I did at our previous house. I installed cement board 1”-1.5” from the wall using ceramic spacers and then mortared very similar cut slate on it. Yes a gap at the top and bottom is required. I then wrapped that with a decorative trim painted white and it looked great.

Sorry for the poor pic. You can see what I did on the left and the stove was disconnected because the first floor flooded due to a burst pipe. The good thing about is all new floors that we liked better plus there were monies from the insurance to all the upstairs too. Bad news was the brand new custom kitchen cabinets were right under the leak and three had to be replaced plus 2 months of renos to fix everything.

View attachment 315255

Thank you for the information. How much of a gap did you leave at the bottom?

What you describe and show are almost exactly what I did at our previous house. I installed cement board 1”-1.5” from the wall using ceramic spacers and then mortared very similar cut slate on it. Yes a gap at the top and bottom is required. I then wrapped that with a decorative trim painted white and it looked great.

Sorry for the poor pic. You can see what I did on the left and the stove was disconnected because the first floor flooded due to a burst pipe. The good thing about is all new floors that we liked better plus there were monies from the insurance to all the upstairs too. Bad news was the brand new custom kitchen cabinets were right under the leak and three had to be replaced plus 2 months of renos to fix everything.

View attachment 315255

Thank you for the information. Is a 1 inch gap between the base and the heat shield sufficient?

 

[KDubU]

I think I had about 1-2” at the bottom and top. Having the trim on the sides helped hide the gap.

 

[begreen]

1" is the minimum required opening at bottom and top. It needs to be open at the top to allow heat to freely convect from bottom to top behind the heat shield.