Help with Updating Wood Stove

[kgrigio]

We purchased a home 3 years ago and one of the main reasons we purchased the home is it had a wood burning stove on the main floor. The stove sits inside a little alcove in the room. Before burning in the stove and every year after we had a person come and inspect the chimney to see if it needed to be swept. Last fall a new person came by and he told us the stove and the surroundings were not build to fire code. The stove, a Lopi 520, is suppose to be 24 inches away from a flammable wall, but it is only 18 inches away from a flammable wall. The wall has half brick on it, but the brick and durock are sitting right on top of the wood frame wall with no space in between. The person told me to add a one inch spacer to the existing wall and then put durock and tile on top of this spaced out wall. This will put the new non-combustible wall to within 14 inches of the stove, which he says would be fine.

My question is what do I use as a spacer? I have seen on the forum where others have said to use strips of durock as the spacer, but will this give the rigidity to the new wall? Others have said to use steel studs to give rigidity, but that seems like it would transfer the heat to the non-combustible wall.

The other question I have is in the alcove wall, there is a hole that vents to the garage. This hole only has a register over both the inside and outside hole (register like is found for you heat vent in a room). This hole makes the room awful cold. When I first moved in the previous owners had stuffed the hole with paper towels I don't think they ever used the stove. I have put insulation in the hole to keep out the cold. When I rebuild the alcove to fire code, do I need this passive venting to the garage?

Another question is we have burned a lot of wood over the last three winters, (Nov-March typically) and every year the chimney sweep looks into the chimney, he says it looks fine and doesn't need a sweep. Does this sound right?

I am attaching a couple of photos of my setup. Any help or suggestions on this would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Slow1]

That is a very interesting install - I'm glad you posted the pictures!

I don't have much expertise to offer (I'll leave that to the gurus who will answer shortly I'm sure) but wanted to comment the way that install was done. Do you think the alcove was originally built to put a stove in place or the space was adopted for it after the home was built? I'm just curious...

As to the vent - I can guess that whoever put it there was intending for it to be makeup air for the stove. I don't know if that particular stove has an OAK (outside air kit) but if it does then perhaps you could get that kit installed on the stove, then run the vent pipe out that hole, blocking off the excess hole around the pipe. That would cut out the excess cold air getting in.

Now I'm not sure I'd be thrilled about a hole between my garage and house in general - if you park your car in there then I would be concerned about CO and other fumes from the car leaking into the house each time you drive off. Then there are all the other things in my garage that either let off fumes (such as gas and fertilizer) as well as anything else that just smells bad - I recently went through an effort to seal off my garage from the house to keep the air separate.

 

[Todd]

Are you sure about that rear clearance? What does the manual say?

 

[KeithO]

You need to try to get a copy of the UL listing data for the stove. It is an alcove install, which is normally a more stringent case because of the way heat builds up in a more confined space. I would check carefully that a listed connection was used to connect the class A chimney to the stove pipe. The clearances in that area in particular look suspect. Maybe it is just perception from the angle of the photo. Class A is usually 8" OD and requires at least 2" clearance to combustibles all round, so one would expect a listed ceiling penetration to be 12"x12" or diameter 12" if it is round.

If the UL listing does not cover your install, everything defaults back to 36" clearance to combustibles. Then with metal heat shields, you can get back to 18" clearance, or 12" if you use double layer metal heat shields. The problem generally is that these metal heat shields get very low "wife ratings" in the asthetic department. Some folks have gone with brushed stainless steel if their home has a modern look.

Best of luck
Keith

 

[kgrigio]

The alcove was an addition to the house. Basically, they put an opening in the wall between the garage and the house and added the alcove that goes partially into the garage. It really cuts down on my garage space.

 

[fossil]

The 520's were produced in a few "flavors". I had an M520, circa 1980, that had a sort of primitive secondary burn capability. This one seems to me from the pics to be newer than that on the journey to the Lopi Liberty of today. Manuals are available for the stove. The flue collar is 8" diameter, and your stovepipe has a heat shield installed on it on the back side. Does the stove have a factory installed heat sheld on the back of the firebox? In any case, you should be able to nail down the exact model by looking on the back of the stove and finding a plate filled with information, including model number, clearance requirements, and UL certification. Time for some knee-walking with a mirror, flashlight, paper and pencil. Any info you could give us on the stovepipe (connector from flue collar to support box at the ceiling), the support box itself, and then the chimney from there to daylight would help a lot. Maybe some pics from outside, too. Rick

 

[Todd]

Do you have room to move the stove forward? If so you could jog that stove pipe with a couple 45 elbows.

 

[fossil]

Oh yeah...I'd lose that opening between the house and the garage. It does nothing for either space (or for the stove) and is probably a code violation. Rick

 

[kgrigio]

Okay, I found the label on the back and took actual measurements. My original post I guessed.

Lopi Model 520 Report No. 4253 (April 84) on the top line

Min Clearances to Combustible Wall Materials
Measured from Heater with Chimney Pipe Shield (without Shield)
Sidewall - 32.5" (32.5")
Backwall - 13" (20")
Corner - 18" (18")

Measured from Pipe with Pipe Shield (Without Shield)
Sidewall - 43" (43")
Backwall - 17" (24")
Corner - 29" (29")

Here is what I measured from my stove to the walls
From backwall to back of shield on stove - 13"
From backwall to back of stove (shield inbetween) - 14"
From pipe shield to back wall - 16"
From pipe to back wall - 18"
From stove side wall to both side walls - 23.5"
From stove pipe to both side walls - 24"

From these measurements, it appears the distances to the backwall are within spec but the sidewalls are not by about 9 inches.

Here is a picture of the label just in case I got something wrong.

 

[kgrigio]

Here are some pictures of where the chimney connects into the ceiling, both inside and outside the alcove.

I am motivated to do this right, especially after I was told the stove wasn't built to code. Two winters ago my bosses house burnt down after they were without power for 3 days and they used their stove to get heat. Basically the stove was at full burn for three straight days. The investigation found the stove was improperly installed. He purchased the home only a year before so the stove was installed prior to him purchasing the home. They were lucky in the sense that it was just he and his wife at home and they both got out safely, but the home was a loss. Me, I have six small children (2-11 years old) and I want to make sure I do this right so I don't have to worry about it. Thanks for all the responses so far.

 

[Slow1]

I wonder if perhaps in the end you are going to find it better to replace the stove with one that is newer, more efficient (use less wood etc), and has a lower side clearance than building out the side shields of those walls.

Now I'm also wondering about how much heat the top of the alcove is getting.

If you do go with shielding I have seen some folks use the tin ceiling tiles on the walls to nice effect - they come in all sorts of patterns etc and (depending on the rest of the room) might look nice in that alcove. I think that If I did consider this I would probably look at doing the ceiling of the alcove as well and maintain the 1" gap all the way both for consistency and just to be sure. With the tilt in the ceiling there it will reflect somewhat forward for you which should help get the heat into the room.