Is sheetrock & paint safe?

[Vic99]

I'm going to get a Hearthstone Homestead Soapstone stove (vented through my fireplace) installed this season (FINALLY). I've got the steel liner in. Now I need to remove lots of knotty pine from above the brick fireplace and from the two nearby walls, since the fireplace is kitty cornered.

I want to sheet rock and plaster the walls around the fireplace to a bit beyond the noncombustible clearance limits.

1) Is sheet rock nailed to wood studs safe as a noncombustible surface?

2) Can I paint the plaster with a standard interior paint or do I have to get something special in order to be safe?

I'm in Massachusetts as far as code is concerned.

As always, thanks.

 

[nshif]

Sheet rock ( drywall ) is NOT a non combustable painted or not. Unless you can put enough space between it and your stoves CTC you will have to use something else. Cement board covered with brick, rock or other non combustable. But you will still have to maintain CTC to the studs or other combustables under the cement board. You can use cement board placed on 1" non combustable spacers and 1" off the floor and open at the top to reduce the CTC

 

[Highbeam]

Your sheetrock with your paint of choice will be fine so long as it is outside of the clearances to combustibles as listed in your manual. I installed my Hearthstone Heritage with latex painted sheetrock directly behind it. I could have used wood paneling so long as the clearances are maintained.

 

[nshif]

I want to sheet rock and plaster the walls around the fireplace to a bit beyond the noncombustible clearance limits.

.

Isnt he saying the drywall will be inside the CTC?

 

[Vic99]

OK. I plan to use noncombustible spacers.

Will plaster adhere to cement board? Is plaster and then latex paint noncombustible?

Essentially, my wife would prefer a clean, painted finish above and to the sides of the stove.

I know that brick, tile, etc. will work, but when we look in catalogs, we see set ups with painted walls behind freestanding stoves . . . some are keeping with clearances, but others are not. Clearly some are just temporary set ups to look nice in a photo, but many look like they are in existing homes as fires burn.

But the real issue for me is a smooth, paintable finish close to the wall that is safe . . . if that is not possible, then we will look at these other materials. Help, please.

 

[Vic99]

Excuse my ignorance. What is CTC? When I search for it, it seems a common acronym with several obvious non woodburning meanings. Clearance . . . . ?

 

[nshif]

Clearance To Cumbustables. And yest latex paint is a combustable. Looking at your stoves manual it says a corner install without the optional heat sheilds is 18" from the rear corners of the stove to the walls 12" with the heat sheilds. Will you be that close?

 

[Vic99]

Yes, I am going with the heat shields.

From the way I read the Hearthstone Homestead (Hearth-mount) manual, it looks like the closest I can be from the stove to combustibles is 12 inches. Since the back wall will be brick around the fireplace opening, which will be covered with a heat shield anyway, I should be fine with back of stove to back wall clearance of 7 inches, right?

I am going to replace the wood trim around the brick fireplace with stone, brick, or concrete.

From my measurements, it looks like the back corner of the stove will be 16 inches to the side (kitty cornered) walls. The manual says it should be a minimum of 12 inches, so that looks good. Does that seem right to you?

Thanks.

 

[nshif]

look on page 25 of the manual. are you doing a corner install or the parralell? if corner you should be fine tith the drywall and paint at the distance you describe as there is no rear clearance given only the corner clearance

 

[jtp10181]

Simple Answer

1) Is sheet rock nailed to wood studs safe as a noncombustible surface?

HELL NO

 

[Vic99]

Great!

I think that I am all set.

Many thanks.

 

[nshif]

jtp read the whole thread.... the sheetrock is outside of the CTC

 

[Gooserider]

I am feeling a bit unclear on what you are trying to do in terms of dimensions - I THINK you'd be OK, but I'm not positive.

It might help if you could post a couple photos of your install, and possibly even better a rough sketch of your setup, "bird's eye view" with dimensions of what you are measuring and how you are measuring it.

CTC stands for "Clearance To Combustibles" and in this case would refer to the distance between the stove and the outermost surface of any wall that contains combustible materials (such as 2x4 studs) no matter what that surface is made from. Code says you must put the stove AT LEAST that far away, and once you meet that distance it doesn't matter what kind of wall treatment you use (w/in reason) If you want to be closer, you can add shields to the stove and / or use clearance reduction barriers on the walls, to get to the specs listed in the manual for your stove.

Hope that helps...

Gooserider