old home clearance dilemma

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oldhome

New Member
Hearth Supporter
Dec 21, 2005
2
Owning an old home isn't easy. For the longest time I've been considering installing a wood stove, but just can't seem to confirm the best way to work out the clearances.

I'm looking at installing a Jotul Castine in an existion fireplace. The first problem I ran into was that my fireplce trim was all too close to the stove - being an old house with antique paneling I didn;t feel like trimming the wood back. As a second option, i've considered pulling the stove father into the room onto the hearth and away from the fireplace trim - how do I measure the new clearances?

Do you measure diagonally back from the stove to the trim? What about above the stove? If the stove is completely in front of the fireplace, is the trim/mantel no longer in play?

Also, if i pull the stove out, I'll need to extend my hearth to meet front clearances. I was thinking bluestone. Does anyone have any experience with a bluestone hearth?

Sorry, if I left out any details. Just ask.
 
Get the installation instructions for the stove. It will have very specific diagrams with clearances. Front, back, sides, corners, flue - it will all be there.
 
You don't want a stove inside a fireplace, they're terrible placed inside them, stoves are designed to be in the open. So, that should help you some. If you choose the stove route it should be resting on the hearth outside the fireplace and a plate blocking the fireplace opening, basically turning your fireplace into a flue only and maximizing where a stove was designed to be. If you want something inside the fireplace, it should be an insert which is a stove designed specifically to solve the problems of freestanding stoves inside fireplaces.

Like SeanD the manual will tell you how close to combustibles it needs to be.
 
Right. I will be setting the stove on the hearth in front of the fireplace opening - vented out the back of the stove and up the chimney. I have the owners manual and the clearances seem to be listed specifically if the the stove is say half in/half out of the fireplace opening. I'm just curious how far from the opening does the stove need to be set to eliminate trim clearance issues
 
Yeah, you're right that is confusing. I think you have to go by the Stove-no heat shields single wall pipe and use the Mantel and Trim clearances on the bottom. If you get the rear heat shield, it reduces your corners to 13" and your sides to 18". If it's out on your hearth, don't really care much about the sides. If you look at the bottom of page 9 it tells you the mantel and trim specs. You're probably best sending them an email to clarify.
 
I clarify measurements clearance to combustiables? The clearance measurements are in all directions for instance single wall pipe is 18" all the way around. You can reduce single wall clearances with a pipe heat shield or using double wall pipe
 
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