Questions about a mantle over a freestanding stove

[seventeenthandjudah]

Hi there, on the left you will see my current situation (sad vacant spot where a wood stove used to stand, but the government did not permit us to keep it when we bought our home one year ago). On the right is the general look I would like to go for as we shop for a new stove. The problem that I am running into is the vertical clearance that is required to non-combustibles, i.e., the mantle. I have seen many pictures (on this forum included) that show a wood burning stove in a similar set-up as the above picture. What confuses me is when I look at the manuals of several different stoves, it lists the minimum vertical distance between the stove and anything else being anywhere from 60-84", which is much higher than I would like. Ideally we would like to mount our TV above the mantle. I just left my local stove shop and was told that there are very few alcove-approved stoves on the market now (in the style that I like), so my options are limited I guess. Can anyone provide any insight for me? Is the height requirement for what is directly above the plane of the front of the stove, or if the stove was positioned so that it extended slightly in front of the mantle, would that solve my problem? I hope this is making sense, and I am extremely thankful for any help as I am completely lost right now!

 

[bholler]

Do the mantel out of metal studs cement board and tile or some other non combustible material and you can put it where ever you want.

 

[begreen]

If the construction is 100% non-combustible then the installation becomes like putting the stove in a fireplace. Clearances are measured to the nearest combustibles so particular attention needs to be paid to all clearances, side, back and top, in order to have a safe installation. To know where the nearest combustible is it's important to know the construction of the existing space (if the desire is to utilize any part of the current setup). A layer of brick alone may not achieve a clearance reduction. You need to know what is behind the brick - more brick or wood studs? This may require some investigative surgery on the wall. Some stoves will list clearance reductions permissible if the sides and back of the alcove are properly shielded. Other stoves do not. The devil here is in the details. There are several stoves that are alcove permissible, but clearances + the desired stove look and features narrows down the list a lot.

An alternative would be to install a modern, epa, zero clearance fireplace. Some of these ZCs can be trimmed out with a traditional mantel.