Wood Stove Concrete Alcove Fireproof

[ultisol]

I am new here and all of this is a little overwhelming and I am grateful for any help. I am in the middle of new construction and we will be adding a quadrafire wood stove. The stove will be located in a 3'x4' conrete alcove in the basement, we are not adding "facing" to the concrete. The framing for the walls (2x4 studs) come up next to the edge of the alcove. Right now, each side of the wood stove will be about 10 inches from the concrete wall, which obviously is sufficient setback to the concrete, but does not meet the required 14" to combustible (2x4 stud) per the woodstove's manual. The question I have is, what can I do around on the wood stud to get to to non-combustible. I was thinking of adding durock/hardiebacker and then do 4" tiles, which would cover the wood stud and the 1/2 drywall. I attached a photo. Thanks so much for any help!

 

[Nick Mystic]

People with more precise knowledge will probably chime in soon and give you a definitive answer, but from what I can recall reading on similar situations here at the forum I don't think you will be able to solve your clearance problem by just covering up the studs and drywall in the way you described. Tile and cement board aren't considered a heat shield and I think that is needed to reduce clearances. One thing you probably can do is to remove the wooden studs and replace them with metal studs. Then remove those outer most sections of drywall and replace them with some sort of cement board.

I have a question about what is behind the concrete that makes your alcove? It looks like it will be a big thermal mass that can work in your favor once it is heated up, unless it is on an outside wall where it will be constantly sucking heat outside.

 

[DougA]

You need to add a 1" air space behind the Durock plus have air holes at the top and bottom of the panel so air can circulate behind the panel. You need to use metal studs, not wood to secure the Durock.
Easy to do and it will solve your problem - at least how I understand your problem anyway.

 

[ultisol]

Thanks Nick. I believe that is what we decided to do was to replace the studs with metal and use cement board. That is a minor fix. The entire alcove, 9 feet, is below grade so it is 10" concrete wall on all three sides with backfill behind it.

 

[Nick Mystic]

ultisol,
I didn't notice that you are new to the forum - welcome aboard. You might want to do some research and see if you can develop a plan to help stop the heat of your stove escaping out through all that concrete and just heating the ground around it. Normally, people accomplish this in an unfinished basement by doing things like building an inside wall with good insulation; however, in your situation it appears your dimensions are going to be too tight in that space for such an approach. Perhaps you could attach a reflective type heat shield that would throw the heat back into the room. I'm not talking about needing a heat shield for clearance purposes, rather as a means to keep the concrete walls from sucking all your heat on those three sides.

 

[bholler]

You need to add a 1" air space behind the Durock plus have air holes at the top and bottom of the panel so air can circulate behind the panel. You need to use metal studs, not wood to secure the Durock.
Easy to do and it will solve your problem - at least how I understand your problem anyway.

Not true you cannot reduce those clearances further by using heat shields unless the manual says so and unless i am mistaken the quad manual does not say that. You need to honor the required clearances period

 

[DougA]

Not true you cannot reduce those clearances further by using heat shields unless the manual says so and unless i am mistaken the quad manual does not say that. You need to honor the required clearances period

Sorry, I thought that applied to all stoves.

 

[bholler]

Sorry, I thought that applied to all stoves.

nope only for unlisted stoves or stoves that allow further clearance reduction.

 

[begreen]

Use metal studs, at least on the corners, and there will be no combustibles. Also, if there's no outside insulation, add some non-combustible insulation behind and on the sides of the alcove. Uninsulated concrete walls will suck the heat right out of the stove. Roxul mineral insulation is made in batt and board form.