One thing that for financial reasons got left to late in my preparation was getting a wood stove. Much shopping of classified ads paid off this week, however, with a great buy on a $150 stove. Had even more good news this morning. My house has two chimneys, one in the kitchen (the preferred place for the stove), one in the living room. So I hired a chimney sweep to come and inspect the chimneys. The living room chimney turned out to be gas only, but the kitchen chimney has a solid clay flue liner that isn't cracked and is safe to use. He said the flue liner came only to the roof line, however, and I should put about 2 feet of flue liner into the top of the chimney, and then a pipe and cover on top of that.

Any pointers about this? The chimney already has a hole for me to put the stove pipe into. I'll need a curved piece on the stove, another curve into the chimney. one question -- how thick should the hearth be that I'll be building underneath the stove? Any thoughts on using concrete or brick paving blocks for the hearth?

-- robert waldrop (rmwj@soonernet.com), October 27, 1999

Answers

Robert: I'm no expert, but a friend used 1" copper spacers cut from pipe, one at each corner, to allow air gap insulation between base and floor. Seemed like a good idea.

-- Spidey (in@jam.frozen), October 27, 1999.

you can buy ready made hearths from stove stores---be sure to get or build one that comes equal to or beyond the swing width of the door. I was told I could build my own hearth by laying brick down (frame it and mortor ect.)---also went to the local metal fabrication place and for about $40 they built a metal sheild that goes behind the stove next to the wall--it protects the wall behind from over heating---I raised it up about 2 inches and have it about 1 1//2 away from the wall(sitting on a couple of bricks I had laying around) and that is now an additional circulating system. I feel safer now with that in place--my stove gets awful hot and even though I was assured that it wouldn't heat the wall to the "flashing point" I felt that it was worth the effort and $ to be safer. Thanks again for the flyers---I'm handing them out to the poor that I serve.

-- catherine plamondon (home@toastywarm.com), October 27, 1999.

What we did is buy a sheet of cement board and cut it in half so each piece was about 4x4. The one we attached to the wall with the 1" spaces like others have mentioned and the other directly on the floor (not carpeted), covered it with ceramic tile and it is a real nice hearth. Total cost about $100 (could be less if you could find cheaper tile). This works only if you are using triple wall pipe coming out of the stove (or else the heat from pipe may set the wall on fire) or your stove is small enough to get enough clearance to the wall. We couldn't find pre-made stoveboards that cheaply.

-- beckie (sunshine_horses@yahoo.com), October 27, 1999.

Here in quarry country, one of the favorite tricks is to get one or two inch thick slabs of slate to put underneath and behind the stove. The stone retains heat and radiates long after the stove's fire has burned down.

Think about how the popular soapstone and hearthstone woodstoves use the "hot rock" approach and then scale it up to a 4' x 4' slab underneath the stove and another behind the stove. You can bet that our old dog likes to hang out around that corner of the room.

WW

-- Wildweasel (vtmldm@epix.net), October 27, 1999.

We purchased a very simple and inexpensive stove pad from Menards, for under $25.00. Just sat it on the floor and put the stove on top of it. With respect to the pipe, you might want to consider double or tripple insulated pipe between the stove and the chimney to protect your walls from catching file. The VERY BEST place to start is with your city building department. There are very specific requirements for putting in a stove (for safety factors as contained in the Uniform Fire Code). This covers the distance from the wall to stove, the protection required on sides, bottom, and back. You may also want to consider pulling a building permit. If you do not get a building permit and burn your house down, your insurance will not cover it. You should also notify and check with your insurance company to see if there will be an increased cost on your home owners insurance policy. There was no increase on ours. Remember that you are playing with fire and its in your house. You will love every minute of the wonderful wood fire, and sleep easier knowing it is properly installed.

-- Nancy (HAYSandCO@aol.com), October 27, 1999.