Hi All,
Just acquired a Fisher woodstove. We want to install it in front of our existing fireplace. What is normally used to protect the wood floor directly under the stove from heat/damage?
Thanks, Dave
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Replies
Buy a UL approved hearth protector mat. Steel sheet folded around a fireproof mineral mat. Comes painted with fake bricks or solid colors or even genuine imitation brick. Go to a woodstove store. Different sizes for different stoves. Can't remember the minimum required overhang. Maybe 18 inches on a side? Fifty bucks and up. Mostly up.
Thanks Bob. I'd heard about those hearth mats but thought they needed something fireproof below them as well. I'll check it out....
Dave
Some insurance companies and building departments don't allow those anymore so they are getting harder to find. Sometimes the code allows when a heat shield is part of the stove. Some manufacturers include the shield, some sell it as an option, and some leave you hanging. I would have thought the reailer would have helped you on this.
For sizing, the general rule is that the floor be covered to a distance of 18" in front of the firebox openning, and 12" to each side on around back. Is that clear or is there too much smoke in the air?
;)
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I didn't know about the insurance company thing. Interesting. My stove is on 2 layers of concrete backer board with airspace underbeath, ceramic tile and a UL-approved mat. A pretty big stove, but even at full throttle my floor underneath is cool enough for the cat without catching him on fire. I would think the mat is more to protect against burning embers than heat, but it might be my particular stove.
As usual, check with your building department on this. Also, not the sort of thing to get casual about if your insurance company has an opinion on the matter. Make sure you have the proper clearances for your specific stove. They're not all the same.
"cool enough for the cat without catching him on fire"
In my experience, a cat is not a good judge of safe distances to combustibles. I lived with several that would burn their eyebrows off each winter laying and sleeping under a Vermont Casting stoves heated to a dull red. I wouldn't want combustible flooring that close to the stove without a heat shield or rated floor mat.David Thomas Overlooking Cook Inlet in Kenai, Alaska
I had a cat that would sleep under our Large Vermont Castings stove also.
Thought it was crazy, but he liked it.
I agree, a cat is not a good judge of heat.
Jeff
I like it when the cat gets too hot..crawls into bed with us, cools off, and repeats the process all night...kinda old fashioned bed warmer..beats the electric blanket.
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Mine always lay on top of the covers on my wife.
Since she sleeps under a huge comforter, she probably never felt how hot he was.
Jeff
My neighbor was just shopping prices for homeowners insurance. he found out that the wood stove added a percentage - I think it was about 15% - and they wanted assurance that it met all codes before writing a quote.
I guess we all know that cats are really cold blooded creatures anyway.
;-)
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What happens with wood and heat isa kind of carbonization process over time.
Say the your species of wood will normally experience spontaneous combustion at 475°F. Bring it up to 400° and it will not catch fire normally while the stove above glows red.
but bring it up to that temp day after day, and the nature of the wood cells changes chemically and mechanically so the flash point gets lower and lower 'till one day it goes up lickety split.
I know - not very often! But I did remove one kitchen wood burning stove over a metal/mineral pad that had probably been there for fifty some years and found a hole charred down through the flooring and into the joists. Apparantly it has smoldered or charred itself out woithout anyone ever being aware...
"What's that smell, Mabel? Stove 'ppears to be backdrafting a lot lately..."
"Whale, Charley, I done been tellin' ya to git up thar on the roof an clean out the stack"
"Shush Woman, I'll git to it next summer..."
'-)
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my insurance co had a form to fill out if you had a fireplace or wood stove. covered installation, code issues, and even where the wood was to be stored. seemed like pretty strict regulations, but i guess it's better than finding out later when they deny a claim.
hope this helps. rich.
When I was on the volunteer fire dept in CO half our fire calls were wood stove related. some from chimney fires, some from poor installation, some from stupidity in use, like the family that cleaned out the ashes into a brown paper shopping bag, leaned it against the wall while they started a new fire, and then went shopping at the grocery store. We beat them home, not that it was much of a home to come back to.
I grew to be pretty sensitive to installation issues to protect my liability installing and selling them.
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Had a similar thing happen at a place I had to repair the wiring in and around a garage. HO swept out the fireplace, fire had been out for over a day, and tossed the ash into the plastic trash bin in the garage. Luckily when they went out they forgot to lock the garage. A neighbor smelled smoke and tracked it back to the wisps coming out under the garage door seal. He opened the garage door to see flames licking up the wall from the trash bin.
Showing a remarkable presence of mind the neighbor removed the two gasoline fueled edgers from above the flaming bin, took the two gas cans out of the garage and rolled the lawnmower, full of gasoline and within a couple of feet of the flames out onto the lawn. He also closed the open attic access door.
He then got on the hose to fight the fire while making a 911 call on a cordless. He was holding his own when the ho and the fire department both rolled up. Once everything was out and cleaned up as only a fire department can do the fire chief got the story from the neighbor. He then went to the HO and told him that he needed to serve his neighbor dinner for a month.
The guy saved the day. As it was it was several thousand dollars damage but the house and garage were largely intact if a bit singed. The garage door would need replacing but it still closed and locked. Fire licked at the ceiling but never got into the main house or attic. Lets here it for nosy neighbors.
I got the call and was there within minutes of the fire. Weed whackers and mower still on the lawn. The trash bin a grey smoking mass by the road.
I've used concrete patio blocks. Trim and hold in place with nice hardwood strips. A little crude, but quick, cheap, and effective. Saw some nice slate 12" X 12" tiles on sale at HD that I might use for the next one.
Kind of depends on what kind of hearth is in front of the fireplace, doesn't it?
when you use loose laid stone or block like that, you still need to back it up with something like a minimum of 5/8" type X sheet rock, becaus ewhat happens is the embers will shake down the crack and sit on the wood floor underneath. I've removed a couple with charred spots along thsoe vacant grout lines.
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OR, those cracks fill with firewood debri, and the embers have a way to smoulder a bit on that. Been there, done that.
To protect the floor, you need 2" of solid concrete, or two layers of holed brick stacked so the holes allow air to circulate.
Easiest way to put down a 2" concrete pad is to build a crib out of trim-grade 1x3 ripped to 2", and edge-screw it to the floor. The size of the crib you need will be determined by the homologation rating plate on the back of your stove.
Once you've got the crib built and screwed down, fill it with 1½" thick concrete patio tiles, then stir up a bag of pre-mix concrete and float it in over the patio tiles flush with the top of the crib. If you like, after that you can set whatever tile you like on top of the slab.
Depending on what kind of fireplace mantle you have, you might have to protect the wall in back of the stove as well. Some fireplace mantles are made of fake stone set directly on the wall, and this is not acceptable for wood stoves, which reach much higher temperatures. You need to have a 1" nominal airspace behind your protective facing to allow cooling air to circulate. The shield must stop 1" shy of the floor and the mantle shelf, too, to let air circulate freely. Usually the shield is built of ½" cementitious backer mounted on 1x metal furring screwed vertically to the wall, and faced with whatever tile you like. Or, you can use 1" pieces of ½" rigid copper tubing as spacers on the screws used to attach the backerboard to the wall. Metal furring is easier.
Use thinset, not tile adhesive, for any tile set near a woodstove, BTW.
Dinosaur
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