The Five Essentials People Forget when Installing a Wood-burning Stove

Due to the economy of 2008-2009, more people are turning to installing a wood-burning stove to not only warm their house, but to also save money on their gas and electric bill. Investing in a few hundred dollars and taking about as much time as half a day for most installments, Americans have woke up to the fact that this kind of Investment starts to pay for itself in as little as just a few months and the overall effect of having wood burning in a fireplace brings about a certain feeling of being more at home and pschologically more at ease.

Being in the Home-Improvement business, I have received several phone calls recently from clients concerning the issues that they ran into while installing this type of stove. During the last two months, I have learned that there are five things that nearly every "do-it-yourselfer", failed to check. This is the list of the five most Important things you should realize before you try to Install a wood-burning stove yourself.

1. Clearance

Before you Install your stove, make sure that you give the stove enough space to "breathe" without setting your walls on floor on fire. Your stove NEEDS adequate space around it's dimentions. On most stoves, you need at least 12 inches of space between the wall behind the stove. The pipe coming out of your stove needs an additional 2 inches added from the wall on top of the 12 inches needed. If you are setting the stove in a corner, 12 inches is also the magic number. Measure the back corner of the stove to both corners of the walls and make sure you have at least 12 inches of space if not more.
If you are setting this stove next to a wall, you need at least 15 inches of space between the wall and stove. The sides of most stoves get a little hotter on the sides. If you have carpeting in the same room as where you are Installing the stove, it's also a good Idea to have additional material inm front of the stove, even if this means Installing additional bricks to the bricks that already exist. If you have different material, like stone, make arrangements to Install more material to give our, "fire-breathing dragon" space to spit out accidental embers or flame. It's better to spend a little more time and money to fix this scenario, than to have another scenario which involves putting a carpet fire out, (if you are awake, that is).

2. Double-Insulated Pipes

Due to the economy, there are a few people out there that aretaking chances on their stove pipes by buying single pipes. Saving anywhere from $150.00-$300.00, they fail to realize that they have put their family as well as their house in jeopardy. Double-Insulated pipes were made for a reason. The pipes on a wood-burning stove get VERY hot and double-Insulated pipes protect your ceiling and roof from the heat transferring through the pipes. So far to date, I personally know of two fires associated with this type of misconception that any type of pipe would work.
Yes, you might know of someone who might've been lucky enough to get by with this type of pipe work done. They probably even had this type of work done years ago with no problems, but honestly; do you want to chance it, knowing that your loved ones are sleeping in the same house with a pipe that is going to heat up your ceiling and roof several hundred degrees?
Do yourself a favor. Buy the double-Insulated pipes and sleep easier. Your not saving money, but you will be saving lives, as well as your own well-being.

3. Ceiling

There are two things that most people do not realize when they Install the pipes through the ceiling. If you are Installing your pipes to an existing chiminey, this does not pertain to you, but if your pipe work is going staight out through the roof, there are two things to consider:
1. There are ceiling joists in your ceiling. These joists will probably be in your way when you cut out a hole for the stove pipe. Almost no one buys extra 2x4's to brace the ceiling joists because these joists are not seen until you start cutting into the ceiling. Get a stud-finder or try to at least find out where the joists are first befor you cut into the ceiling. Moving your stove a couple of inches to avoid a joist is alot easier than bracing your ceiling. This simple task saves alot of time and money and most of the time, (with very few exceptions), you just have to determine this by going into the attic and finding out where the pipe is going at.
2. There are roofing joists attached to your roof. The idea is basically the same. Determine early on if your pipe work is heading through the same area as your roof brace.

4.Roof

Over 90% of the phone calls I received Involved the roof when Installing a wood-burning stove. Someone gets a leak and I get called out just to find out that our, "Do-it-yourselfer", has set the pipe boot on top of the roof. The rain slips underneath the metal on goes straight to the ceiling, often leaving a stain on the ceiling, or much worse, damaging the ceiling around the stove pipe. When Installing a pipe boot, you have to place your roofing on top of your boot, whether your materials but up next to the boot, or whether the roofing material covers the top half of the boot.
Putting a boot on top of your roof, then caulking around it isn't a good idea either. This will only increase the chances of a leak further on down the road. once again, you probably know someone who has done this type of application and has had no problems, but I can bet you that I know more people who have had a VERY expensive solution to this type of application. One that involves me charging alot to fix a falling ceiling.

5. Pipes
Recently, the pipe kits that have been sold with this type of application often Included pipes that were only around four feet long. This calls fror the, "do-it-yourselfer", to screw the pipes together. The person often looks for leveling out the pipes straight, snuggling the pipes tight, and even puts the ceiling supporter in correctly. After finishing the Install job, smoke starts coming into the house from the stove.
One of the most important things that rises above all the other things I just mentioned is the reason I wrote this. You have got to overlay the pipes one on top the other. Too many clients have been sliding the pipe work inside the fixed pipes instead of the outside of the pipes. Smoke travels upward and it can crawl out of the pipes if they are installed up-side down or the sleeves have been altered. A great hint to follow when installing your pipes is if you can see the ridges on the ends of your pipes after you have screwed them into the pipe before, you have installed this either up-side down or backwards. Make sure you Install one sleeve inside the other sleeve the correct way. A downspout on your gutters works the same way. If you have your downspouts afixed wrong, you get water on the outside of your downspout. Pipes on your stove work the same way, exceopt it's not gravity that's working here, it's a draft or a blower.

Purchasing a wood-burning stove can be one of the most cost saving Investments you can make, and by reading this article, you can save alot of time and heartache by following this few easy steps. Follow the Instructions carefully on any wood-burning stove since they do vary in shapes and sizes.