woodstove installation

[humbug]

I am busy trying to get a wood stove installed. I want to install it to code. My local building department says to copy the owners manual off and bring it in to them. That is how they decide how it will be installed. The stove I bought is used. It doesn't have an owners manual. I searched through my books for clearance and installation instructions. It seems like all of the information is pretty general. I am building my own hearth. I will use a double layer of cement board attached to my pre-existing floor covered with tile. I am planning on using some sort of heat shield on the existing wall, probably more cement board covered with the same tile. The wood stove flue is already in my house as the former owners had a wood stove. However the chimney hole is not lined with anything where it goes through the space between ceiling and roof. Is it supposed to be lined or will double insulated stove pipe protect it from igniting? Also the former owners had a wood stove with an 8 inch pipe and mine will be a 6 inch pipe. I will have to buy an adapter. Is there anything I should consider when I buy the adapter or are they all pretty much the same? Because I live in a double wide I will have to cut a hole in the floor for an air inlet. The wood stove I bought is made for a mobile home so has the hole in the bottom. The people I bought it from did not have any kind of duct work attached to the hole. One of my friends who lives in a mobile attached some dryer venting to the hole in the floor. Any suggestions on this? I want my home warm but not on fire. Any advice on this would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Hum

[machinemaker]

What your doing sounds right, but code usually requires the triple walled stainless steel pipe for breaching walls or roofs. The combustion air from below usually has a min - max distance from the stove and needs to be screened to keep rodents and insects out.

[CarolAnn]

Humbug -
I'm amazed that anywhere with a building code will allow a woodstove in a trailer at all. My mom and dad had a dickens of a time trying to get information 25 years ago in Arkansas - it was more an issue of loosing their insurance, though - because there wasn't any building code to speak of there.

Be super careful about how you do this. Trailers burn like drier lint if they get started - all that air available on all sides just feeds it like a torch.

That said, the chimney condition is very important. You might find a chimney sweep to not only clean it before you hook up (if you haven't yet) - but they can also tell you what condition the thing is in.

Mom and Dad had my brother build a cement block chimney two feet away from an outside wall of their trailer, and they lined it with clay tiles. They used an insulted pipe (not sure exactly what any more) - to go from the stove to the chimney, but keeping that chimney away from the trailer walls was another way to keep it safe. (Looked like heck, though - we always wanted to rock it up so it wouldn't look so bad!)

If you have an existing chimney that's in excellent condition, a liner might still be a good idea. The hot gases that hold the creosote would be better insulated, stay hot and carry it up and out rather than condensing the stuff on the chimney walls. (That's of what makes a chimney fire.)

See if you can find any roll asbestos. (Might not be legal any longer because of the hazard the fibers present if you breathe them in.) They used that behind the bricks as an extra protection to the wall. My folks were lucky to have a brick-laying son who purchased the bricks from a kiln liner. They were feather light, and worked great behind and under the stove to protect the wall and floor.

How heavy is your wood stove, and how strong is the floor where you are going to put it? It might be a good idea to reinforce it from below before you instll it, even if there was one before.

Hope this helps a little! Please be very careful with this project and over-do the fire protection for your trailer!

[machinemaker]

Get a copy of the National building codes, this is what nearly all areas adapt for their codes here in the west. Typically it is the standard or at least the minimum in over regulated areas.

[MadTripper]

I know a lot of code enforcement agency's are looking for the ever-popular UL trademark on stoves anymore. Additionally, in my area, you must remain 18 inches from combustible walls. If you get closer, you must have a fireproof barrier with 1 inch of airspace behind it before you get to anything combustible. It seems like they would have some generic standards similar in your area.