# help with woodstove



## justincase (Jul 16, 2011)

If I posted this in the wrong forum I am sorry I thought heat=energy.  me and DH have a wood stove and pipe but now money is getting really tight and we need the ceiling kit ( Which I have saved for) but now we need a very cheap and fairly good looking (sorry I am a girl) way to insulate the back wall. we will be adding 2 layers of cement board eash with 2" ir flow (safety first) but what can we use for a hearth and for the cement board. I heard to use pebbles mixed in with cement ot nortar but I do not think that will be sheap. We are using double wll pipe from the stove all the way up through the roof. Do I need to cement board the whole wall floor to ceiling or just behind the stove? please help with ideas for this thank you


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## Nimrod (Jun 8, 2010)

I put a wood stove in a mobile home. It's probably not to code but I'm not insuring the home anyway. I used 1 layer of cement board screwed to the wall. It's spaced off the wall with the white ceramic cylinderical insulators usually used on wood fence posts to put up electric fences. I also cut a 4 inch hole in the wall directly behind the stove's firebox. Cold air is drawn in from outside by the hot smoke going up the chiminy. This keeps the space between the wall and the cement board cooler. I went floor to ceiling (leaving a 1 inch gap at the top and bottom) to be safe. 

The hearth is also cement board. It is raised up off the floor by putting it on broken pieces of patio block, leaving lots of open area between the patio block pieces for air to flow. Of course I took up the carpet first.

The cement board is Durarock brand. I have seen some cement board that has little bits of styrafoam mixed in it. That type works good for building a shower but not so good where it gets really hot like a stove installation. Don't use the cement board with the styrafoam in it. If the budget allows, you can put some cheap tile on the cement board and it looks really good.

This setup worked really well last winter, even at -30. Note, I'm not telling you to do it the same way, just that it worked for me.


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## frankva (May 21, 2009)

A place that sells stoves will sell fireproof woodstove mats that work well under a stove.

Be aware that some stoves require a heat shield underneath, depending on what the floor is constructed with material wise.

Worth asking about from a local pro. Even the fire dept can help. No sense torching the house.


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## thequeensblessing (Mar 30, 2003)

In an older home we lived in, we had a hearth we'd built with a wood frame and a piece of cement board over which we mortared some cheap but nice looking ceramic tiles. It worked well. 
Here at our forever homestead, we built a heart with flat stone mortared directly to the floor, and we made a stone faced wall behind the stove. We actually have two done this way and they cost us about 100.00 dollars each. Works great!

DH working on the wall before he started on the hearth.


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