Q&A for How to Install a Wood Stove

Yes, but you can obtain a copy of the manual by contacting the manufacturer online. (Most stoves will either have a name on them or a metal plate somewhere with its information.) They should be able to provide you with a copy of the manual.

It might be due to heat. Make sure that aside from using high-temperature tolerant tiles, you're also using high-temperature cement to fix them near the stove. Normal cement usually cracks and crumbles due to heat.

Every stove is different, check in your owner's manual or on the tag on the back of your wood stove. In the US, however, NFPA 211 requires at least 36 inches of clearance from combustible materials to the side or rear of a wood stove, unless something less is specified in the owner's manual or there is an engineered "shield" on the walls.

Too much air to the stove could do it. Close down the damper or air flow valve to fix this.

There might be too much positive air pressure in the chimney. Before you light the fire, light a piece of rolled-up newspaper, and let it burn directly under the flue in the fireplace. This will warm the air and begin the updraft process. Your chimney might also need some sweeping; you should hire a certified chimney sweep to do an inspection and clean the chimney for you.

The rooms will stay warmer, but not like with a central heating unit. Any room that is shut off from the wood burning stove heat, even by a door, will be colder than if left open.

No less than a couple of inches, no more than a foot - relative to the size of your stove.

A draft does not come down a chimney. Due to Bernouli's principle, a draft goes up the chimney.

Generally, at least 36 inches. Some stoves are designed to permit less clearance, as described in the stove's owner manual.

Under NFPA 211, a wood stove must be 36 inches from any combustible structures, including wooden studs inside a fire-rated wall. Your stove may have been engineered with its own internal shields that allow it to be installed closer than that, if permitted in the manual. You may also shield the walls to reduce the clearance to as little as 9 inches in some situations.

Yes, many people have installed stoves in their basements (in accordance with local regulations). It must then be properly connected to the vertical chimney with safely-shielded chimney-connector pipe, separated by 18 inches from combustible structures to avoid a major fire hazard.

A flue pipe must extend to the top of the chimney, if not beyond, depending upon what you are trying to exhaust through the flue.

Yes, drywall screws should not be anywhere near your chimney. If the screws are holding the chimney together, they'd usually be made from stainless steel.

Chimney pipes are typically designed to interlock and be held in place with screws or locking twist joints. If you need sealant, the chimney or stove manufacturer will tell you. Chimney pipes in residential installations are rarely welded together.

Yes, it's possible to connect more than one stove to a single flue, as long as they are the same type of fuel (wood, gas, oil).

In the US, NFPA 211 requires a chimney to be either 3 ft above the ridgeline or 2 ft above any part of the roof/house within 10 feet horizontally.

Each chimney manufacturer typically offers an expansion coupler for its line of chimney pipes.