How to Install a Woodstove Venting Pipe
When winter’s chill approaches, there’s nothing that sends it away as quickly as a woodstove fire. Woodstove heat adds dry heat to the room, so to prevent dry sinus passages, always add a teapot or humidifier to the top of the stove when the fire's blazing. Pour a little fragrant oil in with the water, or add fresh herbs to add a pleasant aroma to the room as it disperses the moisture. Installing a woodstove venting pipe starts with measuring the distance from the chimney box or wall thimble to the woodstove flue. Does this Spark an idea?
Things You'll Need
- Measuring tape
- Ladder
- Stove pipe sections
- Telescoping pipe section piece
- Elbow sections if using wall thimble
- Drill with screw bit
- Self-tapping sheet metal screws, three per pipe section
Instructions
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1
Set the ladder up safely, and climb to where the wall thimble or chimney box exits the room. Measure the distance from that point to the woodstove flue -- the round metal collar on top or on the back of the woodstove. If installing the pipe through a wall thimble, measure the distance the woodstove sits out from the wall. This will require a short stove pipe section and an elbow to create a 90-degree corner in the pipe to attach to the woodstove. If the flue is on the back of the woodstove, instead of on top, this will require another small elbow.
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2
Install the first section of pipe into the chimney box or wall thimble. This may require slightly twisting the pipe and pushing as you install it, as it fits snugly inside or outside the lip of the box or thimble, depending on the design. Secure it to the box or thimble by screwing in a self-tapping sheet metal screw to hold the pipe section to the outlet in the box or thimble using the drill. Repeat this two more times at equal distances from one another around the entire circumference of the stove pipe.
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3
Insert the next section of pipe into the section just installed. Each pipe installs into the pipe section installed above it. Slightly twist and push the pipe all the way to the ridgeline on the new pipe section into the previously installed pipe. Each pipe section has an end to accept a pipe and an end that goes into the pipe above marked by a raised lip a few inches down from the edge of the pipe. This lip is what rests against the pipe above.
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4
Screw in the self-tapping screws as in the second step to connect the pipe sections together.
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5
Repeat steps 2 and 3 until all pipe sections but the last section are in place.
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6
Install the telescoping pipe section into the pipe section installed right above it. Secure it with the screws as before. After the pipe is secured and while wearing thick gloves, lift up on the bottom of the pipe and set it into the flue of the woodstove, or the elbow if the flue is behind the woodstove. Add the three screws through the holes provided in the flue, if available, to secure the pipe to the woodstove.
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Tips & Warnings
For the wall thimble, install the pipe section that brings the pipe out the needed distance from the wall. Add the elbow and secure it as in step 2. Attach subsequent pipe sections below the elbow as in step 3. If the flue is on back of the woodstove, install the elbow with the mouth section of the pipe facing up to accept the telescoping piece.
Use caution when working on a ladder. Verify that the ladder splays appropriately across the floor and that its hinged arms lock in place. Never step on the top two rungs of the ladder.
References
- Photo Credit Jupiterimages/Goodshoot/Getty Images
