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I just bought a new house and my insurance company is upset that I have a wood stove in the dining area. They insist that it be 3 feet from all walls and a foot and a half above the floor. Alternatively I could just remove the thing.

I don't have a budget to have a contractor come out and remove the stove for me, so I was thinking about removing it myself and capping off the round hole in the ceiling where the pipe is. I'm fairly ignorant on the actual terms/lingo used in this kind of project, so my googling has been futile. What would I need to purchase to cover this hole? Can someone point me to a page that sells this product? Is there any harm in leaving the chimney in there or should I eventually get it removed and have the roof patched?

Jason Thompson
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    How far from the wall/floor is it now? Will they allow some form of heat shielding instead (insulation, tile, concrete, etc)? – Tester101 May 22 '12 at 18:03
  • It's about 6 inches from the wall on the corners, 22 inches from the wall in the center. It already has heat shielding. Insurance says that those measures are simply not good enough. The funny thing is, is that I don't intend to use this wood stove. – Jason Thompson May 22 '12 at 18:48
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    If you don't intend to use it, take a picture, put it on craigslist "Free to anyone willing to remove it" – DA01 May 22 '12 at 19:44
  • I like that idea. The only problem is that I want a quality job done. I'm also thinking that I can get a few bucks out of the wood stove itself. – Jason Thompson May 22 '12 at 19:49
  • Isn't it typical to have insurance setup *before* you close on a house? This sounds like a negotiating point with the sellers. – Tester101 May 22 '12 at 19:51
  • Sounds harsh -- can you have a surveyor prove that it's a reasonable distance from non-combustible materials? Alternatively, can you negotiate an exclusion on the policy? With the price of fuel, a woodstove is really quite an economical option... – Jeremy McGee May 22 '12 at 20:29
  • I had insurance before closing on the house. This became a problem after I closed. – Jason Thompson May 22 '12 at 21:50
  • A wood heater "chimney" can also be know as a "flue" it is usually best to remove and patch the flue exits through the roof to prevent and water leakage later. – UNECS May 22 '12 at 22:28
  • Could you leave it in place and "render it inoperable"? – Steven May 23 '12 at 01:59
  • I tried to do that, Steven, but the insurance was not willing to budge. I told the lady, "So let me get this straight, you're afraid that I'm going to use a wood stove in the middle of the summer?" I have since removed the stove, but I think I'm going to save up enough to switch insurance companies. – Jason Thompson May 23 '12 at 16:43

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The pipe is likely held together with sheet metal screws. You don't want to leak heat from your interior to the attic, so that section of pipe should be removed, preferably from above.

The section from attic to above to roof might be useful as a vent, if it is in good shape and not leaking.

Bryce
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I discovered that the chimney/pipe/whatever you want to call it is not held together by anything. I simply pushed the wood stove out of the way and then the pipe came loose. I bought a cap from Lowes and capped it off. Not the best solution, but it cost me nothing to do and I can put a stove right back in at a later day with no effort.

Jason Thompson
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