Basements, Attics and Crawl Spaces - Pot belly stove brick surround installation

We are in the process of installing a pot belly stove in a converted garage space, it's our new home offices. It will not be the main source of heat. We want to put some great old reclaim-anted bricks we got from the recycle depot in the floor to set the stove on and about 4 feet behind the stove. We have installed title backer board on the wall already and sub-flooring boards on the floor. We do not want to mortar the joints but use a adhesive to adhere the bricks in a "stack" style on the wall and on the floor. The brick and stove will be occasionally fired up for making coffee with an old camp style coffee pot and we some extra warm on really cold Midwestern winter days...we want the brick to add a decorative touch to the room. We hope we can find something we can use that will hold up the heat of the stove, use a caulk gun to apply and be done. Any advice? We've gone to local national box home improvement stoves and have had no luck. We live in a small town and sources are limited but would be willing to drive some where or order on line to make it happen.

When you are dealing with wood burning equipment in order to be an approved installation you need to follow both the manufacturers instructions and local fire codes.
Most codes I am familiar with require a metal backing that is mounted to the wall with one inch spacers to allow for air circulation.

Because you need to have this appliance specifically listed on your home insurance you need to have it installed to code.
If it isn't installed properly your insurance will be void.

Really you need to consult a professional such as a business that installs wood stoves,does chimney work or similar and find out what you can or cannot do.I don't think you'd be wise to try and DIY this job without knowing exactly what the rules are locally.

I suspect the stove is an antique and if so obviously there is no manufacturer or instructions to go by but there is code and if you plan to use the stove you must comply to code.

FYI the adhesive you want is known as "furnace cement" or sometimes a similar wording.comes in tubs and caulk tubes and especially in the tubes is available in a "mortar" color,tubs are generally just in black.

We have spoke with the building inspector and we have installed metal behind the title board, then a layer of the title board. This is a newer pot belly stove less than 8 years old and is still sold at stores today. We have insulated stove pipes and have installed fire stop around chimney entrance through wall/ceiling. We have spoke with our insurance long ago when the stove was on this area, an old attached garage that we have converted into a home office work space. We have upgraded the duct work just to make it better since it has been sued for 8 years. We are just adding the brick to make it attractive since carpeting will be added to the floor instead of the cement floor that it use to sit on. We are adding old tin ceiling panels the rest of the way up to the ceiling for added features.

We just need a heat resistant adhesive recommendation that will hold the bricks to the wall and keep them in place should the area behind the stove get warmer then we expect it to.
I have seen the cement before and I thought that should be the way to go but wanted other DIYers experiences.

The stove has been in use and chimney cleaned every year, this space was my hubby's old woodworking shop but now its our beautiful new home office. The old retro vibe is awesome with a blend of new and old features...someday it might be even our rec room when we decide we don;t want our business at home anymore. We found the coolest tin panel from an online company everything we could fin at box home improvement stores were actually plastic made to look like tin...We got great moldings to trim out side of panels it will look awesome.

Thanks for the tips about the adhesive and your concerns about it being done properly.

Hi susie, now that you have described your project, you are going to have to post some pictures :).

It sounds like you are taking all of the correct steps, safety is a concern the board has to follow and I'm sure you can understand some of the hay bale projects we have to comment on, not yours though.

The only adhesive that comes to mind is silicone, but it is rather slow drying and not specifically intended for your application, as far as I know. When wood stoves are assembled, they use some kind of cement or adhesive to seal the edges of the panels. That would certainly take the heat. This is one example:
Rutland Hi-Temp Stove & Gasket Cement (http://www.woodstove-outlet.com/woodstove/A45119.htm)

If you need something to fill like a mortar, you are back to a concrete product.

Sorry can't help more, and by the way, welcome to the forum.

Bud

The only adhesive that comes to mind is silicone, but it is rather slow drying and not specifically intended for your application, as far as I know. When wood stoves are assembled, they use some kind of cement or adhesive to seal the edges of the panels. That would certainly take the heat. This is one example:
Rutland Hi-Temp Stove & Gasket Cement (http://www.woodstove-outlet.com/woodstove/A45119.htm)

If you need something to fill like a mortar, you are back to a concrete product.

If you use any form of silicone it must be a hi-temp version not just general purpose silicone adhesive.Both silicone and the gasket cement mentioned are only available in small tubes and would be costly to use for this purpose.

What you want is furnace cement aka furnace and/or high temperature mortar.The caulk tubes would have a color closer to our needs or if you really wanted to go wild you could use fire brick mortar which is powdered mortar used in high heat situations like foreplaces.furnace cement can be used to patch fireplaces and furnace linings,the only reason it isn't used for all appications is cost.