Cement Board Wood Stove Heat Shield

Generally the heat shield must extend a minimum of 20 inches beyond each side of the wood stove and 20 inches above it.

Cement board wood stove heat shield.

It got extremely warm almost hot on the wood floor and the wall board in back of the stove got hot but not much of a concern. Specific requirements for heat shielding your stove may require more than one piece of concrete backer board to meet the required dimensions. This approach is rather unattractive though so you can beautify the cement board by. Constructing the heat shield itself is a relatively easy process.

I used cement board in that same fashion under stove and as a back wall for one year. Backer board is a heat shield that is found behind wood burning stoves. These shields are constructed with a sheet of 24 gauge or thicker sheet metal or 1 2 or thicker cement board with 1 of air space behind the shield and around the perimeter to allow free air flow. The back of the stove was about 18 to 24 from the wall.

The simplest masonry heat shield is a cement board that is separated from the wall by one inch ceramic spacers. In my experience cement board makes a good heat shield and in at least one jusisdiction with strong codes and enforcement fairfax county va it is accepted as a heat shield material when properly installed. The manufacturer of one brand of cement board says it is suitable for heat shielding go to the faq. Step 1 use an electric stud finder to find the studs in the wall behind the position that you will place the wood stove.

The tan ceramic tile heat shield behind the woodstove and its flue in this photo was constructed by the author df in 1990 by bonding ceramic tile to a factory made fireproof heat shield board consisting of metal covering a fireproof cement board. 1 heat shield spacers are available online or sometimes at your local hardware store for this purpose. Modern wood stoves can be installed closer to the wall because of backer boards. Click to enlarge any image.