Building non-combustible wall for woodburner

[Halo Jones]

Hi All,

I've started to think about the next stage of house refurbishment which involves, among other things, installing a wood burner in the corner of a room. Scottish Building regs state that "walls abutting the hearth should be at least 75mm thick non-combustible material at least 1.2 m high or 300 mm above the top of the stove."

The obvious thing is to build a single brick wall to the required height but can I build this straight onto the existing floor (ie joists and floorboards)? This doesn't feel right but is it ok?!

Any other ideas on how to achieve the required non-combustible thickness?

Cheers,

H.

 

[old]

A combustible floor sounds like a bad thing to me so you need a concrete base in place of it then build your wall resting on it and it can be aerated blocks and plaster for light weight then finish the floor as required.

 

[Deejay]

Afternoon Halo

"walls abutting the hearth should be at least 75mm thick non-combustible material at least 1.2 m high or 300 mm above the top of the stove."

What are the existing walls made of?

Cheers

Dave

 

[Halo Jones]

A combustible floor sounds like a bad thing to me

I should have explained that the stove will be sitting on a hearth of some description (ie thick tiles) but this only needs to be 12 mm thick.

What are the existing walls made of?

One wall is an exterior wall which at the moment is a stone/rubble fill wall covered with lath and plaster - so going back to the exterior wall would not be a problem there. The other wall is yet to be constructed but will be a partition wall between a hallway and the living room where the stove is. Another design factor is that this new wall will be about 5m long when finshed. The majority of it will be standard stud work but the first 1.5 m will need to be non-combustible up to 1.2m to accommodate the stove. When finished LOML would like the wall to be continuous such that you cannot tell the wall behind the stove is constructed differently from the rest of the wall.

The stud work will be standard 75 x 45 timbers with 12.5 mm plaster board either side. I had envisaged that the non-combustible part would consist of 75 mm block work plastered to come level with the rest of the stud wall. My query is whether the blockwork can be constructed directly onto the floor, suitably reinforced if necessary, and how to tie it into the studwork to minimise movement between the two.

 

[Robert]

Can't help with regulations but I can add that partition walls in my '30s built house are plastered breeze block laid directly onto floorboards so it is possible. Whether it is acceptable in your situation I have no idea.