Ok, I cut out the hole bigger so now there's room between plywood and chimney. It's raining and I see a drop come down. It's the vent sheild which isn't tight enough or caulked good enough. Not a big deal.

I like it. it looks good, I am installing my own stove also, so i have learned a few things. I also had some rain leakage, but I have not yet put high temp silicone on the storm collar. If yours is leaking on the outside of the pipe, it is most likely your storm collar.

Your clearances concern me. Does the manufacturer's 7" require a heat shield? Not the heat shield you put on the stove, but the type you put on the wall. Most stoves have that requirement for close clearance. My heat shield is durock with soapstone tile, placed with a 1" air gap. Any non-combustable material can be used, but the air gap between the wall and non-combustable material is key. You also want to make sure your hearth pad is large enough. Current code requires 18" in front of your opening. Old code was 16".

What type of stove is it?

Is it new? Did you do break in fires?

Burn safe.

It's a small Century Stove. 1000sq ft. Was brand new. Yes I did break in but still smells after 5th time now.

Does not say anything about a heat sheild. Says 7" from corner to wall. I got 9" on the left corner and 13 on the right now.

I placed a piece of backer and firecode sheetrock for now just to be double safe. I plan on tileing halfway up the wall in that corner. Hand is ALMOST hot to touch after 2 hours on.

How did you get an "air gap" there? Is the durock like a backerboard? Is soapstone firesafe? Got pics?

The other question I have is, how much wood can you actually put in there? I usually just fill up like halfway. The thing won't explode would it? I mean how much heat can it hold in there??

Sounds good. As long as your stove pipe meets the required clearances also. If it were me, I would have some concern about walls being too hot to touch.

I got the air gap by using 2-3" cement fiber board (durock) strips doubled up to make 1". I attached a sheet of durock to that and then tiled that with the soapstone tiles. You can use many types of spacers to get your 1", the best from what i here is ceramic spacers, but any non-combustible material will work, including copper pipe. You should plan on doing something like this. look at my link below to a durock site that explains 1 way to do it.

Yes, soapstone is fire safe, along with most stones and tile. My stove is partially made up of soapstone (Hearthstone Phoenix).

You should be able to fill the thing up to the hilt. You want to control the temps at around 400-700 degrees. Depends on the stove. Get a magnetic thermostat and stick it on the top middle of your stove. Use the air controls to control how hot your stove burns.

In reality, I am a wood burning rookie, only having burned 24/7 for 3 years now. Check out the forums at hearth.com. Those guys are the pros.

Here is a link that might be useful: durock site

Excellent link! I figured it was with furring strips. I may tackle this this weekend. I may also build a "removable" hearth since I may not have the wood stove in same location next year.

So how close are you to your soapstone?

The dog looks like he wants to go for a walk.

I am close to placing it on the hearth and putting the stove pipe up. Hopefully in the next few weeks. I will get pictures up once I am done.