installing woodstove - mortar and register plate

[Nathan Critchlow-Watton]

I'm fitting a Morso Squirrel into an oldish (1830s) fire place; the chimney is lined with suitable pipe and I have a section of rigid pipe to run from the stove to the liner with a soot-door in it for sweeping.

I could do with some advice on a couple of points: 1) The cement at the back of the builders' opening behind the stove has failed in places; would it be better to replace this with lime mortar rather than "normal"? 2) I'm going to fit a metal plate for the register plate; presumably I need to cut both a hole for the rigid stove pipe and another (to be sealed with self-tappers and a metal plate afterwards) to get my hands up to attach the liner to the pipe and run fire cement around the pipe?

Or can you attach the liner to the stove pipe then push up through the register plate, seal with the collar and fire cement from the "outside"?

On a related note, my current wood stove didn't need a lined chimney, so I sweep it from an access hole with rods and a 5" brush. The access door looks very small (although big enough to fit the brush through, the angle needed to get the rods though might be tricky). Can anyone reassure me that it's easy?!

Thanks, Nathan

[Grunff]

We had one of those - great stove.

How far is this from the stove? What cement is there now?

That's one way of doing it.

You need to seal the stove pipe to the liner with fire cement. One way to do this is to fit the register plate around the stove pipe, but drop it down onto the stove. You then seal the stove pipe join, then move the register plate up, screw it in place and seal around the stove pipe with fire cement.

Without knowing how much space you have to work with, I can't say. But there's always a way of doing it.

[Nathan Critchlow-Watton]

I've got a Morso in the current house - they're great!

I think it may be lime mortar there now (not sure how you tell, but yellow, gritty and very crumbly?). There will be about 9" of space all around the stove.

Thanks for your comments, nathan

[Grunff]

Sounds like it might well be lime mortar, so your best bet is to patch it with same. There is a good chance it will shrink and crack from the heat, so make sure it's a fairly dry mix, with not too much lime.