Yes, a wood stove can go in a sunroom permitted to be heated, if your building department agrees. Use insulated Class A chimney pipe, take it through the end wall or a solid roof section, and build it high enough to clear the house.
You can put a wood burning stove in a sunroom if the room was built to be heated, your building department agrees and the chimney has a solid way out. A sunroom's glass on several sides changes how the room is classed, where the chimney leaves and how high it climbs.
A sunroom wood stove is half the job. The other half is the run from the stove collar to the open air. Inside the room that is a short stove pipe; from the wall or ceiling on, it is insulated Class A flue pipe.
Is Your Sunroom Legally Suitable for a Wood Stove?
It can be, if it was built and permitted as a room designed to be heated.
Start with how the sunroom was built and permitted. The residential code sorts sunrooms into five categories (IRC section R301.2.1.1.1, the same in the 2018, 2021 and 2024 editions). The permit applicant, the designer or the owner names the category in the construction documents.
- Categories I to III: screened or glazed rooms, thermally isolated from the house. The space is nonhabitable and unconditioned: the closest match to a three-season room.
- Category IV: designed to be heated or cooled by its own system, but still thermally isolated from the house. The space is nonhabitable and conditioned.
- Category V: designed to be heated or cooled and open to the main structure. The space is habitable and conditioned: the closest match to a four-season room.
The section sets the structural standard a sunroom is built to. The category it records also says whether the room is habitable and conditioned. Whether a stove can go in your sunroom depends on the category it was permitted as, and your building department decides. Ask it before you order, and if your room was permitted as unheated, ask what a change would take.
What Permits Are Required?
Ask your building department, because the answer is local. There is no national building code in the United States: codes are adopted locally, by the state, the county or the town.
Ask whether the stove and the chimney need a permit and an inspection. Take the chimney's installation instructions with you, because the code points to them.
For a factory-built chimney such as Class A pipe, the clause is IRC section R1005.1: "Factory-built chimneys shall be listed and labeled and shall be installed and terminated in accordance with the manufacturer's installation instructions."
Some air districts also limit wood burning on certain days. Ask about that in the same call.
Where Will the Chimney Go: Roof or End Wall?
The end wall, or a solid section of the roof, is the simpler route. A support box and a flashing are made for a framed roof, not for a glass or polycarbonate panel. So the chimney never passes through a panel.
If the sunroom roof is all panels, ask the sunroom maker first whether a framed section can be added.
| Question | Through the end wall | Through a solid roof section |
|---|---|---|
| Where the pipe passes | A framed, solid part of the wall, never a window | A framed, solid roof panel, never glass or polycarbonate |
| What seals the opening | A wall thimble, supplied in the kit | A ceiling or roof support box, and a flashing with storm collar matched to the roof pitch |
| Pipe inside the room | A short stove pipe run that stops before the wall | Stove pipe rising straight to the support box |
| Height beside the house | Easier to keep 10 feet from the house on an outer end wall | Can need extra height to clear the house roof |
| What to check first | Wall thickness, and what the wall is made of | That the sunroom maker allows a roof penetration |
Through the End Wall
On the wall route, only insulated Class A pipe enters the wall thimble.
The single wall stove pipe stops at least 18 inches from a combustible wall. Outside, a tee turns the chimney upward, held to the wall by brackets. Our wood stove pipe kits through the wall are configured to the wall type and thickness and to the height the chimney must reach.
If the sunroom wall contains wood framing, treat it as combustible, as our kit builder asks. A brick or stone knee wall over wood framing does not count as non-combustible either. The 18 inches is measured to the framing behind it, not to the face of the brick.
Through a Solid Roof Section
The roof route suits a sunroom with an open ceiling and a solid roof section. Inside, the stove pipe rises to a support box, and Class A pipe carries on through the roof. The flashing is chosen by roof pitch. Our wood stove pipe kits through the roof are designed for an open ceiling with no attic above.
The pipe size follows the stove collar, as the stove's manual gives it. A stove with an 8 inch flue collar takes our 8 inch insulated chimney pipe from the support box up through the roof.
What Are the Required Clearances Near Glass?
Glass has no clearance figure of its own, because every clearance below is measured to combustible material.
Polycarbonate panels and vinyl frames are plastic: treat them as combustible at the very least, and give them more room than the figures below, which were written for wood framing:
- The stove: its own listing label and manual set its clearances. Read them before you choose a spot.
- Single wall stove pipe: 18 inches to combustible material, per IRC Table M1803.3.4. Take the clearance for your own run from the listing and the installation instructions supplied with the pipe you install.
- Class A chimney pipe: 2 inches to combustibles, per the installation instructions supplied with the system.
- Glass panels: no figure is given. Keep the stove and its pipe well away from the glass, and ask the sunroom maker how much heat its glazing tolerates.
Stove pipe never passes through a wall, ceiling or roof. The insulated Class A section does that job, through the wall thimble or the roof support box.
What Will the Floor Protection Require?
The stove's listing label and manual set the floor protection: how far it reaches in front and to the sides, and what it is made of. Check what sits under the floor finish too, because tile can be laid over a wood deck.
What Is the 3-2-10 Rule Next to the House?
The 3-2-10 rule sets how high the chimney ends. The chimney must extend at least 3 feet above the highest point where it passes through the roof, and at least 2 feet higher than any portion of a building within 10 feet.
The rule comes from NFPA 211 and the chimney's installation instructions. A sunroom roof often sits below the house roof, and that is where the rule bites. A chimney within 10 feet of the house has to clear the house as well. That can mean a tall run of pipe above the sunroom.
On both our kits, a chimney standing more than 5 feet above its highest support needs one extended roof brace. It may not stand more than 10 feet above the roofline or that support. If your chimney must stand higher than that, call us before you order.
An outer end wall at least 10 feet from the house keeps the house out of the radius, which can shorten the chimney a great deal. Our guide to the required height of a chimney works the rule through on real roofs.
Why Does the Draft Change in a Glass Room?
A glazed room cools quickly once the fire is out, and a cold chimney pulls weakly. The next fire can then smoke back into the room until the flue warms. Three things help:
- Use insulated Class A pipe for every length outside, which keeps the flue gas temperature and the draft steadier.
- Keep the stove pipe run inside short and straight.
- Build the full height the 3-2-10 rule asks for, not the least you can get away with.
Carbon Monoxide and Smoke Alarms for a Sunroom Wood Stove
A closed sunroom on a cold night holds smoke and carbon monoxide close to the people in it. Keep the gases outside and know what to do if they get in:
- Fit a carbon monoxide alarm and a smoke alarm in the sunroom, placed as their makers' instructions say.
- If the carbon monoxide alarm sounds, get everyone outside and call 911.
- Keep the chimney top away from windows, roof vents and doors on the sunroom and the house.
- Keep curtains, blinds, cushions and firewood outside the clearances in the stove's manual.
- Have the chimney swept and checked before each heating season, inspect it at least once every 2 months during the heating season, as its installation instructions advise, and have it cleaned whenever creosote or soot has built up.
Plan the Sunroom Chimney in This Order
- Find out how your sunroom was permitted, and ask your building department what it needs for a stove.
- Choose the spot for the stove from the clearances on its listing label and in its manual.
- Find the solid section the chimney can pass through: the end wall or a framed roof panel.
- Measure the stove collar, so the pipe matches it: 6 or 8 inch.
- Measure the wall thickness, or the roof pitch.
- Work out the height the top must reach against the sunroom roof, the house and anything else within 10 feet.
- Choose the kit for that route and read its installation instructions before you cut.
A capable owner can fit either kit by following its instructions. Our free flue-design help can also plan the system around your sunroom and send back the parts it needs, or call 888-834-0880.
Need More Information?
Clearance, temperature and height questions are answered in our chimney pipe FAQ.
Each route is taken step by step in our chimney pipe installation guides. And if you would rather go through your sunroom with someone, talk to a chimney specialist or call 888-834-0880.
