Homeowners Insurance and a Wood Stove: What Should You Ask?

How your homeowners insurance treats a wood stove is your insurer's decision, so ask it before you install. Ask what it needs to see, and keep the papers that show a listed chimney, a permit and a passed inspection.

The chimney is the part you control. Fitted to its instructions and signed off by your building department, it gives you a paper for every chimney question below.

Will Your Homeowners Insurance Accept a Wood Stove?

Only your insurer can answer that, so ask it directly. Call before you buy the stove or the chimney, tell the agent what you plan to install, and ask for the answers in writing:

• Will you insure this house with a wood stove in it?
• What do you need from me before the first fire?
• Will you send someone to see the stove, and when?
• Does anything change if I fit the chimney myself?

Name the parts when you call. Our chimney is Class A: double-wall insulated stainless steel, listed to UL 103 HT. Wood stove insurance requirements are each insurer's own, so the same call answers them for your policy.

Whether home insurance will cover a wood stove is set by your policy and your insurer, never by a chimney seller. Ask the agent to point to the policy wording. The same questions apply to any wood burning stove, new or old.

Is Home Insurance More Expensive With a Wood Stove?

Your insurer's written quote is the answer, so ask for two: one with the stove and one without. Premiums are set by each insurer, so we give no figure here.

These questions make the two quotes easy to compare:

• What changes in my premium once the stove is in?
• Does a listed chimney with a passed inspection change that figure?
• Is the change a separate charge, or does the whole policy change?

Does It Matter if the Stove Is Primary or Secondary Heat?

Ask how your insurer treats a stove that is the primary heat source against secondary heat lit on cold evenings. Answer its questions about use honestly. Be ready to say whether the stove heats the whole house or one room, how many months a year you burn, and whether another heat source stays in place.

What Paperwork Will the Insurer Want to See?

Ask the insurer for its own list, then build a folder that answers it. These are the papers that show how your stove and chimney went in:

Where your state or town adopts the International Residential Code, Section R1005.1 of its chapter on chimneys and fireplaces sets the rule your chimney papers answer: "Factory-built chimneys shall be listed and labeled and shall be installed and terminated in accordance with the manufacturer's installation instructions."

The United States has no national building code. States, counties and towns adopt their own, so ask your building department which one applies at your address. Our guide to wood stove chimney requirements sets out the main code points.

Our Class A chimney pipe is UL 103 HT listed and comes in 6 and 8 inch.

Is the Installation Insurable as It Stands?

Ask the insurer, and have the installation checked against its listings first. Settle these points before you call:

• A listed chimney. A factory-built Class A chimney, listed to UL 103 HT and fitted to its instructions.
• Stove pipe that stays in the room. Per NFPA 211, single-wall stove pipe (the connector pipe inside the room between the appliance and the Class A chimney) must maintain at least 18 inches of clearance from any combustible wall, ceiling, or framing. Take the clearance for your own run from the listing and the installation instructions supplied with the pipe you install.
• Chimney clearance. Class A keeps at least 2 inches to combustibles, per the chimney system's installation instructions.
• Height above the roof. The 3-2-10 rule of NFPA 211 and the chimney's instructions, measured in our guide to chimney height requirements.
• Hearth and stove clearances. From the stove's listing label and manual.
• Alarms. Smoke and carbon monoxide alarms, placed where your building department and the alarms' own instructions say. If the carbon monoxide alarm sounds, get everyone outside and call 911.
• Permit and inspection. Signed off by the building department wherever your town requires it.

What Should You Fix Before You Call?

Fix these first, because each one fails a point above:

• Single wall stove pipe running up through a ceiling, a wall or the roof. Only the listed Class A chimney passes through the structure.
• A chimney with no listing label, or parts from different systems mixed in one run.
• Combustibles closer to the stove than its listing allows, or closer to the pipe than its clearance above.
• Work done without a permit where your town requires one.

Replacing a mixed run? A wood stove chimney kit brings the matched parts for one route together: the Class A lengths, the support, the shields and the weather parts. Then ask the insurer what it needs to see once the work is done.

Shop Wood Stove Flue Kits

Does It Matter Who Installed the Chimney?

Ask your insurer whether it accepts an owner installation that passed the building inspection, or whether it wants a contractor's invoice as well.

A capable owner can fit a standard kit. Our Class A chimney carries a limited lifetime warranty: 100% of the original purchase price for the first 15 years, then replacements at 50%. Installation must follow the instructions supplied with it, whether the owner or a contractor does the work, and our Class A warranty terms set out the other conditions.

Whoever does the work, photograph each pass-through before it is closed in, and keep the instructions you worked from. Our Class A installation instructions say it plainly: a chimney not installed as they describe loses its warranty and may affect your homeowners insurance.

What Should You Ask About Claims?

Ask how a claim that starts at the stove or the chimney would be handled, long before you need to make one:

• What would you want to see after a chimney fire or smoke damage?
• Does a missing permit or inspection change how a claim is handled?
• Who should inspect the chimney after a chimney fire, before the stove is lit again?

Our warranty asks for the same step: after a chimney fire, the system is inspected and approved by a certified chimney sweep before it is used again. Our guide to how often a chimney pipe should be inspected covers the routine inspections worth keeping on file.

Buying a House That Already Has a Wood Stove?

Tell your insurer about the stove before closing, and ask the seller for its paperwork:

• The permit and the inspection sign-off.
• The chimney's installation instructions, and the listing label on the pipe.
• The stove's manual and its listing label.
• Any chimney sweep or inspection reports.

Section R1005.1 asks for a chimney that is listed and labeled, so the label is the first thing to find. If the papers are missing, have the chimney inspected before you buy, and send the report to your insurer.

Other Questions to Put to Your Insurer

The stove is one part of the policy, so ask about the rest of the setup too:

• A stove in a garage, workshop or barn: is that building insured on the same terms as the house?
• A manufactured home: federal rules cover the stove and the chimney, and the connector pipe must be double wall, as our guide to mobile home wood stove installation sets out. Ask the insurer what it needs on top of them.
• Firewood and ashes: does the insurer have its own rules on where wood is stacked or ashes are kept?
• Local rules: your local building department confirms which code applies at your address and issues the permit, so ask the insurer whether it wants the permit and the final inspection sign-off on file.

How Do You Compare Insurers on a Wood Stove?

Put the same questions to each insurer and compare their written answers side by side. Which insurance companies cover wood stoves is each insurer's own answer, so we name none here, and an independent agent can tell you which of the insurers it works with take a wood stove.

In What Order Should You Do It?

Work through it in this order, and most steps leave a paper for the folder:

1. Call your insurer, ask the questions above and get the answers in writing.
2. Call your building department. Ask which code it uses, whether you need a permit, and when it inspects.
3. Choose the stove, then read its listing label and manual for clearances and floor protection.
4. Plan the chimney route, sized to the stove collar; our Class A chimney comes in 6 and 8 inch. Ask for a free flue and chimney design: send your measurements and we send back the parts list for your route.
5. Install to the chimney's instructions, and photograph each ceiling, wall and roof pass-through before it is closed.
6. Fit the smoke and carbon monoxide alarms, then book the inspection.
7. Send the permit, the sign-off and the photos to your insurer before the first fire.

We sell one curated chimney line, one matched system per job, so every part of a chimney you build with us comes from one listed system. Talk it through with a specialist on 888-834-0880.

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Need More Information?

Our FAQ answers how hot a chimney pipe gets, along with clearances and sizing. The main routes are set out step by step in our guides to stove pipe installation.

To go over your plan with someone, talk to a flue specialist or call 888-834-0880.