DIY guideWood stove

Replace the wood stove firebrick and baffle

On a cold stove, lift out the cracked firebricks and the baffle board, and fit new ones of the same size the way the old ones sat.

8 steps

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Start with the stove cold for a day and the ash cleared out.
Firebrick holds heat a long time: wait until it's cold to the touch.
Look for bricks cracked through, crumbling or missing pieces. Fine hairline cracks can stay.
Measure a brick, or photograph the stove's plate, and get the same size bricks and baffle.
Lift the baffle board up off its supports and tilt it out at an angle. It's brittle: go gently.
Wear gloves and a dust mask: the board sheds fibres.
Tilt each cracked brick out of its slot, and brush out the grit behind.
Set each new brick in the same place, snug, with no gaps.
Slide the new baffle up onto its supports, flat and centred, the way the old one sat.
A cracked or warped stove body, a door that won't close, or bricks that won't fit: don't light it. Ask Handyman for a stove pro.

Handyman says: Stove cracked? I'll find a stove pro.

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