[TheForge] Question about metallic heat shield for wood stoves

[Andrew Vida]

About three years ago our friend Elaine had a terrible thing happen.  
Her husband, Phil, did a Jerry with a tree, only he did not survive.  
She has been having a terrible time since.  Elaine is as kind and decent 
and sweet a human being as anyone could ever hope to meet.  Bibi and I 
try to help her as much as we can, though she never asks.

She is replacing her wood stove with a newer one and wants to do the 
install as close to correctly as possible with an eye to possible sale 
of the farm as she is about 65 and not getting younger.  She has been 
unsure of how to do the tile deal on the walls and I suggested to her a 
metallic heat shield between the stove and walls.  That would allow her 
to place the stove closer to the wall, which will perforce have to sit 
catty-corner in order to look proper.  It will be on a raised platform 
that I suppose I will be building. :)  I was thinking a slate top to the 
dais, but that is another issue entirely.

My idea is to weld up a frame to which sheet metal ca. 20-18 ga. is 
fixed and arranged to reflect the heat back into the room and away from 
the wall.  I do not think more than a 4" - 6" gap between heater and 
shield is needed but thought I would ask you guys in case I am 
mistaken.  I've never done this sort of thing before and do not wish to 
be responsible for our friend's house burning down.

Also, how close should we be able to place the shield to the interior 
wall of the house?  We have gas heaters that throw off a lot of heat, 
yet the skimpy sheet metal backs allow us to place the units either on 
the wall or no more than 6" away and keeps  things barely warm to the 
touch.  Elaine is concerned that the arrangement of the stove will eat 
too much space in the room, so I would like to get it as close to the 
wall without being completely imprudent of safety.

Other OT question: the man who built the addition to the house sort of 
pooched a few items.  Apparently he failed to flash at least two valleys 
where the old and new meet and there is one small leak where vertical 
meets slope and the T-111 in one place is beginning to show decay below 
her bedroom window.  My idea, without having seen the situation yet, is 
to flash the areas but I've never attempted to do it on an existent 
structure with tar shingles and was wondering if anyone had any wisdom.  
My thinking is to do a step-flashing on the former, getting the metal 
under the shingles in the corner, gooing the hell out of the top with 
tar.  Not sure that is the right approach, though as water can get under 
the shingles, but is stopped by the metal below to protect the 
substrate.  Is this OK, or should the metal sit atop both surfaces with 
a ton of tar sealing each long seam?

Same  for the latter situation - metal outside the T-111, gooed up real 
good and atop the roof sloping down and away from the windows.

Thought is copper flashing with copper roofing nails or aluminum 
w/aluminum or perhaps stainless nails.  Not sure about the stainless and 
any galvanic reactions, though.

Any thoughts and help would be very much appreciated.  I'd thought to 
include her email address so you could reply directly, but her machine 
is down... poor girl is having a really hard time with just about 
everything... one of those "when it rains it pours" situations.

Thanks guys.

-Andy