OK. I ran into another snag. Will insurance cost go much higher with a wood burner inside the cabin or do you guys even insure your cabins? I am having a hard time not putting in a wood burner, it seems like a wood burner and a cabin just go together. I have a nice stand alone wood burner with a blower on the back of it that blows the air around the firebox out in the room. I am wanting to use electric baseboard heaters as the main soarce of heat and the wood burner for back up. My wife is not too thrilled about having the wood burner in the cabin. What have your experiences been?
Mark
I'd rather do without insurance than without a wood stove.
Ours asked the other day what we had at the other house but there we have an oil heater as primary. I don't know what they do if it's wood. A properly installed code approved UL or similar listed stove shouldn't hurt too bad though. Then again -- anything to suck a bit more money out of you is usually a good excuse for them. hmm
The wood stove and home insurance thing varies a lot from company to company. As Glenn said if the stove is UL approved and so is the chimney that should at least get you in the door. But they very well could charge a "premium" for what they perceive as increased risk.
Shop around.
As far as whether to insure or not, that's a matter of personal choice.
I have always viewed insurance kind of like going to the casino, the house always wins. You are betting something will go wrong and the insurance company is betting everything will be OK. And usually it is. BUT a home is a big investment so I let the house win in that area and pony up. There are some other areas where I say no but that just isn't one of them. And I want to have a fireplace so if one company isn't working out-find another. JMO.
I've had a couple of houses with wood stoves in them. Never had a problem getting insurance as long as the stove is instaled correctly. As a side note I did have a rental house of mine burn down about 15 years ago. The cause...a wood stove. Not the stoves fault but a hot coal that got on the floor unnoticed during a late night stoking. Lucky they got out ok and no one was hurt. The insurance paid for the house.
Scott