Nope, no wood behind range because it's combustible.

OK, thanks. I think I'll look into using the HardiPlank.

It depends on the appliance manufacturer's specifications. They tell you how close to combustible surfaces.

Thanks Joseph, I couldn't find it on their specs. Maybe I should contact GE?

What's the model number of your range?

It's ge gas slide in range JGS905sek

I am thinking about using the wood because it's low cost and then I don't have to remove the granite strip. So, it's easy and cheap. It's not ideal, but then again, neither is the whole kitchen, but it will improve it a bit. :-)

From the installation instructions:

NOTE: Product meets UL requirements for
0′′ clearance to back and side walls.

Wall coverings, counters and cabinets around
range must withstand heat (up to 194°F)
generated by the range.

Thank you! Clearly I didn't know what to look for. Does that mean wood is ok? Sorry, I don't know if it's ok at those temperatures?

No, it's not okay. 0" clearance only applies to the body of the stove. The back wall is too close to the gas flame, and will surely get more than 194 degrees.

Plus, if you have a grease fire, there will be serious problems with any wood close to the stove .

But furthermore--how would you possibly clean a wooden backsplash??? Gross.

What do you think the paper face on the drywall is made from?...wood. There is no other clearance requirements for the back wall above the range other than to install the range in a standard 25" deep or deeper countertop, with the standard cutout dimentions provided.

Tile or other non-combustible materials applied directly over drywall and wood studs does nothing of significant value to protect the "wall assembly" from "spontaneous combustion" according to the IRC and ANSI Standard. There is no code reason that you can not have a wood surface behind that particular range. You will notice that the back burners do not put out as many BTUs as one or both of the front burners. That is why there is a 6" clearance to a side wall above the countertop, but not the rear wall.

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The paint is more likely to be affected at those temperatures than the wood. If your painted paper faced wall has survived, there is no reason to believe that solid wood won't either.

If for no other reason, wood behind a gas stove with grease splatters a cleaning nightmare. Use some regular wood-look tile. Problem solved.

Fred S: Yes, but gypsum wallboard itself is fire-resistant (1/2" for about 10-12 minutes). The paper covering may char, but the gypsum doesn't burn and protects the structure behind it for a while. Wood burns, all the way through.

Plus, those installation instructions do not account for grease fires, only heat produced by the stove itself.

And you are wrong about tile and non-combustible materials doing nothing. Very wrong. They buy you time. That's why materials have fire ratings. Even ordinary wallboard buys you time. Fire-rated wallboard buys you more time--45 minutes.

It does NOT buy you more time. For ranges that require clearances to the wall, the fire starts INSIDE the wall...says years of testing by ANSI and NFPA etc., just like a fire can still start inside a noncombustible pan. It is a false sense of security. The 1/2" drywall behind the range is not type X gypsum board, and has no fire rating. And G2409 calls gypsum board a combustible. Nobody said to take the existing drywall or 4" of granite off before putting on a wainscoting either. But, go ahead and think that you are gaining something even though the upper cabinets adjacent to the stove will still be ablaze while you are admiring the glow on the back wall. The ONLY thing tile does is keep a very small grease fire that never reached the cabinets, and was no life threatening event, from leaving scorch evidence on the OUTER MOST surface of the wall assembly, so your husband doesn't find out.

They also make fire retardant/rated paint, but I am sure that gemgirlca's back wall doesn't have that at present either. And, if it is painted properly, there will be less of a problem with grease than tile GROUT ;)

There is such a thing as a "flame spread index" for your concern.

You are making a better case for having all cooktops on islands than you are for tiling JUST the back wall, and not the sides and bottom of the upper adjacent cabinets. 90% of life threatening grease fires are escalated to that point by the grease inside a range hood, so I guess you are saying get rid of all range hoods too? ;D

You need to read and understand G2409 before making such guesses.

http://legacycodes.iccsafe.org/app/book/content/2015-I-Codes/2015%20IRC%20HTML/Chapter%2024.html

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And for high BTU stoves that actually have clearance issues, hardie board, and other concrete backer boards have less fire resistance than drywall because the heat goes right through to the wood studs much faster.

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There is a reason why you will not find tile over gypsum board on a wood framed wall on ANY of these tests.

https://www.huduser.gov/portal/Publications/PDF/fire.pdf

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Fred spanks another one.

Wow, this seems to be a contentious issue! Thanks for the info everyone. As far as keeping it clean... the paint on the wood, is no different than the paint that is on the drywall right now, so that's definitely not an issue.

Jemgirlca is this a new build? If not, what is behind the current stove top? How is cleaning grease off a painted board any better than cleaning off painted sheet rock? I ask because what you are describing does not sound pretty.

It isn't a contentious issue just one that is not clear to many, including me, and Fred always has to explain. Thank you Fred.

Hi Emmarene, no it isn't a new build. The house was renovated many years ago (not by us). We've lived here for a year and half and it currently has painted drywall behind the cooktop (there is a 4" granite piece at the bottom) It really doesn't get that dirty. The painted wood won't be any better or worse than the current wall that is there now. I just wanted to do something that looks more finished to me (I'm used to newer houses with tile backsplash. This house is older and taking down the granite backsplash and fixing the walls is more than I really want to do now, so I was thinking I could add some type of painted planked backsplash which would look more finished, with minimal effort or money. :-) I just wanted to make sure I wasn't doing something that is unsafe, even though lots of other people do it.

A few yrs back there was a back splash dilemma where the OP had a limited budget but wanted to do something to give her kitchen a finish look. She ended up stenciling a backsplash. It looked great. And she used paint that she had lying around. She never did this before and I think if I recall correctly it took her about an afternoon to do it. If that is something that you might be interested in, I'll look for the dilemma so you can see photos. It will take me awhile to look so didn't want to spend the time if you weren't interested.

Thanks for the stenciling idea. I had thought of that, especially since the painted cement tile is popular. By the way, I think I found the thread. Her backsplash did look nice with the stenciled background, although, it looks like she recently painted over it. Thanks for offering to look for it for me, though!!

The problem is that my cabinets are cherry and I have a black granite counter. (not solid) So, I think it might be too busy. If I had a white kitchen, or at least a more neutral countertop, I would go ahead and rip out the granite backspash and use subway tile. I haven't figured out a backsplash that would go with my current counters and cabinets that I like enough to go to all of that effort. I think I'm going to stick with the wood backsplash idea. I will look into using the Hardiplank wood to do it. I can do it for less than 50 dollars and it is a pretty simple project since I am going to paint the kitchen (and the rest of the house and trim) anyway, so I think it will make me like it more than the way it is now. :-)

https://www.jameshardie.com/Product-Support/Resource-Center/Technical-Documents/Fire-Prevention-FAQ

jimgirlca- I know you want to "finish" off your kitchen inexpensively but cherry cabinets and black granite counters usually lend itself more to a traditional look and if your kitchen does lean more towards this style rather than contemporary or industrial you may want to reconsider wood and instead leaving it as is as the wood could look a bit odd. If you are open to a tile back splash post photos of your kitchen then maybe we can give you some inexpensive suggestions or alternative ideas.

Ok Fred. Bead board is better than the planks of wood that I imagined the OP doing. I guess I should have asked OP what her idea of wood backing she is planning to do. Brain freeze..

The biggest problems I see with gas stove tops is from the heat that escapes from under the back pots on the burners charring the backsplash, even at the recommended spacing. Wood will be a huge fire hazard.

Sorry for the slow responses, I'm out of town for a few days...

I'm not sure how the wood is going to get charred. That had never happened before to the current wall. Truthfully, I hardly ever use the back burners.

The kitchen is pretty traditional. Fred was right, I want to do something similar to beadboard, but with wider planks. I'm decorating the house in a bit of a modern farmhouse look. I'm painting the walls with SW Balanced Beige and trim is SW Alabaster. I think I would paint the backsplash SW Accessible Beige (one shade lighter than the walls) so it is not as much of a contrast as the white trim color would be. I've already painted the entry way wall in 18 in stripes with those two colors, so it would carry those colors over into the kitchen.

I'm happy that you got your answer to your question and that you can move forward to adding wood as the black splash as you had planned. Good luck with your project.

Thanks Ted, I'll try to remember to post some pictures when I'm done.

"heat that escapes from under the back pots on the burners charring the backsplash"

Again, nobody is planning to take out the 4" granite piece at the bottom, even though the installation instructions show a post-form particle board and plastic laminate backsplash.

You see, they all "drank the Kool-Aid", and are now trying to defend it. They do not understand that each stove is tested individually by an independent testing laboratory based on the actual physical characteristics of that specific model.

They see the high powered Wolf ranges installed wrong and assume that is the case for all ranges.

I'm confused Fred, are you saying it's ok with the granite piece? I don't know enough about what all of this means to follow...

Per the laboratory ANSI Z21 testing for this stove, it is OK to have just a wood backsplash without the 4" of granite. Furthermore, a lightweight (50% air) concrete board like Hardie will not give any further protection of charring of the paper on the drywall. It would just cover any charring up so that you can not see it until it is too late.

The 4" granite backsplash just serves as slightly better protection from minor discoloring in the event someone does something that should not have been done in the first place. It also keeps you from pushing a hot pan against the wainscoting and "Branding" the wall.

Using a thin (¼-⅜), real solid wood wainscoting will have a much better flame spread rating than the plywood or particle board cabinets just above the stove, or even the paper facing on the drywall.

Treat the area near the stove with a fire retardant or high heat primer if it makes you feel better.

So Fred, what about mdf? Home Depot has a 1/4" primed mdf tongue and groove that would work. how do you feel about using that?

MDF is just cardboard with a different name.

Water and MDF don't mix. You'd be better off with real wood.

The answer to that is even more confusing. Read these first, so you can get the basics.

www.trupan-na.com/_file/flame_spread_performance112618pdf

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International Residential Code

The simple answer is to first find out what the rating is for that particular product.

FYI, much of the exterior trim now days is MDF, so "cardboard" and "water" are not as relevant as one might think.

Thanks, I'll take a look at that! I'm not worried about water out it being like cardboard, either. I don't agree with the cardboard comment. and I'm not worried about water issues because of my granite backsplash. I just "talked"to sometime in Instagram that just did theirs and what they got from home Depot was pine, not mdf anyway, so I'll have to go look at the store. thanks again Fred!!

Jem - I did exactly what you are talking about in my kitchen. 3 1/2" tongue and groove wood. It comes in packages - maybe 6 per package and 8' long? Its just painted, like the drywall was in the house I grew up in. Its not greasy. The ugly travertine tiles we busted out were REALLY greasy and nothing would get it off. If we cook something messy, like bacon or pasta sauce, I lean a cookie sheet against the wall. The back burners are tiny and we rarely use them. The wall behind the stove and the walls to the left and right are framed so that if we ever decide the wood was a bad idea we can remove just that area and tile it without messing up the rest of the wall.

Most MDF less than 3/8" thick will not pass the class III or C flame spread rating of less than 200 unless it is treated in some way. To be as thin as 1/4", it almost has to have a surface treatment to not fall apart. Usually, if it is treated, it would be a class I or A. But, that has to be verified. The paper on drywall does not meet a class III or C rating. Some species of pine, especially wainscoting at 5/16" thick do not pass the test either. Other species of pine are as low of a rating as 50 which puts it solidly in the middle of a class II or B rating, way better than the drywall surface. (Something like tile or asbestos is "0", and red oak is "100")

All products should be able to supply you with a rating, but you may have to bug the HD manager to get it. If you can not verify the flame spread rating, it may be easier to use this (product link) just around the stove area, and get a class I or A rating.

https://www.amazon.com/No-Burn-1102A-Original-Fire-Retardant/dp/B003M8G39E

Spraying that on only works with real wood, but you can also mix it into paint for MDF. There are other products and paints that will also work.

Very interesting thread! @fred S, you've posted a lot of great information, but all o really want to know is, am I going to burn my house down? I treated with a clear fire retardant spray.

That's just going to burn people's eyes, not their houses.

Tim, the spray should help protect from an accidental flash fire that originates from grease or alcohol in a pan to some degree. The stove itself is already listed for installation up against a combustible back wall under normal cooking conditions, without the spay. Just do not start a fire while cooking. If that happens, you will probably be more concerned with the grease fire that has escalated into the range hood anyway.

Thanks for the encouragement Sophie! Everybody agrees, it's an atrocious idea. They all hope the kitchen burns down.

Im going to yack

Tim: That's not a slide-in range in those photos. That's a standard stove.

The OP distinctly asked about a slide-in range (which doesn't have the protection of the upright section in the back).

I’m curious to know if you did the wood backsplash? I just upgraded my stove and thought about adding in a wood backsplash.

Melissa- have you considered a wood-look tile rather than actual wood which might be a code violation? Plus, wood behind a stove might be an issue for cleaning.