Wood stove hearth

[ronron]

We have a vermont castings soap stone wood stove.The stove is beautiful with shades of white to dark grey with a greenish cast stone and the iron parts are brown enamel... I am having a hard time deciding what to put under the stove we had tile in it has all broken and cracked this stove is very heavy it took six men to move it... I am installing hard wood floors and have decided to repalce the tile with a floating one peice of stone, I just dont know what kind of stone will hold up granite, marble or otherwise...Can you give me ideas for something that wont break?

[Harry Chickpea]

You are setting up a situation where breakage would almost be a given. You'll have uneven heating of the stone with the stone under stress from the fluctuating weight of the stove and wood and flexing of the floor. You would be better off having a pre-stressed concrete slab made and colored. The pre-stressing would go a long way to preventing cracking, and concrete can be finished very nicely with stains.

[Cabin Fever]

IMHO, it's nice to put a woodstove on a raised hearth for a couple of reasons. One, if the stove has a window, the fire is easier to view if it is a bit higher. And two, it's easier to load wood into a stove that is higher off the floor.

Here is a photo of a raised hearth I made. The surface is clay tile, below the tile is cement board and below that is 3/4" particleboard.

[GREENCOUNTYPETE]

i was told to make code i needed more than 1 1/8 inches non combustable material with no air gaps

i used 1/2 inch particle board screwed to my 100 year old wood floor every 6 inches then layed down and screwed in place a layer of durarock concrete board
then layed with a 1/4 inch notched trowle, a layer of bonded mortar
then another layer concrete board was pressed into the wet mortar and screwed down
i cut this layer so none of the seams overlapper the layer below
then mortar with a 1/4 inch notched trowle
then the last layer of concrete board pressed in and screwed down i layed my tile ontop of that no probelem with heat or cool no cracks and if i did it any other way it would be to raise it up 6 inches next time possably not going 6 inches woks better for the particular loaction my current stove is in but i can see the convience for loading

[Hooligan]

When we put our soapstone stove in I first removed the bricks that the previous owner had dry layed for the hearth for their stove. I then built a simple form around the area. (The hardwood flooring had been laid around the original hearth so the hearth area was already down to the subfloor).

Then mixed up enough mortar to fill the form and layed large pieces of slate into the wet mortar. After it cured for some time I sealed with with Thompsons.

This was about eleven years ago now.

[Aintlifegrand]

Originally Posted by Hooligan

When we put our soapstone stove in I first removed the bricks that the previous owner had dry layed for the hearth for their stove. I then built a simple form around the area. (The hardwood flooring had been laid around the original hearth so the hearth area was already down to the subfloor).

Then mixed up enough mortar to fill the form and layed large pieces of slate into the wet mortar. After it cured for some time I sealed with with Thompsons.

This was about eleven years ago now.

What was the foundation? Would you be able to do this on continuous concrete block foundation with 2x10 floor joist 16" on center and 3/4 sub floor?

[Hooligan]

Mine is a poured foundation, 2x10' 16" OC. It is against an outside wall. The house is post and beam and the span is about 12' between support beams.

The subfloor is 1" planks covered with 3/4 plywood. My floor hasn't sagged any.

I've seen dozens of hearths made like this over the years. My buddy's father made one with beer bottle caps instead of slate. Hundreds of them and he said no two alike.

[NorthCountryWd]

For the 2 stoves I've installed, both have hardiboard underlayment screwed to the floor (from underneath so it can be removed with little damage) with brick on one an stone on the other. The brick is thicker than the stone, but it's still 2 inches thick before the mortar and underlayment.

I've used thinner prefabbed hearths in the past and they are much thinner and let more heat thru.