advice for building stone hearth

[Stonefly]

Our property has an abundance of creek frontage and we have tons and tons of creekstone available for the hauling. We would love to build a hearth identical to the one shown here: http://www.lopistoves.com/product_guide/detail.aspx?id=211 except that ours would not need to be in a corner, just a square pad and a flat back wall. It would sit atop a hardwood floor which can be shored up from beneath for added support. Can anyone advise how to build with stone in this manner? We've found little information on building from the floor up with natural stone. Any help would be greatly appreciated -- thanks!

 

[madison]

Watched and helped a little bit with a river rock fireplace, a while back while fishing in montana. Basically the mason used metal ties intermittantly that would be mortered behind the rock and bent out then the next rock on top would help secure the tie.

Or contact someone like this -- http://www.jamiesonstoneworks.com/fireplaces.html He took three days to do the stone hearth in my sig link down below.

We found the above mason, who was outstanding, via the stone masons society. -- http://www.stonefoundation.org/membersusa.html#PA

You do not want that puppy falling down, using the "cultured stone" is a fairly easy DIY project, but the real stone, especially smooth river rock, takes some talent.

 

[midwestcoast]

+1 I'd say find a mason. If you're set on DIY perhaps you could find a multi-day workshop to get the basics first?

 

[Stonefly]

Thanks for the good advise. We'll put this off until next summer. We still have 2 rooms to finish remodeling in the house. We'll keep doing some research and check with some of the local masons.