Ok so we bought this house about one year ago and the previous owner had installed a wood burning area back in the 70's. It had its fair share of use considering this house has been heated exclusively with wood since 75'. The old hearth was built with with long concrete blocks and had huge mortar gaps. A lot of the mortar was cracked and or missing so the possibility of an ember failing through and to the wood floor was pretty high. This is a pic of the old hearth:
So my wife and I are rebuilding the hearth area so that in the winter we can use it as a heating area, and in the spring through summer we can remove the stove and hearth pad and use the room as a den. We are also bringing the area up to current code for our insurance so that we can burn wood safely and legally!
So yesterday I started to remove the old block and mortar and was extremely surprised to find that that luckily nothing was glued to the floor. It seems they just put down a cement board and built on top of it which I'm glad they did. Less work for me
Once I got the old hearth area removed and disposed of it was time to start cleaning up the floor. Our house is about 130 years old and used to be used as a doctor's office and funeral home. The herringbone floors are all original and are in great shape, so once I removed the hearth I had the task of sanding and prepping the floors.
I sanded and sanded and sanded some more to try and get the dark color from the concrete pad out of the floor. Finally I said screw it and decided the faded shadow of the old hearth would give the floors some history. Maybe the future owners will appreciate that someone removed the hearth from the house and fixed the floor.
After the sanding and prepping was done it was time to poly the floor. I was pleasantly surprised that once the poly was applied and started to cure, the shadow left from the hearth started to blend into the floor a little better. Its still noticeable noticablebut not as bad. After three coats it really started to look good!
Now that the floor is done its time to start on the new hearth.
I used this forum to get an idea of what I wanted to do. I also used the specs of my stove to provide adequate clearances and insulation value. So I decided to use:
1 sheet of 3/4 in. particle board
2 sheets of durarock next gen cement board
14 sq ft of slate tile
Today I cut the wood and cement board and layered them together
Now once the pad was "built" it was time to tile it. Now I'm gonna say this. The slate looks awesome and really gives some character to the hearth pad. But it is a PITA to work with. If someone is wanting to do this I recommend using a title that is not natural stone. Unless you are used to doing time work. In which case I wasn't.
So before doing anything permanent I put all of the tiles down with no thinset to make sure I had enough and to also mark my cuts. I rented a wet saw for 12$ and got to work cutting the pieces.
Once everything was ready to lay I put down the thinset and started laying the tile. YouTube makes it look so easy haha
Once you get going it's not too bad but there is somewhat of a learning curve to using a trowel and thinset. This is the all I have done today:
Tomorrow I'll be applying the grout and also the wood trim that will be on the perimeter of the pad. I'll update with more pics once it's finished!
So my wife and I are rebuilding the hearth area so that in the winter we can use it as a heating area, and in the spring through summer we can remove the stove and hearth pad and use the room as a den. We are also bringing the area up to current code for our insurance so that we can burn wood safely and legally!
So yesterday I started to remove the old block and mortar and was extremely surprised to find that that luckily nothing was glued to the floor. It seems they just put down a cement board and built on top of it which I'm glad they did. Less work for me
Once I got the old hearth area removed and disposed of it was time to start cleaning up the floor. Our house is about 130 years old and used to be used as a doctor's office and funeral home. The herringbone floors are all original and are in great shape, so once I removed the hearth I had the task of sanding and prepping the floors.
I sanded and sanded and sanded some more to try and get the dark color from the concrete pad out of the floor. Finally I said screw it and decided the faded shadow of the old hearth would give the floors some history. Maybe the future owners will appreciate that someone removed the hearth from the house and fixed the floor.
After the sanding and prepping was done it was time to poly the floor. I was pleasantly surprised that once the poly was applied and started to cure, the shadow left from the hearth started to blend into the floor a little better. Its still noticeable noticablebut not as bad. After three coats it really started to look good!
Now that the floor is done its time to start on the new hearth.
I used this forum to get an idea of what I wanted to do. I also used the specs of my stove to provide adequate clearances and insulation value. So I decided to use:
1 sheet of 3/4 in. particle board
2 sheets of durarock next gen cement board
14 sq ft of slate tile
Today I cut the wood and cement board and layered them together
Now once the pad was "built" it was time to tile it. Now I'm gonna say this. The slate looks awesome and really gives some character to the hearth pad. But it is a PITA to work with. If someone is wanting to do this I recommend using a title that is not natural stone. Unless you are used to doing time work. In which case I wasn't.
So before doing anything permanent I put all of the tiles down with no thinset to make sure I had enough and to also mark my cuts. I rented a wet saw for 12$ and got to work cutting the pieces.
Once everything was ready to lay I put down the thinset and started laying the tile. YouTube makes it look so easy haha
Once you get going it's not too bad but there is somewhat of a learning curve to using a trowel and thinset. This is the all I have done today:
Tomorrow I'll be applying the grout and also the wood trim that will be on the perimeter of the pad. I'll update with more pics once it's finished!
