Need help with stone hearth

[rwheeler]

I have a cabin that has a wood stove in it. I got some pieces of shale and thought it would be neat to put the shale under and behind the stove for a hearth. How do I go about doing that? What materials would you recommend? Thanks for the help!

 

[builderbob]

Try looking at this site. Page down there to the heading "Veneer Makes Inroads Indoors".
Not exactly complete, specific instructions, but they do mention using either drywall or cement board on which to mount the stone. With drywall, they mentioned attaching metal lath, then the mortor, then the stone.

http://www.buildingstonemagazine.com/winter-06/fireplaces.html

Good site for design ideas anyway, if not specific building instructions. There were serveral full color pictures of some beautiful stone fireplaces. One, designed by an architect/builder firm, was an all natural stone fireplace. They saif the completed fireplace and chimney weighed 145 tons! Heavy.

Hope that helps. I did also see some reference links at the end of the article. Maybe some of those could help too.

builderbob

 

[builderbob]

Here is another thread that gets more into the nitty gritty, what materials to use etc. You can do a search on that site, there are several more threads there looked promising too for your question.

http://forum.doityourself.com/showthread.php?t=145208

builderbob (not a licensed--or unlicensed--contractor, if you wondered)

 

[11 Bravo]

What kind of material are you attaching the shale to ? I am no pro, but I can give you a little advice from past experience. I assisted a guy in putting the 'cultured' stone over my chimney and foundation. The advantage was that this stone was made for this and flat on one side. Basically took the mortar, slapped it on the stone, held it for 10 seconds and moved to the next. That was placing it over a rough surface like cinder block. Friends of mine did the same over there fireplace hearth over a wood surface, and they were first timers, and it turned out great. The difference being, over wood, they had to put a metallic mesh over it so the mortar had something to grip to. They got all their instructions and hints on the net. This shale you have should be relatively flat on one side, so I bet it will go on easily. Good luck.

 

[builderbob]

Here is one more relevant thread right here in Hearth at the DIY forum room. It also references another Hearth thread within it.

https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/6407/

Hope all this helps, good luck, and maybe you can post pictures here when you get it all done!

builderbob

 

[Gooserider]

I have a cabin that has a wood stove in it. I got some pieces of shale and thought it would be neat to put the shale under and behind the stove for a hearth. How do I go about doing that? What materials would you recommend? Thanks for the help!

Uhmmm... Dumb thought to start off with, what KIND of shale, and particularly make sure it's not OIL SHALE - there were more than a few early settlers that learned the hard way that it isn't good to use that anywhere near a fire...

That said, what do you have for a hearth currently, and what are your existing clearances like? Assuming you have the room it shouldn't be terribly difficult to just add the slate over whatever is already there, however remember that if you don't provide an airspace behind it, your "clearance to combustibles" requirement will be measured to the surface of the slate, so make sure there is room...

If the space is tight, you would presumably need to remove anything that is there currently and then building back up, again watching your clearance to combustibles, and your required hearth "R-value".

It's a pretty straightforward masonry job, but I can't go into a whole lot more detail as I'm not a Mason (or Lions, Rotary, Elks, etc... I might be an odd fellow, but I don't need to join a club to figure that out... )

Gooserider

 

[Highbeam]

"however remember that if you don’t provide an airspace behind it, your “clearance to combustibles” requirement will be measured to the surface of the slate"

That's not how I understand it. Slate is not combustible, so the distance to combustibles would still be measured to the first face of wood/sheetrock/lumber or whatever was there before. Am I all wet?

 

[Gooserider]

"however remember that if you don’t provide an airspace behind it, your “clearance to combustibles” requirement will be measured to the surface of the slate"

That's not how I understand it. Slate is not combustible, so the distance to combustibles would still be measured to the first face of wood/sheetrock/lumber or whatever was there before. Am I all wet?

Hopefully Elk can chime in and correct me if I'm wrong, but this is something that has been discussed multiple times, and my understanding is that they consider non-combustibles in contact with combustibles to act as heat transfer mediums, so if the wall is a solid peice the measurement is to the outside surface. IMHO this makes some level of sense since the inspector can't readily determine just how thick the non-combustibles really are so can't come up with a measurement to some unknown point within the wall.

However if there is at least a one inch air gap between the non-combustible material and the combustible wall, with air circulation openings top and bottom, then it's considered a heat shield per NFPA rules, and you not only get the reduction in the Clearance measurements that the heat shield gives you, but the measurement is taken from the surface of the wall behind the shield, rather than from the shield surface.

Gooserider

 

[rwheeler]

Thank you builderbob for the sites, I will check them all out. Thanks to everyone else for the info, airspace is a good think to think about.
glassman