New tiles instead of hearth pad...what do you think? (Old Vermont Castings Intrepid in a fireplace)

[waivej]

Hi All,

We're putting in an old Intrepid and need to extend the floor protection. A hearth pad seemed logical but the installer suggested we pull up old tiles and install new ones flush with the floor. It certainly would be nice.

So, now I have this bug in my head, but can't quite figure out if it would work or look right given the requirements. What do you think?

Thank you,
-John

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There is a 1/2" deep hole if we remove the old tile. According to the manual, it needs:

1.5" stone / concrete / slate/ tile OR
0.25" cement board covered with 24g sheet metal OR
3.5" brick OR
0.25" cement + 1" stone

 

[rathmir]

I just built out my hearth extension over the weekend and finished up the tile tonite..this is in front of an old fireplace, so it already had the concrete out 16 inches then tile over top and flush with the floor. So, what I decided on since the extension at that point was just to give me the noncombustible surface, was to lay down .5 inch concrete board and ceramic tile over it, then around the edges .75 inch quarter round (made it plenty big enough to be out of clearance reqs for the quarter round) It's not flush, but it looks alot better than I expected for my first tiling project ever; and the less than one inch step is not a serious trip hazard or anything.

In your situation it will be good to have that extra .5 inch to work with, but my solution would likely not be enough r-value for your application. Short of some Micore I don't see how you'll get the r-value you need without having it a little higher than the floor.