Planning Hearth

[Charles1981]

Currently my stove is installed in the basement on a concrete slab. I have it connected to an old open fireplace which is a rather monstrous sized red brick hearth.

The concrete slab is cracked in multiple locations (as is typical in michigan).

The eventual goal in the short term is to install ceramic/porcelain tile flooring on the slab as follows: thinset/ditra uncoupling membrane/thinset/ tile.

I don't know the hearth value of ditra so my current goal was to just skip the ditra around the
hearth" and go thinset/tile (most likely a different type of tile to give the appearance of a separate hearth but i am concerned about the longevity of this without the uncoupling membrane beneath it plus it would likely then be recessed below the tiles floor due to the lack of ditra and extra layer of thinset.

I guess I could lay down durock as the hearth base then porcelain tile over that? But that would almost certainly require me to drill set screws into the cement slab to ancor down the durock....which does not sound like fun. I have also read that durock as a hearth base is not the best (however this would be on top of concrete and likely not much of an issue).

My next step is to contact the makers of ditra and ask them about R value of the material i guess/ability to have it underneath a hearth. But was curious if anyone knew off hand before i confirmed.

And I guess there are no barriers to using thinset and porcelain as a hearth on top of concrete that i can see?

Any comments suggestions? Thanks!

 

[cableman]

Are you looking to tile the whole slab or just under the stove? My buddy does tile and always floats a mud floor then tiles over that, it is an art to do it! If your leaving the brick a nice bluestone slab would look good in front of it raised up a little!

 

[bsruther]

I tiled 450 sq ft of my basement, I mortared it directly to the concrete and it has held up very well. I tile 150 sq ft in the sun room and have had to repair it twice, due to a slab in the floor that shifted from heavy rains. I think if the floor is just cracked, it would be ok to set it directly on the concrete. If the cracked areas are prone to shifting, It may be better to use another surface, between the tile and concrete.