Raised Hearth, slate application

[Highbeam]

So I rebuilt my raised hearth over the summer. I went up several more inches and placed thick hearthstones on top but since I hadn't installed a floor finish yet I put off finishing the "skirt" of the raised hearth. In my case it is a 7.5" rise from top of the floating floor to the bottom of the overhanging hearthstones.

I attached the 1/4" hardibacker which I had never used before and by the way that stuff is a pain to cut. Then I decided on real slate for the tile with no grout so a dry stacked look. Home depot sells slate for 1.48$ per SF but it is really irregular and not gauged on any side. Some pieces were only 1/8" thick. Lowes had some really nice slate, gauged on one side (machined flatish) for the same 1.48$ per foot so I got that.

Only 10% of the tiles were broken on arrival. The colors were "wild" IMO compared to regular plain black slate but the opalescent reds/yellows/green/blue/gray were also pretty consistent and the product was relatively nice so I used it.

Back buttered each tile and pressed on. It overhangs the floating floor so no baseboards. I borrowed a huge wet saw for the cutting which was very nice and fast.

Now the wife wants the wall behind the stove tiled with this stuff. ugh.

 

[Squisher]

That looks great. Nice work.

 

[tarzan]

That looks real nice. Not sure if this is any interest to you but when I did our hearth I purchased a skill wet saw for under $100. I'm not a fan of cheap tools but I broke my own rule on this one since it won't see much use. It's worked well (but slow) and has been handy to have. Have used it in the bathroom and kitchen since. And like you, I'm probably going to end up doing the walls around the stove.

 

[pvfjr]

I attached the 1/4" hardibacker which I had never used before and by the way that stuff is a pain to cut.

I'm sure it's a bit late now, but I find the hardie backer quite easy to cut with a drywall square and a utility knife. Just gotta change the blade often, and small it toward the score (opposite of what you would do with drywall). James Hardie himself demonstrates it on YouTube. There are other folks that will show you the wrong way to do it.

The 1/2" stuff requires much more persistent scoring, but is doable. Fortunately, it's only necessary for walls.

 

[Highbeam]

I'm sure it's a bit late now, but I find the hardie backer quite easy to cut with a drywall square and a utility knife. Just gotta change the blade often, and small it toward the score (opposite of what you would do with drywall). James Hardie himself demonstrates it on YouTube. There are other folks that will show you the wrong way to do it.

The 1/2" stuff requires much more persistent scoring, but is doable. Fortunately, it's only necessary for walls.

Too late now but I did end up scoring and snapping it. Two deep cuts with a utility knife would actually heat the blade up and then I snapped away just like with drywall. Never would have thought to snap it backwards. The stuff wouldn't break clean though when snapping the full 5 foot length so I would have to go along the cut and widdle it square. When snapping short widths like an 8" cut it would snap much cleaner.

I tried the jigsaw which worked great for about 18" before the teeth of the metal cutting blade were completely wiped clean.

It's tough stuff. I hit a scrap with the mapp gas torch until it was glowing red. No ignition and the backside was cold enough to touch. Weird.

 

[Highbeam]

Pug approved.

 

[pvfjr]

Too late now but I did end up scoring and snapping it. Two deep cuts with a utility knife would actually heat the blade up and then I snapped away just like with drywall. Never would have thought to snap it backwards. The stuff wouldn't break clean though when snapping the full 5 foot length so I would have to go along the cut and widdle it square. When snapping short widths like an 8" cut it would snap much cleaner.

I tried the jigsaw which worked great for about 18" before the teeth of the metal cutting blade were completely wiped clean.

It's tough stuff. I hit a scrap with the mapp gas torch until it was glowing red. No ignition and the backside was cold enough to touch. Weird.

Funny you mention the jigsaw, I tried the same thing when cutting out a hole for a shower valve. Man, that is one efficient way to knock/grind teeth off a blade! I just bore down on it till it started smoking, then pulled it out to find a smooth shank.

For long snaps, I laid a 2x4 under the "scrap" side of the cut, about 6" away from the cut. I had piece of 5/8" plywood that was about 8"x5', and I would just lay that on top of the "good" side of the cut, right up to the score mark. Then I'd just start lightly jumping on it, slowly working my way from one end to the other. The trick is to get the whole score to snap at the same time. So when you feel it start to give on one end, concentrate on the middle for a bit, then move toward the other end. It takes a little practice. The 1/2" is much more difficult, but my advice there is to just score it over and over, change the blade, then score it some more.

Of course, if you don't let your wife see the slate wall I did behind our Ashford, then maybe you won't have to cut any 1/2" after all.

 

[pvfjr]

By the way, in case I haven't mentioned it, that looks VERY nice. I'm a fan of slate, and always look for the batches with the most color and variation. You did well finding interesting pieces and distributing them evenly around the hearth. Things always turn out so nice when a person actually puts some thought into the layout like this, rather than just slapping things up in place.