Advice needed: inexpensive hearth pad in a Yurt

[JBBNorth]

Hi there, I work at a county in way northern Wisconsin and we are putting up 2 yurts this spring. After reading these forums we settled on the England Stove works model 50-SNC13 for heating (http://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200649089_200649089) I am hoping that is the same as the Englander 13 that everyone here seems to like. The install manual is the same so I am thinking that just had a name change.

Now that we have our stove picked out, we are discussing hearth pads. Initially, we had just thought about putting down 1/8th inch steel. We are modeling our yurts after some yurts at the Porcupine Mountains in Michigan and they put down some thin tin or something below their stoves, although they built their stoves and they sit pretty high off the ground. But then we started reading the install manual and got nervous about the r-factor and if we should do something a little better. This is the Porcupine Mountain Yurt:



We have a limited budget and a limited timeline, so we were thinking about just buying a pre-made hearth pad although those aren't exactly cheap. We already have a contractor on board to build the yurt base and deck, and we don't really want to add too much to his plate especially since detail stuff like tiling a hearth would get pricey. We won't have power at the site to have any sort of tile cutter or anything either. This is a rustic yurt so we don't need anything fancy, but we also don't want things looking super cheap.

So do you guys have any advice? Would steel be fine or a terrible idea? would steel over fiberboard work? I was looking at some big box stores and they sell hearth pads that are steel over 1/2 inch fiberboard and have an r-value of 1.5. Is there some reason this shouldn't be DIYed? We are open to any ideas really.

Thanks for any thoughts or advice!

 

[Jags]

Wood floor means that R value of hearth pad requirements need to be followed. If I remember correctly (no guarantee). The 13 requires R2 for the hearth pad. R 1.5 won't cut it.
No reason that this can't be a DIY project. Just make sure you use the proper stuff to obtain the final R value required in the manual.

 

[begreen]

The 13NC has high hearth insulation requirements. There are certain fiberboards that have a high insulation value, but you may need to go up to 1" to get or exceed the R=2.0 requirement. A fairly thick sheet of steel on top of the fiberboard will be needed because the material is quite soft. I would go 20 ga or thicker.

1" Micore 300 = R 2.06
1" Fiberfrax Duraboard LD = R 2.2

The other important issue that will need to be addressed with the 13NC is chimney height. The stove is going to want 15ft of vertical chimney. If the stove is vented through the side of the yurt it may need more due to the 2 turns coming off the stove and up the chimney.