I've got a nice little Jotul F3CB sitting on an appliance dolly in the living room, a 25' ss liner kit at the shop, and I have some dried oak/pecan/pine that I can burn. I have all the parts to the puzzle, but I'm having trouble putting the puzzle together...
Still haven't heard from the brick mason...I saw in a business report that I get where the good ol' State of Alabama has got him in a delinquent tax bind...seems he'd be looking for some "on the side" money. ??? I could handle taking out the brick in the firebox for liner clearance, but the two courses of brick and cement at the crown of chimney that needs removing and replacing to widen the exhaust opening is another story.
Still having trouble finding micore for the hearth pad, though thanks to a tip from ploughboy I've located some in Birmingham (150 mile one-way drive). Then there's the issue of the new cement boards not being listed for hearth use. <groan>
So, after all my moaning and groaning here's the (current) question...
Rather than using a cement board would a layer of something like quikcrete work? I need a thin hearth pad and the fiber-reinforced quikcrete is recommended for bbq grills to be 4" thick...way too thick for my situation. As the next to the top layer of a 3/4" plywood/1/2" micore/cement/tile sandwich...do you think that a 1/2"-1" layer of the fiber reinforced quikcrete would be sufficient? I'm considering taking Elks lead with the hardibacker...if the cutting torch didn't set it on fire..????
Ah, the miseries....
Ed
(one brain cell at a time...hmmm, sometimes two or three...)
Still haven't heard from the brick mason...I saw in a business report that I get where the good ol' State of Alabama has got him in a delinquent tax bind...seems he'd be looking for some "on the side" money. ??? I could handle taking out the brick in the firebox for liner clearance, but the two courses of brick and cement at the crown of chimney that needs removing and replacing to widen the exhaust opening is another story.

Still having trouble finding micore for the hearth pad, though thanks to a tip from ploughboy I've located some in Birmingham (150 mile one-way drive). Then there's the issue of the new cement boards not being listed for hearth use. <groan>
So, after all my moaning and groaning here's the (current) question...
Rather than using a cement board would a layer of something like quikcrete work? I need a thin hearth pad and the fiber-reinforced quikcrete is recommended for bbq grills to be 4" thick...way too thick for my situation. As the next to the top layer of a 3/4" plywood/1/2" micore/cement/tile sandwich...do you think that a 1/2"-1" layer of the fiber reinforced quikcrete would be sufficient? I'm considering taking Elks lead with the hardibacker...if the cutting torch didn't set it on fire..????
Ah, the miseries....
Ed
(one brain cell at a time...hmmm, sometimes two or three...)