Building a Hearth

[WestBrancher]

I'm thinking about a surround for the Woodstock Progress Hybrid I plan to buy before next season, to replace my old VC Resolute. This is a fireplace installation, and the Progress will leave about 1" to spare under the fireplace lintel. I'm hoping to put tile on the floor beneath the stove, with wood trim around the sides. (Ideally I'd use brick, but that 1" of leeway won't allow for that, of course.) So here's my question: will standard tile hold up to a 700-lb stove? Each leg of this beast will be putting roughly a quarter of the stove's weight, around 175 lbs of pressure, on the tile below it. Will the tile shatter?

 

[fossil]

Glazed porcelain tile is the toughest available. Where is it that you intend to put the wood in relation to the stove? I'm jealous, I really find hearth stove installations attractive. Rick

 

[unhdsm]

The trick is to make sure there are no air gaps/bubbles underneath the tile.

 

[begreen]

There are 1" brick pavers that could be used if that is the desired look.

 

[WestBrancher]

Glazed porcelain tile is the toughest available. Where is it that you intend to put the wood in relation to the stove? I'm jealous, I really find hearth stove installations attractive. Rick

Fossil: I'm envisioning wood around the perimeter of the floor material, as pictured here

 

[begreen]

The term 'surround' is a little confusing. You are building a hearth. I changed the title to clarify.

 

[fossil]

Yeah, that's cool...the terrm surround led me to picture something like wood trim around the front of the fireplace opening or something. Couldn't make sense of it.

 

[mstoelton]

Tile will hold up to the weight if you allow the thinset below it to properly cure before you place the stove. That can take up to 30 days at room temperature. I set some 1/2 inch thick granite at my hearth/fireplace edge a week before installing my 1st Clydesdale. When we placed the stove 7 days after the granite was installed the granite broke because the thinset was not fully cured and it collapsed under the weight. Had to raise up the clyde on shims replace the cracked granite and allow to cure for 30 days before lowering the clyde onto the granite gently. 2nd time it worked - no cracks.

 

[Bobbin]

I tiled the hearth under my Classic (raised hearth) myself. It was my first attempt at tiling and I must have left a gap/bubble under one of the tiles... it cracked, but not for a year+. It's not under the stove (550 lbs.) but I can't buy just one tile, so looks like I "got crack" for the duration (grrr). The masonry chimney is inside the building and I skim coated that myself, too. No cracks in that and after 5 yrs. I figure I've passed the critical phase.

 

[webby3650]

I set stoves on tile almost everyday with no issues. Both of my hearths are tile and their are no cracks. I even drag new stoves in and out a few times a year. If its installed properly there won't be any issues.

 

[fire_man]

I set my Progress on 1/2" thick "thin brick tiles" which are probably weaker than 1/4" porcelain tile and have had no cracks.

Like others have said, it's all about having a good even base of thinset.