Floor protection question

[NilBarnes]

I'm going to be making the hearth(?) for my stove to sit on. I have an unlisted wood stove thats combustion floor is over 6" from the floor. According to here: https://www.hearth.com/articles/63_0_1_0_M1.html I'd have to have 2" mason bricks, then 24 gauge metal on that. My question is would I be able to skip the metal and go with cement board instead? I don't have a problem with the metal but for looks I figure the ability to put tile on it will be quite tricky.

Thanks.

 

[kevinmoelk]

Howdy Nil. There's lots of talk about building hearths. See my recent thread about the subject, as I am doing the same thing. Lots of articles elsewhere too about hearth building. If you look at woodstock soapstone stoves page they list some detail as to the metal and what it is used for. The metal is suppose to transfer heat quickly away from a single hot spot and distribute that heat to other areas of the hearth. The metal can, and actually should be used as an intermediate layer.

I have a listed stove and my hearth will end up using 2.5" of wonderboard topped with tile. This is for great protection and also for future stove installs in case I want to upgrade. With an unlisted stove, and having clearances unknown I can only suggest to you to construct a very, very good hearth. Micore would be a great choice as an underlayment material if you can get your hands on some. Fibrefrax is another brand name sililar to Micore.

Hope this helps.

-Kevin