Front hearth protection shape

[dsil]

Building my hearth, and noticed most pads have the front corners cut off. How does this afferct the 18" from front of stove rule? Is it measured using only the width of the stove forward? Thanks, Doug

 

[nshif]

Probably depends on the specs for the particular stove, should be in the manual. My stove only requires 16" from the front the width of the stove and 8" on the sides so you could cut the corners off.. There is still some debate about stoves listed for 16" vs the new 18 law.

 

[Highbeam]

I agree with your interpretation. The front clearance is only in front of the stove and the side is the side. The triangle that is created between the two must be protected and I believe you can just connect the two projected clearances and make an angle or curve. Nothing special about a 45 degree angle except it is easier to cut tile that way. I chose to leave the corners fully square and got a larger hearth out of the deal. No cutting tile either. We use that front corner for all kinds of stacking and cleaning functions. I would say that the corner that you are considering cutting off is our most used piece of hearth real estate.

 

[dsil]

Thanks! After laying out the stove dimensions, the "extra hearth" area does not appear as large, and hardly seems worth the trouble as far as tile cutting goes. And your 1000 uses for that space makes good sense. -Doug

 

[Highbeam]

The biggest reason it gets used so much, the corner, is that the side door is right there and opens to the left. We always reload from the side door and are right handed so it makes sense to set the wood on that corner and load. With the ash buildup emptying chores I scoop from the front door and the taller bucket needs to set off to the side of the door swing path. Basically both doors open towards that corner. Oh and we use the hearth as the sort of off-limits to kids boundary so a little bigger is good.

The only bugger is that the front corners could be awfully hard on the skull if you were to fall on one.