Hearth Building 101

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kevinmoelk

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Hearth Supporter
Okay, not that I'm qualified to write something on hearth building, but here are some pictures of the hearth I built. There were a few ups and downs. Particularly the floor in the house. Previous water damage and a poor re-finish job has left the floor with numerous little dips and bends everywhere. Couple that with some fine Home Cheapo lumber, and it's a recipie for disaster. So as you can see, there are many shims underneath the frame. Oh, and that little triangle off to the left, I did end up re-framing that and tieing it in properly, but unfortunately I did not take a picture of that, so no worries my work is not that shoddy. Originally I only intended to have the square portion, then decided it would be better just to run the hearth into the corner, that's why I did not build one frame.

Notice that the hole in the floor was drilled twice. Off to the left I ran into the floor joist below, so I moved over and drilled to the right for the final cut. Although the hole for the OAK is only 3 1/8" I drilled a 4" hole in the floor. This was done to accomodate the body of the drill as I drilled each layer of wonderboard from below, just scoring from below, not trying to drill through. Then I would move upstairs, score again with the hole saw, then knock out the plug with a hammer. But of course before the wonderboard I installed a 3/4 layer of plywood.

Working with the wonderboard was okay overall. It cuts like drywall for the most part, but did eat the blade on my utility knife. Of course, I did alternate the pattern on the numerous layers so as not to have any of the same joints from one layer to the next. Two observations of note... one, that despite buying the special screws the stuff still likes to pop up and dimple sometimes. I ended up just tappng the dimples flat with a hammer, no big deal, but something to be aware of. The second observation is that working with it will make your hands dry out fast!

After 5 layers of wonderboard I placed some scrap plywood around the frame to outline the eventual over all dimension. I then thinset mortered the joint and the edges. The border also allowed me to place the tile spacers right up against the plywood to give me the proper tile spacing prior to the final oak border.

The tile was a breeze. I used 3/16" spacers and charcoal grout. The little saw I purchased worked very well. I even cut the hole with the tile saw from the back side, then finishing up with a special tile blade on the jig saw. Then a tile file to smooth the edges of the hole. Not a perfect hole, but I feel okay overall. Where the tile had been eaten away slightly on the back side, I just placed some extra thinset there to shore up around the hole. By the way, the 4 pieces of tape on the tiles represent the legs of the stove. Just making sure the stove legs wouldn't be right over a joint.

Now I simply used thinset mortar to secure the tiles. After the tiles set up I removed the rubber spacers and the temporary border then trimmed out in solid oak. I decided to use oak counter top instead of quarter round at the base because the counter edge moulding did a little more to break up the height of the hearth. The overall height of the hearth is roughly 7 1/2 inches.

Stained the oak border with a natural stain, and 3 coats of polyurathane after that. I then simply used grout to fill in the tiles and the border edge. That's it! Still need to trim out the back edge of the hearth, but before I do that I need to finish the drywall behind and paint.

Thanks to everyone for all the help and advice given during this whole process. If anyone has any questions I'd be happy to answer them.

-Kevin

http://pictures.aol.com/galleries/wrenchmonster

EDIT: I don't know why the post always places the pictures in reverse order!
 
Thanks guys. DonCT, I checked the board, and it is indeed wonderboard. Not sure what the difference is between it and durorock; admittedly, "wonderboard" has in some ways become the word for all similar products... kind of like "kleenex" for facial tissue.

Harley, the stove? Oh, I don't know, the end of January. I sincerely hope not. I've got many irons in the fire right now, and I'm squeezing in this wood stove project whenever I can. Beyond my time constrictions, I'm still waiting on the flashing and locking bands for the chimney from my local hearth dealer. Those items should be here this week sometime. If all goes well, maybe by the end of this week or middle of next.

-Kevin
 
Lookin' good Wrench!

Keep the pics coming as the stove goes in.
 
The hearth itself looks great, very nice job. A side benefit of the OAK kit hole is that it may allow someone in the future to see how it's put together if that should ever be a question.

One minor thing that I did notice, is that you have what looks like an HVAC return just to one side of the new hearth - IIRC, Elk has said thats not a good thing per current codes? Is it a problem?

Gooserider
 
Thanks for the kind words everyone.

I've been chatting with Elk about the vent. Elk I don't want to put words in your mouth here, so if I did not understand correctly, feel free to edit. The vent there is a supply vent, not a return. Hence, the same code regulations don't apply. If it were a return, then yes, I would have to relocate or delete the vent.

You'll also see an electrical outlet off to the left, the empty box above that was where an old cable system came in (already deleted from the home), and above that though I don't think it's in the picture, is my thermostat, which I'm planning on moving to the other side of the wall and into the hall. Can you have your thermostat in the hall? There's another spot I can move it to if that is a problem, damn forgot to ask Elk about that.

I didn't think about the OAK hole being a viewpoint to see the layers, but uh, yeah, I planned that. :)


-Kevin
 
wrenchmonster said:
Thanks for the kind words everyone.

I've been chatting with Elk about the vent. Elk I don't want to put words in your mouth here, so if I did not understand correctly, feel free to edit. The vent there is a supply vent, not a return. Hence, the same code regulations don't apply. If it were a return, then yes, I would have to relocate or delete the vent.

You'll also see an electrical outlet off to the left, the empty box above that was where an old cable system came in (already deleted from the home), and above that though I don't think it's in the picture, is my thermostat, which I'm planning on moving to the other side of the wall and into the hall. Can you have your thermostat in the hall? There's another spot I can move it to if that is a problem, damn forgot to ask Elk about that.

I didn't think about the OAK hole being a viewpoint to see the layers, but uh, yeah, I planned that. :)


-Kevin

Ok, that makes sense about the vent. I sort of understand the reasoning for the ban on returns being to close, but it does kind of make life harder if wanting to use the HVAC fan to push the heat around. However having a vent there will work possibly better as it would blow colder air onto the stove, hopefully pushing the heated air out to the rest of the house.

I don't think the electrical outlet would be a problem, as long as the CTC is OK to begin with, just need to watch what you plug into it and where the cords go. But it will be handy if the stove has a blower. Same deal with the cable outlet, presumably you can just patch over the box...

As to the thermostat, Elk will have the official word on it, but I've never heard of any restrictions on thermostat locations, just that they should be in a place that provides a good "sample" of the temperature for the area. I've seen lots of thermostats mounted in halls - the one in our house right now is. Putting it on the other side of the wall from the stove might not be a perfect location as it will probably still get some extra heat conducted through the wall, but it is definitely the easiest approach in terms of doing the re-wire.

Gooserider
 
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