Hearth Options on Uneven Floorboards

[Pib]

Hi I’m Liz, and this is my first forum post anywhere, ever.
I’ve recently removed an old gas heater in my home, restored the tapestry brick fireplace, restored a woodfire heater to fit and since have had it installed. While I’m finishing off the wall plaster and skirting, I am faced with my next challenge: the hearth.
The house was built in 1947 and while it’s been restumped, the floorboards here are not level. I plan to restore the entire room once the walls are complete and painted.
The left side of the base of the heater fascia sits 40mm above the boards, while the right side sits 45mm.
I’ve watched some youtube videos, and based on what I’ve seen I’ve thought the way to go might be to install a temporary frame, fill the gaps with the foam stuff, cut excess foam, then pour self levelling concrete into frame, leaving enough space to install tiles to sit flush under the heater fascia.
Or is the angle minimal enough that I should plane the boards so that they’re level, and then install cement boards and bring up the base to sit flush under the fascia then tile them?
I’ve read some posts and I see people talking about allowances for board movement, which I’m not sure how to consider in my approach to my hearth.
I’ll appreciate any advice or direction, I’ve never done anything like this before, feeling a bit stuck and would just love to progress this so I can have a liveable dining space and lounge room (especially for my cats), it’s felt a little overwhelming and I’m not sure who to even call. Happy to answer any questions that might help get the right advice.
Thanks so much in advance.

 

[stovelark]

So for the hearth, 40MM is roughly 1.5 inches. Maybe a nice slab of bluestone or something decorative for hearth protection? Even an 18x48 hearth extension might fit nicely under the insert edging. Looks like adjustable levelers under the lip too? A lot of choices to do, depends on your effort and/or budget. Good luck with it- Hope the insert has a liner up the chimney flue? What insert is that? Looks nice against the brick background.

 

[Pib]

So for the hearth, 40MM is roughly 1.5 inches. Maybe a nice slab of bluestone or something decorative for hearth protection? Even an 18x48 hearth extension might fit nicely under the insert edging. Looks like adjustable levelers under the lip too? A lot of choices to do, depends on your effort and/or budget. Good luck with it- Hope the insert has a liner up the chimney flue? What insert is that? Looks nice against the brick background.

Hi, yeah that conversion sounds about right.
No adjustable levelers under the fascia, it does have some movement possible but nothing that will even out to sit flush with the boards.
My budget is ok, it’s more about the labour costs so attempting it as a diy, but happy to get my hands dirty for the right look.
The insert is a Kent Classic model. There was a lot of rust spots so i took all of it back to bare metal and painted it so thank you for the complement because I spent a lot of time on it haha. And removing the render from the bricks was also very time consuming but rewarding.
There’s two lintels I had to work around so used two 45° flue joints reasonably close to the inlet and the flue runs up the entirety of the chimney, then the bricks end and there’s a timber framed box and that’s protected with cement sheet to be on the safe side. I had a plumber help with that part though
Thanks again!

 

[enduring]

What a nice looking job. Glad the pictures were added. Stovelark's idea is a great one. I have a free standing stove that I put in my basement with a concrete floor. Because the basement can get water about once a year through the block walls if it rains too hard and fast, I raised my stove onto a remnant soapstone 3cm slab that I salvaged from a stone yard. It's tall enough to keep the legs out of the water and pretty to have the stove sitting on top of beautiful soapstone.

 

[EbS-P]

I was trying to come up with a way to use self leveling concrete mix an I kinda have it.

I would tack down 20mm thick stick to make a form that is slightly smaller than the hearth I wanted. I would cover with plastic then pot in the self leveling mix. Not too much.

None have a level floating pad to build whatever hearth pad you want on. I don’t think the leveling mix is strong when it’s thin so I might expect it to crack. I would build a pad thinking about that.

A similar prep might be possible with just thin set and then concrete board on top. I’d use this if I had less than 10mm of height to make up. I probably would lay plastic down first just if it didn’t go well I could start over without any drama.