I bought a beautiful used Jotul Oslo F500 this year to replace the Pacific Energy Vista Insert.
The Vista just didn't put out enough heat for my old 1700 sq ft 1920s house.
Also, I suspect a lot of the heat it did produce went into heating the masonry chimney rather than the room, even with the blower attachment. Wood had to be cut small. Yada yada.
I've been building a custom hearth pad for the past two or three months in my spare time.
Construction is black slate and white iridescent glass tile over durock and two layers of select grade 8x10x10 wood planks (both photos were taken before I added the second layer of wood, so there's that). The Jotul will go in the center. It's doors are mirrored in mosaic tile. The pad weighs (eyeballing it) between 150 lbs and 250 lbs. I think the stove weighs ~500lbs. I'm concerned that the weight may be too much, for the existing masonry hearth underneath the new hearth pad, to support. This is a view of the masonry chimney + hearth from the basement:
As you can see, it is basically a wedge shaped ledge of concrete extending from a fieldstone masonry chimney. I can't tell if it is attached to the surrounding wood subfloor, but my guess is that it is not.
Sure, I could slap some 4x4s on it and call it a day. However, the basement gets wet, and the house has already settled quite a bit. I don't want to do something that will end up *causing* a crack due to temperature expansion, moisture expansion, settling, etc.
What is the best way to brace this thing?
The Vista just didn't put out enough heat for my old 1700 sq ft 1920s house.
Also, I suspect a lot of the heat it did produce went into heating the masonry chimney rather than the room, even with the blower attachment. Wood had to be cut small. Yada yada.
I've been building a custom hearth pad for the past two or three months in my spare time.
Construction is black slate and white iridescent glass tile over durock and two layers of select grade 8x10x10 wood planks (both photos were taken before I added the second layer of wood, so there's that). The Jotul will go in the center. It's doors are mirrored in mosaic tile. The pad weighs (eyeballing it) between 150 lbs and 250 lbs. I think the stove weighs ~500lbs. I'm concerned that the weight may be too much, for the existing masonry hearth underneath the new hearth pad, to support. This is a view of the masonry chimney + hearth from the basement:
As you can see, it is basically a wedge shaped ledge of concrete extending from a fieldstone masonry chimney. I can't tell if it is attached to the surrounding wood subfloor, but my guess is that it is not.
Sure, I could slap some 4x4s on it and call it a day. However, the basement gets wet, and the house has already settled quite a bit. I don't want to do something that will end up *causing* a crack due to temperature expansion, moisture expansion, settling, etc.
What is the best way to brace this thing?