Honed Quartzite for Insert Hearth..

[chris byrnes]

Hello - I'm a noob looking for a little guidance on a project we're about to start. We are considering tiling a basement hearth with honed quartzite tiles. The fireplace would contain a harman wood burning insert which would have to be dragged out annually for the routine chimney cleaning. We don't want to afford a slab so thought a stone tile would work. We want to know if this is the right choice for an insert hearth as well as how to make it as strong as possible to avoid future problems, (which mortar, grout etc should be used, do we seal the tiles first, etc). Does this stuff typically get scratched up with a 300+ lb harman being dragged over it?

Thanks for your help,
Chris

 

[pen]

In all, it's just going to depend on how careful you are in getting the unit in there.

Once it's in there, it should not have to go anywhere unless you have a strange setup that will require it to be pulled out for cleaning?

pen

 

[chris byrnes]

yes, weird setup.. it used to be an incinerator in the 20s. We converted to a fireplace. The opening is just barely big enough to get our enormous harman in place. There's an access door just above the opening that we could use to grab the pipe for cleaning but the hubby insists on dragging it out for some reason.. men! (present company excluded of course). I'm wondering how to go about tiling this hearth to ensure it's rock solid. We anticipate a few scratches and.. don't care. I just don't want tiles coming loose, cracking etc. Any idea which mortar would be strongest for quartzite?

 

[pen]

My best advice might be to pose this question to the tile pro's over here http://www.johnbridge.com/vbulletin/index.php

Good luck, sounds like an interesting setup!