Hi everyone,
I've been stupidly paying for electric resistant heat in Western Massachusetts for two winters now and have decided it's time for a pellet stove. The only place that works is our living room, where we have an existing fireplace. Unfortunately the firebox is pretty small, so instead of an insert I've decided to set a freestanding unit in front of the fireplace and vent through a 4" flue liner I need to run down the existing chimney. Haven't quite decided on a model yet, but whatever I decide on, I'm going to need to partially extend the hearth into the living room, so I decided to start some prep work for that on my day off.
The only visible part of the hearth was a layer of 2x8x16" clay bricks, laid flat. The mortar between the bricks was crumbling, so those came up pretty easily. Under those was another 1/2" of mortar, which I chipped up to reveal this:
![[Hearth.com] Ideas for a hearth pad and what is my existing hearth made of?](/talk/proxy.php?image=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FUhkalj7.jpg&hash=bacae5d6d43d9135f02e6ad11353e28c "[Hearth.com] Ideas for a hearth pad and what is my existing hearth made of?")
![[Hearth.com] Ideas for a hearth pad and what is my existing hearth made of?](/talk/proxy.php?image=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2F1FS51Js.jpg%3F1&hash=ec716ea5da256ce5f2f0ba6a886fbafd "[Hearth.com] Ideas for a hearth pad and what is my existing hearth made of?")
I'm new at this game, but the pad looks and feels like a solid piece of clay. The top is flush with the hardwood and it extends below the subfloor. It appears to be supported and braced from beneath. Those tiles are definitely sunk right into its surface -- is this really just a giant 20x68" brick chunk? Like I said, I'm inexperienced and have never seen anything like it.
Anyway, my plan for a new hearth is to put down 3/4" plywood the size and shape of the existing hearth, with a trapezoidal bumpout over the hardwood (the size of which will be determined by the stove I choose,) 4 or 5 layers of 1/2" Durock, a layer of thinset, and then porcelain tile. This seems to meet the R-Value requirements of most stoves I'm looking at. What do people think of my plans?
I've been stupidly paying for electric resistant heat in Western Massachusetts for two winters now and have decided it's time for a pellet stove. The only place that works is our living room, where we have an existing fireplace. Unfortunately the firebox is pretty small, so instead of an insert I've decided to set a freestanding unit in front of the fireplace and vent through a 4" flue liner I need to run down the existing chimney. Haven't quite decided on a model yet, but whatever I decide on, I'm going to need to partially extend the hearth into the living room, so I decided to start some prep work for that on my day off.
The only visible part of the hearth was a layer of 2x8x16" clay bricks, laid flat. The mortar between the bricks was crumbling, so those came up pretty easily. Under those was another 1/2" of mortar, which I chipped up to reveal this:
I'm new at this game, but the pad looks and feels like a solid piece of clay. The top is flush with the hardwood and it extends below the subfloor. It appears to be supported and braced from beneath. Those tiles are definitely sunk right into its surface -- is this really just a giant 20x68" brick chunk? Like I said, I'm inexperienced and have never seen anything like it.
Anyway, my plan for a new hearth is to put down 3/4" plywood the size and shape of the existing hearth, with a trapezoidal bumpout over the hardwood (the size of which will be determined by the stove I choose,) 4 or 5 layers of 1/2" Durock, a layer of thinset, and then porcelain tile. This seems to meet the R-Value requirements of most stoves I'm looking at. What do people think of my plans?
