Is The Stone Enough?

[KEBN]

Hello. When we bought our house 3 years ago, there was a framed porcelain tile pad under a small VT Castings wood stove. Some of the tiles were cracked and broken. This fall I had the hearth pad replaced with a 1 1/2" thick solid piece of PA blue stone. When the old tile hearth pad was removed, you could see a brown discoloration of the wood floor that it sat on. The professional wood stove people who were doing the installation of the slab of blue stone said not to worry; the slab would be fine/safe. A friend now says that I should have had an insulation board put in under the slab and just having the slab is not safe. Thoughts?
Thank you.

 

[begreen]

Sounds like pyrolysis. Which model VC stove is this? Your friend could be right. The manual has the required insulation value for the hearth. Stone doesn't usually have a high insulation value. A guestimate for 2" of bluestone would be about R=.20.

 

[jetsam]

Get the required r-value from the stove's manual. You can keep the bluestone, but you will need to put something like micore underneath it. For an unlisted stove you may also be required to add an air gap. If no air gap is required, you can trim it up with a moulding and it will look fine.

 

[begreen]

Afaik, all VC stoves are listed.

 

[KEBN]

Sounds like pyrolysis. Which model VC stove is this? Your friend could be right. The manual has the required insulation value for the hearth. Stone doesn't usually have a high insulation value. A guestimate for 2" of bluestone would be about R=.20.

Sounds like pyrolysis. Which model VC stove is this? Your friend could be right. The manual has the required insulation value for the hearth. Stone doesn't usually have a high insulation value. A guestimate for 2" of bluestone would be about R=.20.

Thank you begreen. My stove looks like the "Defiant, but is a little smaller than what is currently on the VC website. My wood box is 18" high, 24" wide and 14" deep. The legs are 7" tall.

 

[MAD MARK]

I

Thank you begreen. My stove looks like the "Defiant, but is a little smaller than what is currently on the VC website. My wood box is 18" high, 24" wide and 14" deep. The legs are 7" tall.

VC Intrepid

 

[begreen]

The Intrepid is 21" wide. Maybe a Resolute Acclaim? To help we need the actual stove model and model number.