Materials for a Hearth Pad?

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gtilflm

New Member
Apr 2, 2023
63
Spokane, WA
We're building a raised hearth for a Lopi Liberty wood stove. Currently looking at different ways of completing the top of the hearth (where the stove will sit, people will sit, etc.). At present the candidates are...

Limestone: We can get 2.25 in. thick product locally. It's relatively "affordable" too. I've heard that limestone can crack under heat changes though, so that's a concern. It looks nice, but then for the joints.... do you just mortar them?

Slate: Cost effective for sure. Not as nice looking, and will look like flagstone in the end. Can be about 1 - 1.25 in. thick.

Granite: Big $$$!! Could be fabricated to have no seams. What we looked at was 3cm thick. We have kids so if some damage occurs.....

Concrete Hearth Stones: 20 x 20 or 24 x 24. Kinda big $$$, but not as big at granite.

DIY Concrete Pour Our Own Custom Piece: Would likely be cost effective, but would need to practice to get decent with using dyes, properly forming something like this, etc. Concrete also cracks over time, so should we put contraction joints to counter this? If so, how many? Where? And then there's finishing and edge work to do.


What do you all think?
 
No tiles that look like [any of the above]?

We had 24x24" tiles in our bathroom in TN that were black, looked like slate, and so hard that we went through 3 tile saw blades (yes we used water to cool and lubricate the cutting).
 
We'd like to have the top of the hearth overhang a bit. Kind of like how this shows...

[Hearth.com] Materials for a Hearth Pad?


We have "Northern Ash" Versetta stone (https://versettastone.com/boral-adds-northern-ash-colorway-to-versetta-stone-stone-siding-lineup/) for the wall face.
 
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We used concrete for ours. It does hang over a little bit. They poured it as one full slab and then they made contraction cuts. It’s been over 5 years and it has not cracked. We do have a bottom heat shield on our stove. Sorry it is a Christmas pic.

[Hearth.com] Materials for a Hearth Pad?
 
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We used concrete for ours. It does hang over a little bit. They poured it as one full slab and then they made contraction cuts. It’s been over 5 years and it has not cracked. We do have a bottom heat shield on our stove. Sorry it is a Christmas pic.

View attachment 312517

How high is your hearth off the wood floor? And do you like having it at that height? Easy to deal with ash and reloading?
 
If done properly a hearth pad of poured concrete shouldn't need any expansion joints cut at all. If the motivation for a raised hearth is to make loading etc easier you don't want a single level raised hearth. One that drops down in front of the stove. Or just the stove on a pedestal would be far more helpful
 
If done properly a hearth pad of poured concrete shouldn't need any expansion joints cut at all. If the motivation for a raised hearth is to make loading etc easier you don't want a single level raised hearth. One that drops down in front of the stove. Or just the stove on a pedestal would be far more helpful

The motivation is mostly aesthetic. The idea of "sitting in front of the stove" is there, but we ended up reading a blog by an architect advocating against that due to...
  1. It's uncomfortable to sit on stone.
  2. It's hot by the stove, so no one wants to sit there anyway.

It does seem that having the hearth raised up somewhat (10-12 in.?) would be a nice look and also make for easier reloading, cleaning, etc. We haven't had a wood burning stove before though, so we're not sure what would be the best height.
 
I have a raised hearth and someone once said "you don't put your TV on the floor" so that's my logic behind a raised woodstove. My hearth is about 8" high and covered in stone that I picked up from a local rock slide. It was a cut for a road and when it came loose it broke off in sheets. I picked up a lot of rock, some sheets were 3-4' square.
 
I have a raised hearth and someone once said "you don't put your TV on the floor" so that's my logic behind a raised woodstove. My hearth is about 8" high and covered in stone that I picked up from a local rock slide. It was a cut for a road and when it came loose it broke off in sheets. I picked up a lot of rock, some sheets were 3-4' square.

How do you like that 8" height? Wish you would have gone higher/shorter?
 
The motivation is mostly aesthetic. The idea of "sitting in front of the stove" is there, but we ended up reading a blog by an architect advocating against that due to...
  1. It's uncomfortable to sit on stone.
  2. It's hot by the stove, so no one wants to sit there anyway.

It does seem that having the hearth raised up somewhat (10-12 in.?) would be a nice look and also make for easier reloading, cleaning, etc. We haven't had a wood burning stove before though, so we're not sure what would be the best height.
Oh I am not saying there is anything wrong with a full raised hearth. But most of the benefits as far as ease of use are lost by doing that
 
Oh I am not saying there is anything wrong with a full raised hearth. But most of the benefits as far as ease of use are lost by doing that

When you say "full raised hearth", what height range are you talking about?

And when you say, "But most of the benefits as far as ease of use are lost by doing that.", which benefits are you thinking of that would be lost?

We're wood stove newbies here. 😀
 
How do you like that 8" height? Wish you would have gone higher/shorter?
Pretty satisfied with it. My stove is a top loader and it's convenient to load. Has a swing out ash pan so it's easy to clean. Height worked out great as far as a telescopic DW stove pipe to the chimney directly over it. My hearth is in a corner and it's large enough I can stand on it and get around the stove and 8" is an easy step up.

[Hearth.com] Materials for a Hearth Pad?
 
When you say "full raised hearth", what height range are you talking about?

And when you say, "But most of the benefits as far as ease of use are lost by doing that.", which benefits are you thinking of that would be lost?

We're wood stove newbies here. 😀
As long as you still have the required distance to the ceiling raise it as high as you want.

The benefits I am.talking about are the fact that it's easier to load and clean the stove when it's raised off the floor. But when you also raise the floor infront of the stove you really don't get that benefit. At that point its all aesthetics
 
Pretty satisfied with it. My stove is a top loader and it's convenient to load. Has a swing out ash pan so it's easy to clean. Height worked out great as far as a telescopic DW stove pipe to the chimney directly over it. My hearth is in a corner and it's large enough I can stand on it and get around the stove and 8" is an easy step up.View attachment 312524

This looks fairly similar to what we're thinking! How much clearance in front do you have from glass to edge? We're hoping for 22" - 24".
 
As long as you still have the required distance to the ceiling raise it as high as you want.

The benefits I am.talking about are the fact that it's easier to load and clean the stove when it's raised off the floor. But when you also raise the floor infront of the stove you really don't get that benefit. At that point its all aesthetics

Oh, I see. We were thinking of having about 22" - 24" from glass to edge of hearth. I'm not sure if that depth will allow us to still stand on the floor and reach, but we'll noodle it around a bit.
 
This looks fairly similar to what we're thinking! How much clearance in front do you have from glass to edge? We're hoping for 22" - 24".
18" in front, we don't burn with the doors open usually. Top load and if I want I can stand on the hearth and load, when raking coals or positioning the first splits on reload it's handy. Learn from our mistakes. Plan the base and lay it out dry, we made a mistake and you can see where it's chipped on the left side, dropped piece of wood. Didn't allow enough overhang, probably going to change the front lower part when we get to redoing that room. Our stove has adjustable legs so it wasn't too much of an issue but if using rock make a template of where the stove feet will sit and make those stones the same height. We worked with rough non-uniform rock.
 
How high is your hearth off the wood floor? And do you like having it at that height? Easy to deal with ash and reloading?
It is 15 inches from wood floor to top of concrete. We love it. As far as easier to load I really have no reference point because this is our first wood stove. The cuts in the concrete really weren't so much to prevent cracking but more of making it look like 4 smaller slabs instead of one big slab. Having it higher also makes it easier to see from other rooms. I included a pic.

We didn't build it this way for ease of loading. It was more to make it a focal point. Originally we were going to use a premade floor pad but it just didn't feel right just plunking it down on the floor pad.

[Hearth.com] Materials for a Hearth Pad?
 
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The motivation is mostly aesthetic. The idea of "sitting in front of the stove" is there, but we ended up reading a blog by an architect advocating against that due to...
  1. It's uncomfortable to sit on stone.
  2. It's hot by the stove, so no one wants to sit there anyway.
We had a raised hearth for an insert before we got a freestanding stove.
I can say with 100% certainty this architect is wrong.
My wife and 3 kids would be perched on that hearth for hours each morning and evening, usually sitting off to the side of the insert but sometimes directly in front of it too.
 
We had a raised hearth for an insert before we got a freestanding stove.
I can say with 100% certainty this architect is wrong.
My wife and 3 kids would be perched on that hearth for hours each morning and evening, usually sitting off to the side of the insert but sometimes directly in front of it too.

Thanks for the info. @TomMcDonald. If you're interested (or anyone else for that matter), here's the architect blog post about this: http://www.studiodk.com/blog/raised-vs-floor-level-fireplace-hearths-which-is-better-pros-and-cons
 
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It is 15 inches from wood floor to top of concrete. We love it. As far as easier to load I really have no reference point because this is our first wood stove. The cuts in the concrete really weren't so much to prevent cracking but more of making it look like 4 smaller slabs instead of one big slab. Having it higher also makes it easier to see from other rooms. I included a pic.

We didn't build it this way for ease of loading. It was more to make it a focal point. Originally we were going to use a premade floor pad but it just didn't feel right just plunking it down on the floor pad.

View attachment 312525

From glass to edge of hearth, how much of a distance do you have?
 
Do you find that it's too far of a reach to load, clean, etc. from the floor? Or do you typically have to have one knee or foot on the hearth to reach inside the stove comfortably?
I have no issues with it and I am little. Only 5 ft tall. I set it up through the front but add wood during the burn through the side door.
 
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