Newby Hearth Construction...

[lager]

I'm building a hearth for my (soon-to-be-installed) Hearthstone Heritage. The hearth will be 1/2" fiberfrax LD, 1/2" durock and porcelain tile all over an existing wood floor. A few questions:

(1) What material (~thinset) and thickness should I use between layers of wood floor, fiberfrax, durock and tile (is any material necessary between layers until I get to setting the tile?). The Ilva tile instructions simply state to use a latex-modified thinset.

(2) Should I tape/seal the seams of fiberfrax and durock? With...?

(3) Anything special as per type of grout?



This is all new to me, thanks for your help!

Patrick

 

[summit]

thinset should only be required if the set is un level, but you should not have to tape any seams.. the combo of tile and grout will provide and adequate protection from burrowing sparks/ embers.

 

[Highbeam]

What is fiberfrax? The heritage has a hefty hearth construction requirement much beyond ember protection. If the fiber prodcut is equal to micore then you might be set.

Bond each layer to a sound subfloor with fasteners and thinset. Just buy the big bag of versabond from home depot and mix it up in a bucket. Not sure how to tape the seams of the fiber stuff you've got but the durock must be grouted with versabond and taped with the special durok tape to provide a solid surface to set your tile.

I used the "dead air space" method as described in the heritage's owner's manual plus two layers of durock and then my tile.

This stove is heavy and you don't want to cut corners and have to rip it all out.

 

[Wood Heat Stoves]

fibrax is like micor, 1/2" sheet has an r 1.10
the hs heritage requires 1.2 r
i'd say yer set!

no thinset is required between floor and fibrax,