Noob needing a bit of guidance on prettying up my hearth area

[AndiG]

Hi everyone.
This is my first post, after a couple of searches and some reading you all looked pretty knowledgeable and I need a bit of ‘hand holding’ thru a project.

I have recently assumed ownership of off grid cottage in Central Ontario, I got to keep it out of the divorce. Among other things, I’d like to address the rather fugly only partially built hearth area for the drolet wood stove we have installed in the corner of the main room.

I’ll post pictures shortly. We bought the cottage 9 years ago, previous owners had a very large older wood stove installed on a cement slab with tidily stacked conventional bricks (salvaged) acting as the cover for the drywall walls behind it. The old stove was much larger than what is there now. The pad area is a poured concrete pad, the area framed is however only partially filled with clement.

I would like to simply complete the pad and then apply something (I am thinking a slate tile look might be nice) over the concrete pad. I would also remove the bricks and then frame a wall area behind, covering that with tile also. From what I’m reading online I’m thinking that can be a wooden frame with a cement board on the front with a tile applied to it.

My wood stove is a little air tight Drolet called a spark. Its been there 9 years and I am mostly happy with it. Really its a bit small for the space in terms of how much heat it produces, however I’m not looking to change the stove this first year.

Really, I’m just looking for a bit of discussion / validation of my planned approach. Am I missing anything? Other than not having ever worked with concrete or tiles (outside of the peel and stick variety?).
Ha ha.

Looking for any guidance or conversation on my little plan. Suggestions of material types, approaches and cautionary tales are welcome.

 

[begreen]

If a wood wall is placed behind the stove be sure to honor clearances from combustibles. A stone or tiled wood stud wall is still considered combustible.

 

[AndiG]

Thanks this is useful feed back. I did not realze that stone or tile would be considered combustible, since so many people use them. As I mentioned i was looking at slate installed onto a non combustible cement board. I thought that meant it would be ok.
Did a bit more reading. Have a friend who used to do WETT inspections. May make sense to give him a call for review. I remember watching my dad build the surround for our wood stove as a kid. It was brick veneer mounted with an appropriate adhesive onto metal (he was a tin banger so he’d have made the entire thing out of metal if my mom had permitted it) the pad area was a concrete floor filled with some type of loose white stone. Again, i’m Thinking the concrete itself was likely fine....
Thanks for your help. I realize my questions might seem ill informed or too basic for users to respond to. But i’ll Likely be back anyhow.

 

[begreen]

If the stove already has proper clearance to the wall behind it then maybe this is not a problem. Look in the manual to determine proper rear clearance and then measure from the rear of the stove to the wall behind the brick. Let us know both distances. A picture or two would also help.