Show us your homemade hearth

[Sprinter]

I just hate the idea of spending several hundred for a piece of cementboard and tiles, so I'm thinking of making my own, possibly raised. My stove will require ember protection only, so I won't have to worry about insulation for it, and I probably won't need all 48" of most ready-made ones anyway. I'm looking for ideas, as I might want to steal someone's (is there a smiley for shameless?) and I'd appreciate seeing some homemade or custom made hearths. I did see some nice examples in one recent discussion about raised hearths, but I'm guessing there are a whole lot more out there, raised or not, that folks might want to share.

Thanks.

 

[jeff_t]

https://www.hearth.com/gall/v/hearths/

 

[PapaDave]

Just remember the size is dependent on the stove. Check your manual for the clearance reqs., and you're gooder to go.
If you have bad knees, back, or think they might be getting there, raise the thing. I should have rebuilt mine the first year we were here (bad knees), but didn't get around to it for 4 years.
Do you foresee changing stoves in a few years? If you don't, build it for the stove you have/get.
If you think you'll change, who knows what that stove might be, so again, build it for what ya' got.
You'll need a backer of plywood, then cement board, then tile/slate-whatever. More informed folks than I will chime in soon, I'm sure.
Do it, do it now.

 

[jeff_t]

I like an oversized hearth. Room for other stuff, still safely away from the stove. Mine is a bit excessive, but it works. I'll second the raised hearth. I wish I could have made mine a foot taller, but I have 8' ceilings. It is just simple plywood/Durock/Vermont slate. I'll get something on the walls soon, probably next year's project.

 

[firefighterjake]

It's not overly fancy, but I had a few boxes of free slate and it works for me.

One shot shows the hearth in Year 1 before I added some trim (and also before I put up the window trim) . . . as you can see the cats approve (and contrary to popular opinion they are not dead or dying.)

Second shot shows Year 2 with trim added . . . although in Year 3 I repainted the trim gray since the white was getting dingy from the ashes.

 

[Lance]

I started in Nov 2011, a Temco fireplace to a Quadra Fire 3100act. This will be

my second year of burning. I even added on the Garage with a lean too for wood storage in 2012.

 

[Sprinter]

Beautiful examples. And I forgot about the gallery. Thanks for the link.

In this pic, https://www.hearth.com/gall/v/hearths/hankswoodstove.jpg.html it looks like a solid slab of something. Anyone know what it is? I like the simplicity. Very beautiful dog, too!

 

[eclecticcottage]

Here is pics of ours, laying the stones, etc: http://eclecticcottage.blogspot.com/2011/11/jumping-ahead-little.html

the hearth:

with stove

We made the pad way bigger than needed, so I could "junk" it up with stuff, like this (you can see the dirty glass problem in this pic)

the old fisher that used to be here-I would suggest actually following clearances though, lol