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Wall Surrounding coal stove ideas?

17 years ago

Hi all:

We just bought a used Treemont stove and now need to install a wall and flooring around it. The home it came from had a beautiful step up made of beige brick with slate on the top of the step up then had the brick running to the ceiling. We had a brainstorm on the wall and floor surrounding the stove.

My question: I see these concrete walk forms (pour the concrete in and it looks like brick, flagstone, or cobblestone. They are about 2" thick. Is it possible to surround our woodburner with this as a 4x8 ft wall plus the floor? Would this work or would the concrete be too heavy for the walls and collapse? We are planning to go 4 foot high with this.

Right now, our walls are all drywall, with cinder block behind it (we live 3/4 underground). This is the third coal/wood burner we own. A coal & wood burner in the garage, our Fisher stored away (only wood), and now the Treemont coal & wood burner which will go in our living room.

Any other ideas? We love fieldstone (in our other home), but it's just too darn expensive.

Next question: Does anyone know of any place that sells design forms specifically for making fieldstone concrete walls? Thanks.

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Comments (3)

mainegrower
17 years ago
The wall section alone would require a form and almost half a cubic yard of concrete. The weight of the wet concrete would be considerable - whether enough to collapse the floor or cause it to sag (this is where the weight would bear - not the wall), is hard to say, but the weight would most likely be in excess of the floor design load for residential construction. Unless reinforced with wire, the concrete would also be very prone to cracking at a thickness of only 2".
Slate, brick, bluestone, cultured or natural fieldstone would all be better choices for both the floor and wall. Be sure, however, to check your local building/fire code. Any option may require an inflammable barrier under/behind what you install.
rootdigger
Original Author
17 years ago
Thanks for the info. As usual, hubby beat me before my questions were answered. He bought Lone Star stone (a cement that looks like field stone but only 1/2" thick) and all the stuff necessary to do the walls. We are now going to do a cement floor because the 2x4s don't even hold a side-by-side frige without sagging let alone a cast iron coal stove (when are they going to realize the wood joists nowadays are junk?), rip out pine wainscoting and drywall, and do the stone halfway up with reinforced wire, while at the same time make provisions for the heat to go through the floors, etc. That is the main problem living here. . . very cold floors. We are going to do slate for the hearth area.

I thank you for your answer. I would welcome any further suggestions. This stove is even thicker cast iron than we imagined and should last us forever. Hubby is very, very happy with it so far (haven't used it yet as we just picked it up today) but feels it will be the best stove we have ever had. The thickness is even greater than a Fisher wood stove and thicker than his Kenmore "kitchen" stove in the garage....and both run us out of the area because of the heat. LOL
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mainegrower
17 years ago
I've no idea if they're available in your area, but old (or new) slate roofing shingles are excellent for hearths. They are thinner and lighter (easier to cut, too) than slate designed for flooring and can be secured with thin set type mortar to a base of something like fiber cement board.
You're right about the quality of lumber today - I'd say over half of what's available today would have wound up on the reject pile 20 years ago.

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