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jdpyn2

Hearth for wood stove

last month
last modified: last month

I'm in the middle of building a hearth for a wood stove.

The home is pier and beam and I am comfortable with the floor support. There are three beams supporting the floor that are under the footprint of the hearth. During the remodel, I added a layer of 3/4" T&G OSB on top of the existing floor for a total of about 2 1/2" of decking.

Yesterday I cut some dura-rock tile backer and set it into a bed of large-format tile mastic (EDIT: thin set, not mastic) on the plywood decking to provide a good even base for the hearth. The backer also helps with my flooring concept...as a spacer. Next, I plan to apply another layer of mastic (Edit: thin set, not mastic) to the top surface of the tile backer and set the hearth stones. I'm using three 2'X4'X2 1/4" limestone slabs for the base of the hearth for a completed 4'X6'X2 1/4" footprint. The three slab ends will butt against the wall behind the stove (centered along a wall) so I don't have easy access to stand at the wall end of the blocks while setting them into the mastic. Therein lies the problem I'm hoping for someone to help me solve. It's going to be difficult to set the limestone blocks into the mastic without mashing the mastic out wherever the limestone block comes down first. The blocks are about 170 lbs each so it will be a two-person job lowering the slabs into the mastic. I want the three slabs to be very even and very well supported since I will be building up from the base with more limestone slabs tuned on their sides to form a wood-box under the stove. The stove itself weighs 400 lbs.

Are there any tricks to help me lower the slabs into the thin set evenly? I have done quite a bit of tile work and have learned it's a lot easier to lay a tile into the mastic level and even, in the first place, rather than putting one side of the tile down and then lowering the other and trying to re-distribute the thin set so the tile is both level and has an even layer of thin set under it for support.

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