Building a DIY Wood Stove Hearth

Note: To see some pictures of the finished wood stove hearth, take a look at this post:

How to Install an Englander NC-30 Wood Stove

Moving on from yesterday’s post, I’ve been meddling a bit with the wood stove hearth today. More specifically, I’ve got three items on my mind. They are:

1. Insert a fitted wood piece towards the front of the hearth to secure the first row of pavers. The pavers extend beyond the cement board and need something to rest upon. I’m fine with the fact that the wood piece is combustible because it will rest beyond the hearth dimensions the building code calls for.

2. Raise the floor about half an inch. As you can see from the last photo below, the hearth sags in the middle. I already have a post directly below it, but will need to jack the floor up slightly to slip a shim above the post. (PS – the floor was like this before any weight was added to it.)

3. Construct a wooden boarder around the two sides and front of the hearth. The back will be butt up against the wall, so I don’t need anything there. I’d like the wood frame to be substantial, such as something like a 4×4. Actually, the height of the hearth is 4 3/4 inches, so it should be something like a 4×4 3/4 beam. We’ll see what happens with that.

Anyway, take a look at the pictures I just took. I placed the pavers on the cement board and already screwed the board I spoke of in item one to the floor. Now, I just need to complete items two and three. After that, I’ll move the stove into its new home and put it back together.

Staining Wood Stove Hearth Edging

I’ve been doing a lot of stain and polyurethane work on wood lately. I think I may be getting the hang of it. I never used to stain anything and would only apply polyurethane as a protective coating, but now, I’m a staining madman and apply multiple coats of poly. I apply one thin coat to seal the wood and then another one that’s a bit thicker after that. After that dries, I lightly sand the surface to remove any imperfections. Finally, I apply the thickest coat of all. That one makes the surface really smooth. So smooth that you can rub your cheek on it. I love it.

So far, this year I’ve made new shelves, a media table that I’m going to use for my future audio/visual receiver and television and I finished the wooden edging that I installed around the wood stove hearth years ago. It’s been sitting here unprotected all this time. I figured that, since I’m almost finished with the log cabin room, I better finish the hearth as well.

Do you remember this photo?

That photo belongs to a post I wrote in May of 2014, right after I made the hearth our wood stove sits on. If you look through that post, you’ll see the room I’m referring to, unfinished. Today’s room is almost done and I must say, it looks delicious. I’ll take some photos of it in the next few days. For now though, I’d like to show you how nice the wood around the hearth looks. Check this out.

Doesn’t that look good? I first stained the rough cut lumber with Minwax Special Walnut stain. I had some Dark Walnut stain too, but thought that would be way too dark. From experience, that can turn wood almost black, if it’s not sanded enough. Since this wood was still rough cut, I decided to go with something lighter. It worked well.

After I gave the wood one coat of polyurethane, I thought that would be enough. After an hour of drying and getting absorbed into the wood though, I saw that all the shine had disappeared. Since I wanted shine and more of a visible coating, I decided to give it one more coat. This one did the trick because now the wood looks like root beer flavored rock candy. It’s got really nice visible wood grain and it’s better than I expected.

Next up, I’m going to build a puzzle table. I already have the wood cut out in the garage and all I need to do is a ton of sanding. Then, I’ll stain and polyurethane. I’ll assemble it and begin putting puzzles together again. Remember, winter is coming and we need to have things to do around here. Until next time!