Building the Wood Stove Hearth

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

Englander Wood Stove Installation Complete

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.