Please chat to me about hearths for wood burners?

[lolalotta]

OK, so just moved house into a 1930s property. We might be getting a wood burner (eeeeeeek!) Just thinking about hearth stones, what does your wood burner stand on and who sorts that out??? Instalation company or builder??? Also wondering what would suit a 1930s property? Am loving this look www.housetohome.co.uk/living-room/picture/coastal-cottage-living-room I think it could suit...we hope to restore the original floorboards and would love to expose the original brickwork but am unsure of wether this is even practical/ possible!?! What do you all think?

Hi.

Mine is raised, so higher than the wood floor, and is on top of tiles with exposed brickwork around the inside of the alcove where the burner sits.. You need to be careful with the floor as hot embers spit out when you're putting logs inside which will burn your floor. It's best to avoid a rug in that area. Mine's a victorian terrace, a log burner would look nice in a 30s house.

We have one in the garden room which has a wooden floor. The stove installer also put in a black granite slab for the stove to stand on but tbh I think it was too small as we have lots of marks in teh wood where sparks/embers have landed.

So whatever you get, make sure it covers a decent sized area to catch bouncing embers which will fall out when you open the door.

We have a slate hearth. There are building regs that cover the size of the hearth required when installing a woodburner - it might be best to start by looking at them...

I think that's the problem with mine, mumble. The floor has a few marks from previous people. A couple of hot embers have fallen out since I move in and started using it but have fallen onto the slabs under the burner.

we had an inglenooke fireplace opened up in our last home, the hearth was similar to the one in your link- when the company came to install the woodburner the hetas man said it only just came within building regulations (depth wise). So check the required depth. The tiles seem to be be very pale reclaimed quarry tiles but they could be new.

We now have a real slate hearth, big slabs, my daughter has dark grey slate effect ceramic tiles from Wickes about £5 a square metre.

I have also used reclaimed bricks, they looked fab too, I recall we used used some reddish coloured powder in the mortar. Try googling images and recalimed bricks for different patterns.

Good luck.

Although the reclaime dquarry tiles looked nice they were difficult to keep clean I would not choose pale again.

I've got Indian soapstone tiles which hide a multitude of muck and I love them very much. You should get a HETAS registered fitter to do your installation and he would do the hearth as well as mantle, beam if you want one. Exposed brick looks lovely in an inglenook; I wished we'd done that instead of the lime render we have.

I go on this forum for chat about wood and woodburners etc. They have HETAS fitters on there- some of them with websites showing their work. Brilliant for advice!

Finally , my woodburner is on my profile so have a look for one sited in a 1930's house

I put the coffee pot on top of mine, Pudden.

We have 3 - all on raised hearths, 1 stone and 2 quarry tiled. All are fine, although we do get the odd ember bouncing out - not currently an issue as one room has porcelain tiles and the other 2 have carpets which are due for replacement.

Bear in mind that you need room for log basket /fire irons/etc.

I cook jacket potatoes in foil and boil the kettle if there is a power cut.

I love my Clearview.

You need lots of logs. Mine is a hungry beast.

We have been through nearly 10 tons of logs this winter, but we have been using them as a main source of heating. We have also learned to shut them right down as soon as they are burning well - slows down the rate of consumption no end. Also, get a pair of heatproof gloves - by far the easiest way to feed it.

I got 2 metre square pieces of welsh slate from corfe stone for £20 and they cut them to shape (took a newspaper template and measured about 10 times!) for another £20.

I have a good sized burner, needed something fairly robust as it's very heavy. There is a plinth of reddish brick, one brick high only, covered in a slab of black polished granite, dead easy to keep, nice and simple.

Thanks for the link, will have a look Pudden!
AND thank you everyone else for taking the time to reply, it is so interesting to read about everyone else's experiences!
I have been wondering about a slate, but wasn't sure if it would go with the floorboards?

We have just brick. Builder did it as part of refurb and then got woodburner installers in to fit stove. Picture on my profile....though not a great shot as from duff camera on phone. Could have had plastered to the corners if we had wanted. We are in a 30s house.

Ours is slate. We have a 1930's and our fireplace was smaller than expected once opened up. We went for the Contura built in and we love it!

Ours is local stone (Caithness) from flagstones. Its actually 3 pieces, one set into the inglenook and two squares at the front to make a rectangular hearth. This allows for an expansion gap as our fitters advised that they had seen problems with cracking when the hearth was one piece. If in doubt go for a larger hearth to avoid problems with sparks spitting, and to give plenty of room for log basket and fire irons etc. I thought our hearth was too big initially but now 6 months on it would seem to be just perfect.

The slate is about 8mm thick and I bedded it on about 10mm of ordinary mortar. Underneath was a screen of concrete already there.

If you are installing on to floorboards you need to investigate what is underneath. You have 2 options - either lift the floorboards where the burner/hearth is going and create a concrete/stone base on which to bed your hearth, or do it over the floorboards. Depends if you've got a suspended floor really because burners are very heavy . If I was installing on a suspended floor I'd deffo want some kind of reinforcement to floorboards - probably extra joist reinforcement in that area would be your only realistic option?

Pudden May I ask, does your mantelpiece shelf get hot? Is it solid wood, oak? And finally, (!) how is it attached?

Electricsheep- the underneath gets fairly hot- I should have a brass rail attached so I can dry my huge underpants on it! It has special screw things embedded in it and then bolted onto the wall. If I was doing it again I wouldn't opt for this as the weight of the mantle (solid oak) has pulled it away from the wall slightly and it has drooped a bit

Right, I just need to work out how to check out profile pics on Mumsnet...such useful info/ thoughts to consider ladies, I really am grateful! We are off to a wood burner show room tomorrow to have a good look round...feeling quite excited!

Electric, just had a peep under the carpet that is currently down and there is quite a large hearth of orange (!!!) 30s tiles at the moment...have no idea how solid the floor is IYKWIM???

Always which Clearview do you have? We are interested in the Pioneer 400...do you love yours?

Also just wondering how long it takes a wood burner to get going or does it vary from model to model?