# Combifire floor protection: place woodstove on ceramic tile floor?



## sarah_s (Sep 1, 2016)

Hi all,

Newbie poster here. My husband and I have a beautiful old Jotul Combifire that we are fixing up to put into our house, largely based on great advice I have found on this website.

The stove will be installed in a corner of a room. We have done all our research about heat shields and clearances for the walls, and plan to be able to reduce clearances from stove to wall (per NFPA) by installing ceramic spacers with cement backer board and some sort of masonry (either brick or stone) over the top. 

My question is about floor protection. I'm finding conflicting and confusing information. The room is an addition to our home which has 12" ceramic tiles as the flooring material. This is a non-combustible material which lays on top of non-combustible backerboard itself. Can we simply place the stove directly on top of the ceramic tile? Or do we still need to install one-inch spacers from the floor and create another layer of non-combustible material on which the stove will sit?

Any light the forum can shed will be appreciated. Happy to answer more questions.

Thanks in advance,
Sarah


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## pen (Sep 3, 2016)

You sound as though you are in good shape with the walls and are correct in being concerned about installing right on the ceramic tile.  A stove requiring ember protection only could be installed right on the ceramic tile, however the stove in question needs more under it as a lot of heat can move in that direction.

Here's a big article, but will explain to you in much more detail than an individual post from me can, that you'll find helpful.  https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/hearth-design-for-wood-pellet-and-coal-stoves.147795/

I'd suggest checking that out and then asking as specific questions come up.

Good luck and welcome to the site!

pen


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## sarah_s (Sep 6, 2016)

This is helpful, thanks! I checked out the link and will continue to reference it as we planned.

It seems we will likely go with a raised hearth - as low as possible as we can go with the correct R-value. A question about raised hearths:

The section about raised hearths seems to imply that the hearth can just be a stack of cement board, directly on the existing floor, with another layer of non-combustible material over it for aesthetics (we will be using brick thins, probably). Is this true? Is there no layer of air needed (as is needed for the wall heat shield)?

Best,
sarah


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