First Post...First pellet Stove...3 days to build the hearth pad....thinking about poured conrete.

[tundraSQ]

OK...the stove is a Harmon XXV, and I just found out it arrived today and they are going to preburn it and I can pick it up during the week. I have a wood floor where the stove is going and am not likeing the looks and/or the cost of the hearthpads at the dealer. I have a 3 day weekend and am pretty handy with wood but have never worked with tile or stone. I was wondering about just mixing up some cement and pouring a pad....then paint it or finish it to look nice. I have googled all day and found nothing on this idea...but I did find this forum and have been reading alot...some not so good things about the XXV...but mostly the reviews are good. This is a corner unit so doing slate or stone would require cutting and design...the conrete seems like it would be simple to do and i would like to think I could make it look nice too with some contrasting wood trim.

thoughts?

 

[MountainStoveGuy]

im a long way from a concrete expert. but i think you will need to rebar it our risk it cracking, and i think you can buy tints for the concrete instead of painting it. Google "building concrete counter tops"

 

[tundraSQ]

thanks..I never thought about the rebar....It will be roughly a 40" square and about 1.5" of poured concrete. And yes i will check out the countertop search idea...thanks!!

 

[tundraSQ]

Ok..a little reasearch shows me that the cement may in fact be MORE work than the slate or stone...and ALOT heavier than I was expecting...maybe 300lbs when i am done. Add that to the 400lbs of the stove and 60 pounds of pellets...even though it is being placed in the corner of the house I am wondering about the weight. I doubt it is a concern...but none the less i am thinking that slate will be the easiesr of the two and lighter. Question i have is, with say 1" thick slate on top of 3/4" in plywood so I need to add a cement board to this to prevent any problems. Or is the slate alone enough of a heat block?

 

[MountainStoveGuy]

the cement board gives it a nice bonding surface for the mortor, i dont know what the r value requirments for the stove, i doubt its much. Reguardless, use wonderboard or something of that nature to adhere the tile to. If you have a local stone quarry, just go pick up a slab of somehting. We have lots of quarries in this area..

 

[tundraSQ]

I decided not to re-invent the wheel...you said "quarry' and it clicked...I have place abotu 30 miles from here that sells quarry tile...so i went down and grabbed some 1/2" blue stone and they hadd the 1/4" cement board and all the stuff i will need. came to about 40% of what the stove place was selling pads for and is going to be much nicer....now I just need to get to it. thanks for listening and helping