Lower wood burning fireplace hearth?

[estazz1]

We would like to replace our fireplace mantel surround in our wood burning fireplace. Our current fireplace is a simple design installed in the early 2000s with basic/manufactured grade fireplace mantel surround and raised hearth which is a wood base with granite slab on top (see below). The current hearth is about 10 inches high. We are not big fans of the raised hearth and were wondering if it's possible to lower the hearth to the floor, even though we have a raised firebox. Would this look odd? We also want to replace our wall-to-wall carpet. Can you have a floor hearth with carpet? Thanks!

 

[KDubU]

It can be done and would not look odd if you used a wood stove out front of it. Essentially the stove would hide the raised hearth and you would likely need a rear vent stove ideally which there are a few. You would deconstruct the hearth surround, build out a hearth pad into the room providing plenty of space around the stove. Not hard to do but I would keep carpet a long ways a way or build an extra large hearth pad.

 

[Woodsplitter67]

If this were me and I was going to do any work to this my first thought would be putting in an insert with a large glass. if I could get one in there. removing the raised hearth and changing the surrond may make this possible. I would do this because putting in an insert would probably make it more enjoyable. you get heat out of it without making the house drafty. A free standing stove would be my 2nd choice.

 

[EbS-P]

The answer is you can lower the hearth but the fireplace has hearth requirements. Basically you need 16” of non combustible hearth in front of the fireplace. The specific model of fireplace may have different hearth requirements. Look for a name tag usually inside the front doors top or side. The. You can look up your unit’s specifications.

Generally inserts are not allowed in prefabbed fireplaces. The chimney requirements will dictate if a liner can be run down for a wood stove. All in all it’s a decent sized project to redo a hearth.

Refinishing the front where the hearth was removed will need to look ok. And the vertical trim gaps that you now exposed will need to addressed.

 

[mgogreen]

If this were me and I was going to do any work to this my first thought would be putting in an insert with a large glass. if I could get one in there. removing the raised hearth and changing the surrond may make this possible. I would do this because putting in an insert would probably make it more enjoyable. you get heat out of it without making the house drafty. A free standing stove would be my 2nd choice.

Why is an insert first and a stove second? I have a similar setup but with a masonry fireplace. Thanks!

 

[estazz1]

Thanks for all of your replies. I would like to keep the fireplace as is. We use it more for decoration/ambience and not heat. We light only a few fires throughout the winter, so I do not want to replace with a woodburning stove or insert. I live in a development and several neighbors have fireplaces that are ground level with hearths on the floor, so I'm assuming that's acceptable given our homes were all made at the same time. However, my firebox would be raised as opposed to being flush with the floor if I removed the hearth. Would this affect the operation of my wood burning fireplace at all?

 

[begreen]

Lowering the hearth will not affect the fireplace operation. Just be sure that area below the fireplace is done per the fireplace installation instructions and that the lowered hearth meets the requirements.

 

[estazz1]

Lowering the hearth will not affect the fireplace operation. Just be sure that area below the fireplace is done per the fireplace installation instructions and that the lowered hearth meets the requirements.

Thank you!