I love the look and functionality of the Progress Hybrid. We have an old (1980) wood stove that is having problems and needs to be replaced. The hearth it is sitting on is 54" wide. The Progress Hybrid would be a perfect fit for us except that the PH is 30.5" long and per the installation instructions, the hearth needs to extend 16" on the door side and 8" on the other, for a total length of 54.5" (1/2" longer than my existing hearth). Could a 1" wide tile border be added to extend the hearth dimensions? I've read that you can also raise the hearth to increase the effective clearance dimension (e.g. if the hearth is raised 6", then the hearth would only need to extend out 2" on one side and 10" on the door side (though 10" on each side might be preferable for aesthetics). Any thoughts on these options or other ways to address this?
Progress Hybrid Hearth Dimension Options
- Thread starter North Idaho
- Start date
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What’s that hearth made of? Can you extend it just in the loading door side with the same material? Or maybe just lay a piece of steel on that side as an extension? Maybe even a hearth rug?
Cool looking old stove!
Cool looking old stove!
It is flagstone on top, the house was bought with the hearth in place, so I don't know what is below that. The flagstone is in large pieces, so I think adding a small section may look odd, thus my idea of just adding a border of tile (possibly composed of flagstone material) might add a non-combustible surface and also a finished look. I'm not sure what would need to be done to bring that to code however. I may need to have a Hearthstone dealer come out to take a look at it, hopefully they can give me suggestions or advice on this. I'm not sure a hearth rug would meet code - my understanding is that it must be more permanent, thicker and not a possible tripping hazard.
Personally, I would cut out as much of the wood floor around that hearth as you need to achieve clearance and add a border of steel flat bar on all three sides flush with existing floor and hearth. You can buy flat stock from metal suppliers in whatever thickness you need to match the floor and would just need to make sure any gap between the steel and stone was adequately sealed off to maintain fire proof-ness. There are also finishes and techniques to "age" the steel to make it fit the aesthetic more appropriately.
Thank you for your suggestion - that definitely another possibility and probably quite a bit less work than cutting up small pieces of tile!
