…until now.

We’re getting one fitted (and yes, I do work in IT, I am a contractor, I do own a T5. No Audi though and I don’t like trail centres). There’s no chimney in the room it’ll be going in, so it’ll be ‘in the room’ but against the wall with the flue straight out of the back and through the wall.

It’ll need a hearth to stand on, obviously, and we’re dithering between slate or matt granite. Slate looks nicer, but there’s a slight worry that it’s easily scratched (esp. as we have a dog). Granite is harder wearing, but doesn’t look as nice. There’ll be quite a big area of it too (prob about 700mm-1000m square) so we don’t want it to start looking tatty.

Is slate as delicate/scratcheable as we’re led to believe, or are we worrying unnecessarily?

Embrace the scratches. They’re hard to avoid, and yes, slate does look nicer. The biggest chance of getting it scratched is when you install the bloody thing.

We made the mistake of having a big slab of compact Lancashire sandstone, which is a cream colour It’s a disaster because despite being sealed it is now filthy. Dark colours every time.

We have granite but I had all the edges chanfered and the corners rounded, partly to stop them hurting the children in the house and to stop it looking tatty with use over the years. It was no issue for the workshop.

Slate looks nicer, but there’s a slight worry that it’s easily scratched

We went for polished slate, scratched to buggery in no time….

We’ve got exactly the same setup with a slate hearth and two dogs. The dogs have never scratched the hearth, they do scratch the wood floor, but in either case you just wipe over with oil* and the scratches disappear.

*It’s not oil on the hearth, it’s slate dressing (well it might be oil, I don’t know what it is).

I’ve got a slate hearth and just live with the scratches, looks OK to me though.

Depending on your hearth size, mandarin stone slate exterior flagstones are nice to use as you can get them in big sizes, the slate is nice and smooth and looks good to me, plus they are pretty cheap.

We went for polished slate, scratched to buggery in no time….

We’d have a matt finish, hmm…

We’ve got exactly the same setup with a slate hearth and two dogs

Cheeky question, but any chance of some pics?

Cheeky question, but any chance of some pics?

If I remember this evening I will have a go. Not sure how well they’ll show up in a photo – all very light dependant.

I’m hopefully fitting another stove here later this year in a room with no existing chimney so twinwall up through the roof – I think we may be going for a glass hearth ….. another option for you?

Cheeky question, but any chance of some pics?

I have a few from the build which have the fire in: