Wood burning stove owners, what do you have under yours?

We’re having a stove installed in the new extension on top of a lovely tiled floor. The supplier has informed and insisted there must be a hearth or fender for legal reasons. Now I can’t see what a 700mm dia hearth will do to limit any embers etc when the stove front will be ~300mm from the front of it and a fender, well will just look daft. Ideally I want nothing in front of it or under it and let it sit on the tiles.

So, what do you have under yours? Raised hearth? Another layer of tiles?

http://www.planningportal.gov.uk/uploads/br/BR_PDF_ADJ_2010.pdf

See page 37 onwards.

The reason is to make a physical height difference to demark the stove area from the rest of the room, and

Personally I think it’s a load of shit, so I havent put a trip hazard around mine. And since my flooring is fire proof I don’t need a heath material.

My installer was accomodating, in that we agreed I would “install a steel box section rail around the stove”, it just might not stay there… Ahem

Cheers Both, that’s what I’m trying to agree with my installer.

Fabricate a surround, put it in place for him, then take it away.

I’m thinking fender to the legal height, ‘fix’ to walls and then remove.

extract from blg regs item 2.26 as referred to above, basically says that the hearth step line should be visual to provide a warning and to discourage combustible materials, such as rugs being laid too close to fire and a change in level achieves this.
I guess in your own home it is your risk, but if doing it for rental or other then stick to the regs to reduce liability and risk.
Our old open fire hearth protects the rug, which in turn protects the carpet, neither protect me from burns ;)

Under my woodburner?
Currently 1 cat, 1 pair of wet shoes from this morning, a pile of wood, some tongs and a few nails. Cobwebs, dust and wood chippings.

We have tile hearths under both of ours.

I like stoners suggestion of a removable surround though.

Slate tile hearth here

We have cheap Indian stone under ours. I wanted York stone which was too expensive. So wished I’d saved up for it.

Stoner – your home is gorgeous :-)

but as Stoner says, he’s a fireproof floor

We got a single slab of stone, comes out 300mm in front of the stove – which is sat on a steel shelf.

Stoner – your home is gorgeous

thanks bunnyhop – but we’ve covered this. You’d hate it for the lack of soft furnishings ;)

as above though, if your flooring is suitable for a) the underside radiant temperature from your stove, and b) log/ash/ember spill from the front, and c) all other combustible surfaces are at correct distances etc, then the “hearth” thing becomes moot, and simply a demarcation thing, which is the most tenuous of reasons. You might as well stick bright yellow tape down.

If, on the other hand, you need do something to catch ash/stop the floor burning, then a hearth of depth and area to meet regs is a no-brainer.

Stoner – measure twice, cut once – then you won’t need two bags of sand to prop your house up.

The cat if I’m not careful

You could put a 12mm clear glass hearth down on top of the tiles. This would satisfy your installer and protect your tiled floor.

There are slate slabs under mine, out to the required distance. If anyone’s thinking of polished slate, it takes some maintenance (slate oil) and is easily marked.

ISTR the installer speaking of a stone floor where they screwed down a brass strip to mark the safety boundary.

There are slate slabs under mine, out to the required distance. If anyone’s thinking of polished slate, it takes some maintenance (slate oil) and is easily marked.

This.

Our stone guy was actively against us using slate, to the point my wife told me to find someone else :?

Glad he did, as on speaking with him more he offered us some marble that we could take the shine off. Took me a couple of days with a polisher/paste. Looks great and hasn’t marked at all.

If I were doing it again, I’d look into quarry tiles. I’ve no idea if they pass the regs, but would be right for a 30s house.

Is it possible to “heat proof” electric mains cables in wall behind a potential burner location?

We’ve got a constructional hearth (it’s a 1930’s house and is in an existing fireplace) and a riven slate hearth on top.

Agree with above RE polished slate, you’re going to be putting logs and iron tongs etc down on the hearth while you’re loading up the stove. If it’s polished I don’t think you could easily avoid scratching it.

I guess you could insist on what ever you want if the fitter is willing…but you might not get a HETAS certificate.

Agree with above RE polished slate, you’re going to be putting logs and iron tongs etc down on the hearth while you’re loading up the stove. If it’s polished I don’t think you could easily avoid scratching it.

Takes a couple of minutes to repolish it, so not an issue.

Is it possible to “heat proof” electric mains cables in wall behind a potential burner location?

Depends on the wall construction – it’s plasterboard the stove needs to be 300mm away at least. Fit a piece of vermiculite board to the wall (offset from the wall by 12mm or something) to give extra protection the cabling.

Depends on the wall construction – it’s plasterboard the stove needs to be 300mm away at least.

Which is why ours sits out from the wall. Yes, I could’ve redone the whole of the back wall, but it’s a big room so we didn’t miss the extra plus you get a feeling of the stove been more in the room – we don’t have c/h.

Here’s ours when installed (don’t worry, we have a 21st century TV now).

Things to note:
(1) I can;t for the life of me understsnd how there can be rules on proximity of combustible materials, but then you’re allowed to have a log box directly beneath the fire
(2) the granite it’s on isn’t deep enough – we have loads of burn marks in the carpet in front of the hearth
(3) the installers managed to cut a hole in the carpet but not in the underlay, which has compressed unevenly and started a very slow slide of the stove on top of the log box (we corrected it – it’s now heading the other way).

With sophistcated child saftety surround (yes, that’s my daughter’s playpen):

So, what do you have under yours? Raised hearth? Another layer of tiles?

Tiles. Not very well fitted ones. On top of a lump of masonry. Its an old fireplace.

Also;
Spiders
Dust
The odd lump of coal
Bits of the crumbling chimney wall
Several poker type tools.

(3) the installers managed to cut a hole in the carpet but not in the underlay, which has compressed unevenly and started a very slow slide of the stove on top of the log box (we corrected it – it’s now heading the other way).

On the plus side at least they tried. Ours appear to have just plonked the hearth on top of the carpet :evil:

I wasn’t there to supervise, and it took me while to figure out what was troubling me about it.

@brassneck

Given the installers work for the manufacturer (Firebelly) it was surprising that they’d never installed a grantie hearth. It seems they either put them straight onto tiles a la Stoner or into exsting fireplace hearths.

But, if you’re going to slice carpet, why on earth wouldn’t you cut out the underlay as well as put it straight on the (Marley) tiled floor?

The only explanation is that they were from Yorkshire.

You’re not actually “allowed” to store logs under a lit fire…
Crazy that they are sold and advertised as such isn’t it.

DrP

Stoner – measure twice, cut once – then you won’t need two bags of sand to prop your house up.

Damn it! You stole my joke while I was having a nap.

You would need a Jameson after that

Our stove stands on a tile plinth in the kitchen:

Fuel warming up on the left.