Tiling a hearth

[sandy10]

Hi,

I've got a concrete hearth to the outside of my fireplace which continues inside the fireplace.

Onto which, we're going to sit either a standard grate for an open fire, or a woodburner.

We want to tile with something like 10mm thick slate tiles.

Would these be ok for using under a grate?

Additionally, what size grout joints do you recommend and also which type of adhesive and grout for a "fire" application.

Many thanks in anticipation.

 

[afright]

If you are going to have an open fire then I would only tile to the edge of the grate and under the grate I would fill in the a sand and cement render using fire cement,rather than slate go for porcelain or quarry.

 

[sandy10]

Out of interest why wouldn;t you tile beneath the grate?

This is location where you'd sit the woodburner.

Unfortunately, the fireplace is only 500mm wide x 400m deep.

 

[Ceramico tiling]

Not sure about the specifics on fire resistant natural stones etc but i do know that slate is very resilient stuff,lasting hundreds of years in roofing applications. I would just do it and see.With the adhesive and grout you may be better off calling the product technical department for Ardex/ Mappei/ Bal etc. They will give you your best bet.

 

[afright]

Are you fitting a wood burner stove or is it a grate ? If it is a wood burner stove then it might be ok to tile as the burner is sitting on the hearth what I was suggesting was that if you was having an open fire there is a lot more heat from the grate I have in the past tile under the grate with quarrys and they have all cracked and come lose with the heat in my opinion the adhesive and grout would fail if fitting an open fire, if you do want to tile the hearth then the tile should be bedded with fire cement and grouted with fire cement .