Hearth questions

[stevefg]

Hi folks.
I am after some advice regarding laying a hearth for what will be a working fireplace - either open fire or a solid fuel stove of some kind. The living room floor is concrete, onto which has been laid a solid wooden floor on wooden battens. I am left with an area of concrete in the fireplace which is approx 50mm lower than the wooden floor. My intention is to lay a sharp sand/cement screed (4:1 mix?) up to the level of the floor, leaving a gap of approx 15mm to allow the wood to expand/contract. I then want to lay reclaimed quarry tiles and I want these to overhang the floor by 30mm or so, in order to avoid the need for beading to hide the expansion gap. So finally, to my questions -

if I use some kind of flexible adhesive, will the above work? ie, would the adhesive be flexible enough to cope with the seasonal movement of the wood?

if not, could I support the front edge of the tiles on some kind of cushioned underlay, just to stop the tiles cracking if they are trodden on?

as this will be a working fireplace, is there a suitable flexible adhesive, or would I be better off using a sand/cement mortar?

obviously I will also need to use some kind of grout - again, do I need a particular fire-proof grout?

Apologies for so many questions. Any advice appreciated.

Steve

 

[noseall]

is it imperative that the quarries are sitting just at the floor level?

could you not build up the hearth so that the wood floor and the quarry tiles don't interfere with each other?

 

[stevefg]

thanks for the reply noseall.
I guess I should have taken a pic as I dont think I have been very clear. Basically, the level of the quarry tiles is not really important. So at the moment I am planning on laying the screed so that the top of the screed is level with the top of the wood, allowing me a straight run with the tiles over the screed, with the front 30mm or so sitting on top of the wood. My reasoning for doing it this way is that I can hide the expansion gap under the tiles. But I dont know whether flexible adhesive is flexible enough to cope with the seasonal movement of the wood. Any thoughts?

Steve

 

[noseall]

thanks for the reply noseall.
. But I dont know whether flexible adhesive is flexible enough to cope with the seasonal movement of the wood. Any thoughts?

Steve

no probably not.

it is the differential movement between the rigid hearth and the less rigid floor that's the problem.

 

[RigidRaider]

If your screed is levelled with the floor, surely by the time you have added tile cement, your tiles are going to end up a couple of mm above the wood anyway? You could then seal with silicon around the edges, or leave a nice little cranny for spiders, who we like to have in our houses to control the other nasties.

I understand your concern about weight on the edges - why not reduce the overlap to 10mm?

 

[stevefg]

Thanks for that RR. 30mm overhang is a bit much, as you say. I will keep the overhang as small as I can get away with and lay the front of the tiles on a bead of silicon. I am not a grat fan of anything with more than 4 legs and 2 eyes, so will not be leaving any tempting crannies

Thanks again, both of you.