First floor chimney hearth repair and prep for tiling

[Davealot]

Hi

I'm trying to level the constructional 1st floor hearth in our terraced Victorian house this weekend in preparation for it to be tiled but could do with some advice on what to do or not. I've removed all the loose rubble and old concrete back to supporting brickwork beneath leaving a hole 2-3 inches deep.

I was planning on filling it with 1:4 mortar or even concrete, possibly with some fibres thrown in to strengthen and avoid cracking, but having read a lot of threads on here the advice is often to use timber to bring the floor level up, albeit most these cases are of people wanting to lay floorboards on top. Question is, is it ok to fill this hole with a cement mix? If not then what other approaches might work better?

 

[foxhole]

Need a shallow shuttering to sides then Fill with sharps sand /cement mix.
Drop in some chicken wire if you want extra strength .

 

[Davealot]

Thanks foxhole, going ahead with this approach