How to tile a block of wood to make a hearth, help please??

[bootcutboy]

Untitled

• bootcutboy
• 5 Feb 2013
• 1

As above I am making a fake hearth for the living room from some an old bit of kitchen counter and am just looking for some advice on how to best stick ceramic or slate tiles onto this in order to get the best smoothest finish and to ensure the tiles don't break if the wood expands/shrinks.

Any help would be great, thanks!

 

[IJWS15]

First and most impotant - check the fire instrutions and make sure the hearth doesn't need to be incombustible. If it does don't use wood or "kitchen counter" which I guess will be particle board - if it gets hot it will char.

Second - if it is particle board then it is VERY prone to expansion if it gets damp (one way expansion in a big way) and if that happens no tile adhesive in the world is going to stop the tiles coming loose.

I would put in some shuttering, cast a concrete hearth and tile that.

 

[jctilingservices]

as above, screed yourself a concrete hearth, then tile it