Log burner and surround question

[Tommo1863]

Hi, New here so be gentle!!
We have recently bought a house that needs every room renovating. Obviously I am trying to keep costs down and do as much as I can myself.
The living room has a crappy gas fire going to an external wall with what I believe to be balanced flue (no chimney or chimney space in the house).
I'm getting the gas capped by a professional next week so I can rip out the fire myself.
What I want to do is......
Lay a new hearth from decorative stone slabs, build two smallish columns either side from reclaimed bricks, lay oak beam across columns making mantle.
I've got a small log burner and i'll be doing a twin wall flue on the external wall..... I'll probably get a heatas engineer to do the twin wall rather then getting it signed off after the fact by building control....
A few questions....
1) does this whole plan sound good? Is there anything obvious that wouldn't work?
2) when building the brick columns should I use brick ties and secure them to wall? They will only be about 5 feet high
3) what cement/render mix should I use for behind the log burner on the internal wall? I want something I can paint black?
4) will regular floor tile grout be ok for the stone hearth tiles or should I use mortar?

Thanks for any and all ideas/advice...

 

[theprinceofdarkness]

1) Sounds OK, register plate? Flue insulation?, rating of fire and requirement for an air vent?
2) Just a couple of ties, half way and one near the top, use the screw into a plug type.
3) Black behind the fire, sounds a bit gloomy to me, you can get dye for cement to make the render black.
4) Any old grout would do, but the tiles should be well bedded in what ever, as the weight of the stove is on its 4 little feet. Have you measured up the distance , fire to hearth front, there is a spec on this.
Frank

 

[Tommo1863]

Thanks for reply.....
If I've done my homework right, I don't need an air vent as the log burner is under 5kw.... There will be no register plate as it's going straight off the back of the burner to a twin wall flue and outside. I'm having 300mm proud of the burner in the hearth as I believe regs state that is what I need....
I'm thinking I could tile behind the burner but not sure if it will look good having 4 different materials make up the surround/hearth?