My Weekend Project - Hearth Teardown

[rza49311]

Previous owner had this HUGE hearth and wood burning stove. It took up so much of the room and we weren't using it at all. We decided to chop it in half then get a gas heater and vent it through the existing chimney. Took me two afternoons with a mason chisel to get it all torn down. The hearth is going from about 56" to 27". Right now, we are waiting to hear back from the the brick layer to face it back so i can take measurements for flooring that needs to be added

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[RaviNJCLs]

Looks like a lot of work. I'm interested to see how the wood floors turn out.

[svtmike]

That'll definitely be an improvement. That stove isn't exactly an attractive focal point for a room.

Is the chimney deep enough for a prefab firebox?

Are you going to throw some color up on the walls when you're done?

[rza49311]

Originally Posted by RaviNJCLs

Looks like a lot of work. I'm interested to see how the wood floors turn out.

yeah me too. I'm hoping the laminate will still match up good. its about 4 years old. They have discontinued the style as well but we found several places online still listing it, waiting to hear back on that. if not, i guess we'll have to get creative!

Originally Posted by svtmike

That'll definitely be an improvement. That stove isn't exactly an attractive focal point for a room.

Is the chimney deep enough for a prefab firebox?

Are you going to throw some color up on the walls when you're done?

We went back and forth with several ideas. we really wanted the insert but i think we are gonna go with this. we are sticking with the atrium white walls for now. we do need something on the walls thoug.

[svtmike]

^^^ Much better looking than the old one. The right wall color will warm the room up considerably -- it just looks cold right now.

[rza49311]

Bricklayer repaired the hearth two days ago. Still needs to be cleaned but I'm letting everything set. You can still see it isn't dry.

The hunt continues for matching laminate and gotta find another gas stove. We ordered what we thought was the matching laminate but it wasn't and the stove we picked out originally is outrageously priced. We "thought" it wouldn't be too expensive since my wife's father works for a propane company...not so much

[vas25tl]

Looking nice!

[rza49311]

Originally Posted by svtmike

Are you going to throw some color up on the walls when you're done?

Wife must have read your mind, that's all i'm hearing now. "We have to paint the walls"

We are still waiting on the laminate to be delivered to see if its the right kind. In the meantime, its all about picking a color for the wall.

[svtmike]

Originally Posted by rza49311

Wife must have read your mind, that's all i'm hearing now. "We have to paint the walls"

We are still waiting on the laminate to be delivered to see if its the right kind. In the meantime, its all about picking a color for the wall.

Painting will make a much bigger difference to the feel of the room than any resizing of the hearth, and it'll be easier too!

Take a look at the Benjamin Moore Aura paints -- they are the cat's meow for coverage, even color, and a stylish palette.

[rza49311]

i'll have to check it out, we used the BM personal color viewer when we picked out our kitchen color. Pretty hand lil tool.

[fsttyms1]

Looks great. Cant wait to see the finished product.

[rza49311]

The matching laminate is nowhere to be found

we are kicking around the idea of slate but i'm not sure its going to look right. i'm thinking if would need to rap around the hearth if we did.

Thoughts on slate?

[svtmike]

I think it might be one too many textures but you may have no choice but to put some kind of tile in the floor void.

[zeroday]

I think slate is going to look odd. I would just look around for similar looking laminate and put an area rug over it. This thread made me chuckle a little (sorry) because this is totally something I would do - just start ripping things apart before making sure the things you need to rebuild are available.

[RaviNJCLs]

^^^^

Same here.

The job looks good, but it sucks about not finding matching laminate. How about taking some more of the laminate out of the side and laying some matching brick on the floor flush with the rest of the floor. So if you can't extend the laminate, you extend the brick.

[rza49311]

i was afraid ya'll were going to say the slate would look odd.

we did kick around the idea of trying to find a laminate similar and just cover like you suggested zeroday.

It would be alot involved to put in brick flushed and extend it. We are trying to keep the budget on this project down because of the cost of the heater but you know how that goes! We did decide we would get the heater pictured above.

I'll have to take some pics tomorrow, the brick mason came back the other day and cleaned the hearth up. It looks really good.

[rza49311]

Another thing i forgot about was piecing the laminate back together wouldn't be easy. I can't just add on across that straight line, there is no lip because it was cut off.

[Will Y.]

This may be a stupid idea, but why not install real hardwood, stained to match the laminate, in front of the hearth?
My parents had a hardwood floor that was slightly damaged, so a company came in and replaced some of the hardwood, with the replacement hardwood strips stained to match the existing floor.

G/L regardless!

[65 Fury Convert]

Looking really good. I take it you've had a flooring expert over to tell you what your options are? Any chance of asking your builder or previous owner what brand of floor was installed?

[teh CL]

looks 10x better..

it was more of an eye sore in that room..

[chill_dog]

Great work, so far.

[rza49311]

Originally Posted by Will Y.

This may be a stupid idea, but why not install real hardwood, stained to match the laminate, in front of the hearth?
My parents had a hardwood floor that was slightly damaged, so a company came in and replaced some of the hardwood, with the replacement hardwood strips stained to match the existing floor.

G/L regardless!

not a bad idea, i think the biggest hurdle is still where the laminate stops currently, there is no tongue and its also not cut even (it was all hidden) so butting hardwood to the laminate would not go well.

Originally Posted by 65 Fury Convert

Looking really good. I take it you've had a flooring expert over to tell you what your options are? Any chance of asking your builder or previous owner what brand of floor was installed?

No expert advise. we are friends with the previous owners and i asked him about it but he couldn't remember exactly, he gave me the names of two places and said it definitely came from one or the other. we checked both without luck

[rza49311]

Come to find out, the heater we wanted does not support direct venting all the way up the chimney so we had to pick another brand that did. Also, we couldn't get flat black so we chose graphite. Here's the one we ordered yesterday except its a single door, not double.

Still no decision on flooring yet :facepalm:

[spdy0001]

how about a thin layer of brick where the flooring is missing? That would be my choice if the floor can't be matched perfectly. Also every think about replacing the whole floor or the lower wall panel? They two types of wood don't seem to flow well together.

And as stated before paint is a must. That was the very first thing I did to my house before moving in. We painted every wall in the house and it turned it into our home

[rza49311]

Originally Posted by spdy0001

how about a thin layer of brick where the flooring is missing? That would be my choice if the floor can't be matched perfectly. Also every think about replacing the whole floor or the lower wall panel? They two types of wood don't seem to flow well together.

And as stated before paint is a must. That was the very first thing I did to my house before moving in. We painted every wall in the house and it turned it into our home

My wife wants to paint the lower wall panel but i can't bring myself to do it. The guy reclaimed all that wood from an old house, plained it down and installed it. Its quite country but i just really hate to paint it. I'm down for painting the walls but we aren't sure on a color.

As far as replacing the whole floor, we were trying to keep the budget low as i said before so I think we'll try our hardest first to figure out a solution with a complete replacement.

I tried to do a lil photoshopping and putting brick pavers down but i wasn't feeling it

[rza49311]

Made a little progress this weekend. We never found the matching floor but we did have 5 full pieces the previous owner had left us. I never gave it a second thought because I didn't think 5 would cover enough area to make a difference or it wouldn't even out.

Well, I pulled up the laminate just to see how far I could go with those 5 pieces and the existing pieces. Looks like i can cover most of it leaving a 7" gap between the floor and the hearth. Also, there is one small piece i have to glue in.

So now, we are trying to come up with ideas to cover the gap. Also got plywood down yesterday.

[RaviNJCLs]

Got my fingers crossed for you dude.

[svtmike]

Can you get matching brick tiles then to fill in the gap?

Unsolicited advice: Make sure you know what you're going to do with the gap (and therefore its size) before you commit your last bits of flooring to it.

[rza49311]

Originally Posted by svtmike

Can you get matching brick tiles then to fill in the gap?

Unsolicited advice: Make sure you know what you're going to do with the gap (and therefore its size) before you commit your last bits of flooring to it.

My wife is fairly adamant about not having any more brick or anything resembling brick

And yeah, i've been thinking about that. Maybe I should go ahead and do it so then i HAVE to come up with something...heh.

[svtmike]

Originally Posted by rza49311

My wife is fairly adamant about not having any more brick or anything resembling brick

And yeah, i've been thinking about that. Maybe I should go ahead and do it so then i HAVE to come up with something...heh.

Put a piece of hardwood in there, planed to thickness and stained to match the trim pieces and call it a day.

[hornyleprechaun]

Originally Posted by svtmike

Put a piece of hardwood in there, planed to thickness and stained to match the trim pieces and call it a day.

Yeah just put a piece of hardwood there to cover the gap.. maybe some type of molding that won't look too bad in that spot.

[rza49311]

I'm thinking maybe two pieces of hardwood, one would be a plain rectangular piece to fill most of the gap then for the second piece..one side would sit flush against the first piece and it remains flush across the top for an inch or two then begins to slope down til it meets laminate

Profile of idea

[svtmike]

^^^ That would work. Make the bevel profile piece the trim that goes all the way around so it looks kind of like you meant it to be that way.

[rza49311]

yeah exactly, i'd have to do the same on all three sides for sure.

One piece would just look too wide i think. It needs to be broken up somehow.

I thought about something tiered too. You know starting a little higher on the hearth side and bringing it down as it comes towards the laminate but I haven't found any design ideas for something like that.

[zeroday]

Easy fix that will look intentional- Just buy a few pieces of wood flooring roughly the same color and thickness fo the existing laminate, cut them to size and put a border all the way around the brick (perpendicular to the existing wood direction and parallel to the brick). I don't see a need for any kind of bevel or tiering.

[hornyleprechaun]

What about something like what's at the top of the brick?



It would match the top if you could find some trim to stain to match.

[rza49311]

I might do something like that.

I'm going to have my neighbor come over and have a look. He's a woodworker/cabinet builder. He built our tv stand you can see there. He built it and we stained/poly'd it ourselves.

[fsttyms1]

Originally Posted by zeroday

Easy fix that will look intentional- Just buy a few pieces of wood flooring roughly the same color and thickness fo the existing laminate, cut them to size and put a border all the way around the brick (perpendicular to the existing wood direction and parallel to the brick). I don't see a need for any kind of bevel or tiering.

Great idea, or one thats different shade that will flow with the color you have as a border.

[Street Spirit]

Originally Posted by rza49311

I'm thinking maybe two pieces of hardwood, one would be a plain rectangular piece to fill most of the gap then for the second piece..one side would sit flush against the first piece and it remains flush across the top for an inch or two then begins to slope down til it meets laminate

Profile of idea

Naw.

I would just create some kind of border or trim. No difference in height like I understand you're suggesting (?)...just something to mask off the area that looks deliberate, planned, and a nice design feature - not like you're trying to be creative in covering an empty spot you can't find wood for.

[jupitersolo]

Nice change out, but I would have kept the wood burning stove. I remember so many times with my grandparents and my dad how warm they kept the house in the winter.