The hot-hot-hot temperatures make this post extremely untimely. As you may know, we have a weird house built in the 70s in a Chalet Style. It has been poorly heated the whole time we've lived here, and so after a nearly 5 day power outage this winter, we decided to bite the bullet and install a wood burning store.
We don't ever do anything the normal way, so we decided to make a cast concrete stove pad, and inset it into the carpet (so I would never trip on it.) Eventually we will replace the carpet with something less... carpety.... but I think we'll keep the concrete pad.
The process of casting the concrete wasn't terrible- and after we saw the results we pledged to do more projects.
P made a mold out of veneered particle board.
We rented a little concrete mixer....
Poured a nice thick layer into the frame, knocked the sides to remove some of the bubbles, covered it, and let it set for a few days.
The result looked something like this. The side that was down against the wood came out smooth, with just a few air bubbles.
The cats tried to help. Cooper even brought reinforcements.
Then we started carving into the multiple layers of strange flooring.
After a couple of adjustments, we slowly slid the pad in place. We still need to seal it, but I love the way it looks.
Voila. I am super excited to be warm this winter, come what may.
Wow! I love the simplicity of the concrete slab (vs. a huge hearth), and I really like the stove you chose. We'll be in the market for one of these pretty soon. We have a hearth, but the little wood stove that was here before had to be removed because it wasn't up to code.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, yay! Good job. You'll be so cozy this winter. :)
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ReplyDeleteHere's the one we got- it was a little more pricey, but it has an extra long firebox, which was important because we had to cut a bunch of our own wood- and it was narrow enough to fit the space well.
ReplyDeleteScan Anderson 10, by Jotul
http://www.scan.dk/Scan/products/ProductArticle.aspx?id=54061&epslanguage=en-GB
Most of our cost was the install. I would definitely recommend against the added cost of soapstone sides. Very little of the heat comes out of the sides.
YES!! and it had begun... the cats will constantly be by your stove. :)
ReplyDelete