Build a Beautiful Hearth
Protect your floor with recycled materials.
January/February 2009
Carol Alexander
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For a fraction of the price of a store-bought hearth, you can come up with your own design and construct it yourself.
Nate Skow
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We had just finished painting our living room. With winter fast approaching and temperatures dropping every night, our woodstove lay on a hand-truck in the corner. The hearth was not yet built, and we had run out of money for this remodeling job.
I knew the look I wanted – a mosaic of black slate and shiny red tile. I doubted, however, that I could create the image I had in my mind. But since a trip to our local home improvement store proved we could afford nothing else, my husband encouraged me to try.
Thinking we could use them for crafts, our boys had collected roofing slates from around old, abandoned houses over the years. A friend offered a box of stained-glass pieces someone had given her. We also had a bag of grout left in the house from the previous owner.
We only needed to purchase a bag of thin-set mortar, a can of grout sealer, a notched trowel, some long, razor blade knives and a sponge rubber float. The cost of these items totaled $38.
To create your own beautiful hearth for practically nothing, follow these steps:
Step 1 – Educate yourself. I asked my second son to help me because he had at least watched someone lay tile before. I had no previous experience. We read a book on installing floor coverings. We also asked every possible question of both the flooring manager at our home improvement store and a friend with tiling experience.
Step 2 – Choose the tiles. I used old roofing slate and pieces of stained glass, but you could use old stoneware dishes or pottery, marbles, flat rocks, seashells – the possibilities are endless. To find discarded tile, visit your local flooring center or building contractor. They often sell odd tiles or broken boxes for a small fraction of their original cost. The flooring center may even give you the display boards they no longer use. Be aware, however, that some natural materials (like marble) have a grain to them and do not break on clean lines; a special saw is required to cut the stone.
Step 3 – Gather supplies.
- Underlayment board (if your subfloor is wood)
- Drill
- Screws
- Scrap 2-by-4s or other lumber the length of your hearth
- Thin-set mortar mix
- Grout mix
- Grout sealer
- Notched trowel
- Rubber mallet
- Sponge rubber float
- Knife sufficient to cut away your former floor covering
- Safety goggles
- Cellulose sponges
- Two basins to hold water
- Tiles
Step 4 – Prepare the floor. You must start with a clean surface. Cut away any old carpet or vinyl and scrape the surface clean.
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