Fireplace hearth on solid floor

phily2002

Hey guys, I have solid floors down in my sitting room. We didn't use the fireplace so the floors run all the way in. Now we've decided to get the fireplace going and we bought a hearth. My question is can I leave the floors under the hearth, I know we can't leave them as they are but if I had them running under say 10mm all around is that safe? I just don't want to cut them out then have to put beading around...

harry21

If I'm understanding your post right I would say having 10mm of floor under the hearth at the outside would be fine. I would't worry about it.

Is the solid floor on batons? If so you'll need a fair bed of mortar to set the hearth in!

phily2002

thanks for the advice.just to check with you, the wooden floor is nailed to standard floorboards.is it ok to use fire cement to bed the hearth directly onto the floorboards?

Carlow52

See part J here for regs
http://www.environ.ie/en/TGD/

You dont say how big and thick the hearth is or how thick the solid floor that you will be taking up.
U dont need fire cement, very weak sand cement put down damp is enough assuming the heath is strong enough itself.
The one detail that bothers me here is how close to the fireplace the floor boards run.
The part of the fireplace that supports the grate will be concrete all the way down and the hearth will butt up to this: this joint will be subject to movement as the hearth in on a timber floor and there is a risk of a gap opening up, exposing the floor board below

phily2002

ah my mistake, took floorboards up and theres a concrete section in front of the fireplace! all sorted now, cheers for the link to the regs, im sure that'll come in handy for all my diy