Soapstone Hearth

Now that I have finally decided on the stove...(See...And the Winner is...................) I have decided to build a soapstone hearth....This stove will go in the corner of a room....I have the recommended dimensions but my question is....Will 1/2" soapstone meet the requirements???

 

Boy, my first thought was, soapstone is too soft and brittle to sit a stove down on...
But gluing it down to a good backer would really strengthen it

 

I drilled my stove for a cat probe. The bit went through the soapstone like chalk.

 

Chalk is soapstone. Err soapstone is chalk.
Or something like that...

 

I wouldn't. You can achieve a similar look (though not 1/2") by making a concrete hearth. I made smooth as glass countertops using a kit and instructions from Cheng:
How to Make Concrete Countertops | CHENG Concrete Exchange

 

Chalk is limestone/sedimentary rock, , soapstone is a form of talc /metamorphic rock, a silicate, like quartz. iirc, a metal 'salt'. That's the limit of my high school chem.

 

Bro in law did this just last year, looks fantastic...................I don't have pics but if I get some I'll post.

 

Consider building your hearth large enough to accommodate a larger stove in the future. As well as the ceiling penetration location for your pipe. You may never go to a bigger/larger clearance stove but if you do, you will be able to easily install it. Food for thought at this point.

 

Consider building hearth higher, 16 “ or so your knee can thank me later!

 

I built a soapstone hearth for my Woodstock FireView corner install. This is a pic from like 12 years ago that they put on their website.



I chose the corner, as that was where I tore out my old fireplace from, and I didn't want to build a new chimney and chase on the house. Overall, I'd say the corner is not as convenient as a straight wall install would have been. The door side is too tight to also have the firewood rack on that side. I could make that fit if I pushed the stove further out into the room, but I'm now limited to the hearth size, so can't really do that.

I chose soapstone for the look, and because I as hoping that it would retain heat. I still like the look, but only the front row of tile in front of the window warms up.

If I rebuild it, I will raise the hearth, not to save the knees, but because with only about 1 foot of tile in front of the stove, the carpet also gets quite warm. Not dangerous warm, but warm enough that I'm not sure a floating floor would work in front of the stove. I think the raised hearth would be better for the house, getting the stove further away from the non-hearth floor. In one of the pics below, you can see hand warmers that I place in front of the stove to block some of the heat. If/when I rebuild the hearth, I will use soapstone again.

I believe my hearth was code for my area. If memory serves, it's a layer of cement board (to keep the tile from flexing) covered with a layer of sheet metal to reflect heat up (code for my area) covered with 3/8" soapstone tile. I'd have used 1/2", but my local store only had 3/8" at the time. They were a Tulikivi dealer, and that is where the tile was sourced from.

I'm not aware of why some soapstone is harder than others, but experience says that the tile is a much harder variety than the stove is. It is much harder to scratch than the stove is. The tile on top of cement board has not visibly flexed, even with a 500 lb stove on it, and none of the tile or grout has cracked.

12 years in, I do have some scratches in it, where I dropped a poker once, and under the firewood rack. But it doesn't look bad. It's held up fairly well. So I wouldn't be too concerned about it holding up, but you had better carefully set the stove in place & not push it into place. It's held up well enough that I'm planning on installing it with a heated floor underlay for one of my bathrooms. I could see myself liking it for a countertop as well.

One of the things I like about it is that I can change the color. Once heating season is done, I usually wipe it with mineral oil, just to get a different look to the hearth for the summer, and to make the veins show. When heating season comes, the hearth gradually lightens up again, like these pics show. The mineral oil hides any scratches as well, but I treat it for the look, rather than for the scratch hiding.