We live in central Kentucky and in late January 2009 we experienced an ice storm that left us without power for six days. After the first day, we packed up all our essentials and and headed down to my wife's parents house to combine food, heat and company. Lowes and Home Depot were selling generators and chain saws faster than they could get them. Camping supplies went quick as well as water. We ended up finding a generator at Home Depot which I wired into the breaker panel at my in laws to run the lights, freezer and refrigerator. For heat we used a kerosene heater which we heated water on top of for sponge baths. We used a butane stove for cooking. I had to melt the ice off the tractor flue lines and heated up the oil pan with a torch so I could feed hay to the cattle. After all said and done across the state the ice storm left 101 counties and 75 cities declaring a state of emergency. 769,000 power outages, 30 deaths, hundreds of power poles broken and 10 other states volunteering in restoring power and with shelters for the less fortunate. Many people had top cut their way out of their driveways and streets just to get to the store for food and fuel. Since I still had to go to work, I started each morning heating a pot with water on the kerosene heater and standing in the shower to sponge off in. If found you can actually take a bath with two gallons of water.
My wife and I decided that we will be prepared the next time a disaster hit so we started looking for a wood stove. After researching, we found wood to be the cheapest way to heat our home. We purchased a Napoleon 1400 wood stove. We built a hearth using artificial rock to place it on. We installed the flue inside and chimney on the roof and fired it up. I have documented the step on how we built the hearth and installed the wood stove. I hope it helps you in doing the same.
You can find all the materials you need from any home improvement center. Start out by cutting a piece of 1/2" plywood the size of the hearth. We determined the size by the instruction with the wood stove. It must be a predetermined size according to the stove manufacturer.
Cut two 2x4's for the long sides and five 2x4's to go between them.
When assembling the 2x4 platform, use coated wood screws and make sure to drill a pilot hole through the first piece of wood that is as large as the diameter of the screw. This will allow the two pieces of wood to be pull tightly together by the screw.
Assemble the 2x4's equally spaced.
Lay your plywood on top of the 2x4 frame and secure in place with wood screws.
You will need to place a cement board on top of the plywood to give the adhesive and rock something to bond to. On this project I used a cement board called Hardi Backer.
Make sure you purchase screws made for cement board. They have ridges under the head that cut into the board to allow the screw head to pull down flush with the top of the board.
Lay the cement board on top of the plywood and secure it with the cement board screws. Allow the cement board to overhand since it is easier to cut it after you have if fastened down. Take a chalk line or a straight edge and make a line even with the edge of the plywood. To cut it, I took a box knife and scored it along the chalk line and under the cement board next to the 2x4. Next push down on the piece that is overhanging and break it off. Secure this piece next to the larger piece and secure it to the plywood. Mark, score and break this piece and use it to fill in where needed.
I had to ask my son Mitchell for help laying out the rock. He has an eye for a good pattern. We purchased the rock from the Amish here locally. They make it themselves in a rubber mold. It feels like a mixture of cement and some sort of light weight media. No two rock look the same.
Here are the rock sitting on the platform.
I used a powder adhesive called Mega Bond I purchased form a local home improvement center. You can mix it with water to make a mud that is easily applied to the rock.
You can use the same adhesive above for all the rock but I had a little of this Mapei adhesive left over from a tile job and thought I would see how it would do. I used this on the rocks mounted to the side of the platform. You may need to shim up the rocks off the workbench on the sides to keep them from sipping down while the glue sets up.
Mix up the powder Mega Bond adhesive. Mix it to an icing consistency, not too runny and not too stiff.
Spread the adhesive on the bottom of the rock and place it where it goes.
Here are all the rock glued down.
Since the platform was built in the workshop, I had to recruit my wife and son to help me carry it in the house where it will go. It is very heavy even with the artificial rock so I had to go under the house and add more support to the floor. If you have a concrete floor you will be fine. I used a sand grout to go between the rocks. Just mix it according to the direction son the bag and try you best to get it between all the rocks. You can fill it as high as you want to but I went about 3/4 of the height of the rock.
Here you can see where the grout is inbetween the rocks. Mix in small batches of grout since it can dry out relatively quickly.
The only trick part is getting the grout between the rocks on the sides. Just do your best to get it in there. Use your fingers to press it between the rocks if you have to.
Mitchell helping me assemble the scaffolding to put the flue pipe in.
Here is the hole I cut in the ceiling for the flue pipe and chimney. We used a chimney kit made for a wood stove and I suggest you do the same. It has everything you need except for the actual chimney pipe which is double wall insulated made from stainless steel (not shown). Again, you can find all this at a home improvement center although I purchased the black single wall flue pipe from a wood stove store on the internet since the flue pipe was a thicker gauge and the ones at the home improvement center were really scratched up and thinner gauge.
Here is the flue pipe going to the ceiling. Our ceiling is sixteen feet from the floor so we had quite a bit of pipe to install. The single wall black stove pipe connects to the stainless steel double wall flue then passes through the flue chase in the ceiling.
Here is the chimney pipe outside. You can see how much we are using it by the discoloration just under the rail cap.
Here is the finish hearth and wood stove. I made a wood rack and kindling / newspaper rack out of 1" tubing and bent it using a bender we bought a couple years ago. I painted it with high temp black stove paint. Finished it off with plastic plugs in the ends purchased from McMaster Carr.
I hope this will inspire and give you ideas on building a hearth and installing a wood stove.
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