Fireplace Facelift

Hi Jake,

We have a wood burning fireplace in our living room that is approximately 50 years old. It works fine but it really needs a facelift. 

This fireplace is on our main floor and there is another fireplace directly under this one. It is now a painted brick fireplace with a 3 inch think concrete hearth. It's approximately 6 feet wide and extends the height of the room. The hearth is 2, 3 foot sections wide and it sits about a foot off the floor with the painted brick underneath it extenting out into the living room. We want to pull off the hearth and take out the existing bricks that are under the hearth. Essentially want to drop the hearth down to the level of the floor. 

Once the hearth is off and the bricks are removed we'll reface the front of the fireplace with some nice tile. We will create a new hearth out of some nice tile and make it level with new hardwood that we are putting in. 

We are 2 new do-it-yourselfers so I have a few questions for you. I've chisled away some of the grout surrounding the hearth and I probably can just pull it off (the grout was in bad shape to begin with). Once I remove the hearth what will be underneath the hearth? How do I build that new hearth that will be flush to the floor? There will be some missing bricks from the fireplace and I'll need to make the front of the fireplace flush. What should I use to make the front of the fireplace flush before starting the new facing? As I said it's a painted brick fireplace, what kind of prepwork do I need to perform before I think about applying new tiles on top. 

Any advice that you can send our way would be great. Before I get into this fully, I really want to know what I'm doing. Hopefully you can help with that. 

Best Regards, 

Andy

Andy,

For being new do-it-yourselfers, you are taking on a pretty nice size project.  Here are the answers to your questions:

Under the hearth covering material, you should find a hearth that is 4” thick concrete.  You shouldn’t remove any of this hearth, since it is suppose to be a minimum of 4”.  You can add to the depth by adding more concrete or installing a concrete board like Durock.  You’ll have to determine what depth you need to make up so the new hearth material lines up with the hardwood floor. 

In regards to the missing brick, I would suggest new brick, it doesn’t have to match since you are going to cover it.  You could also plug the missing brick are with mortar, and it might take a few applications if it’s really deep.

When applying new tiles to the face of the fireplace, we often install the Durock board to the brick, mortar and screw it to the brick.  This leaves a nice smooth, non-combustible surface to apply your tile to. 

Remember to maintain the minimal distance from the face of the firebox to any combustible material.  At least 16” from the fire box opening to the edge of the hearth and usually 12” around the sides and tops.