Tough fireproof composite tile for a hearth?

[John Raabe]

I will be getting a new woodstove this Fall and want to upgrade my concrete hearth slab before the new 500 lbs unit goes in. The existing reinforced slab is chipped and dinging from 20 years of chopping wood on it. This habit will be hard to break.

I want a hearth material that will be tough and not crack, chip and look tacky in a few months. I don't think ceramic tile or most brittle concrete products would hold up.

What I would really like is some sort of composite tile with resiliant plasticizers (or something) so that a strong hatchet blow might dent it but would not split or shatter it. Then, if needed in a few years, I could replace a few of the more dented tile.

Any ideas of what might work?

I have done some research on papercrete and it may be able to have such properties, but I would rather not set up a small experimental manufacturing plant for developing perhaps 50sf of tile.

[glenn kangiser]

How about a topping of stamped concrete with fitbemesh,  color and acrylic hardener added?

http://www.concretenetwork.com/concrete/stamped_concrete/index.html

http://www.concretenetwork.com/photo_library/fireplace_surrounds.htm

[bartholomew]

At one point I was giving some thought to a topping layer of pebbles embedded in and coated with heat resistant epoxy. I haven't finished researching the idea though. I know you can get epoxies that are rated for up to 300 or 400 degrees F or so, but I don't know if that would be sufficient for long-term exposure or if the cost of such specialized epoxy would be exorbitant. The surface would probably dent fairly easily, but would also be fairly easy to repair.

Another idea I had, but definitely not for your situation, would be to use a thick chunk of heat-resistant translucent glass. Again, haven't done a lot of research into it.

[JRR]

I thinking a perimeter framework containing a bed of sawdust (or a layer of rubber safety mats), covered with thick layer of gravel and stone.

Of course, this won't look "tacky in a few months" .... it'll look tacky right away!  LOL.

[John Raabe]

Thanks for the ideas guys - we are all smarter than me!  

[jonsey/downunder]

John, have you thought about using timber? Maybe something like Jarrah, which can be sourced from old railroad ties. This stuff is extremely hard and will take a fair amount of abuse. Just tidy it up every few years with a grinder and a bit of tung oil.

http://www.africanodysseytx.com/ao_woods.htm

[Amanda_931]

Sounds like a great idea, if counterintuitive.

After all, wood houses have been known to do better in fires than steel, simply because the wood is not in kindling form.  Of course there has to be plenty of kindling of one sort or another to cause steel framing to bend.

I'd thought about a just plain earthen floor.  But that really doesn't take that much in the way of dings.

[desdawg]

I used approx 1" thick flagstone scraps myself but I am more rustic than formal. Heavy but not too heavy since I didn't require too many square feet. Excuse the mess.

[John Raabe]

Your stone looks good Desdawg... and if I took Jonsey's suggestion I could get a slab of Jarrah and use it for a chopping block. The area where I need to split wood doesn't have to include the entire hearth. I can tell by my current chips in the concrete that a 24" x 30" chopping area would be plenty big. (The full hearth slab is 4' x 8'.)

[Amanda_931]

I don't know why I didn't think of this earlier (although the timber hearth sounds like it might be the best solution--proven technology, solves most of the problems simply and with grace)

http://www.dirtcheapbuilder.com/rubles.html

Essentially Jack discovered that using asphalt (hot mix), OR Asphalt Emulsion (AE) mixed with clay, shredded cardboard and/or sawdust and other dry materials like sand, cement, plus some other additives, gave a hard wearing but extremely foot comfortable substance good for floors and roofing. It can be poured, troweled, rolled, sprayed, tamped, stamped and molded while still drying.

Jack even describes coating sheets of paper/cardboard with it to premake panels for laying as floor tiles, or wall surface. It can also be used for a damp proof course.

Names Jack gave to his recipes are: "Liquid Marble, MarbleWood, Insuldown, Insulrock, Lithocrete, Hornite, and Terralithic".