Hearth landing

[Eastside3]

Finally, the moment has arrived. The moment where im done dealing with CMU blocks and pouring massive amounts of concrete. As I start on the next phase and actually start to assemble my "Premio 2G110", I want to have a nice landing area that overhangs the edge of the base. Ive heard some people warn me about using granite, telling me that it will crack easily. Ive also hear others say the same about a poured concrete landing. What do you use on yours and what would you do differently if you could do it over?

[Greenman]

Re: Hearth landing

Might be a bit late but a cantilevered overhang is probably best poured with the rest of the slab. With the right reinforcement failure would be rare.

[jeeppiper]

Re: Hearth landing

For my landing, I used 4" CMUs (laid on their sides). I was able to overhang them slightly. I would be very cautious overhanging any type of stone/concrete material.

Then, I finished the landing by using porcelain tile with epoxy grout. These tiles were very inexpensive and provide a beautiful and tough surface. Very happy with my landing and would do it exactly the same, given the opportunity to build another oven.

[GianniFocaccia]

Re: Hearth landing

I suppose you could use a hammer drill to sink some rebar 90's into the front-top of your slab and CMU's, but would require a second pour (just what you want to do, right?).

Here's some pics of my cantilevered overhang (post #8):

http://www.fornobravo.com/forum/f8/octoforno-7122.html

John

[Eastside3]

Re: Hearth landing

Guys, thanks alot for you input and insight. Jeeppiper you have one great looking oven. The use of CMUs as a front support structure for your landing looks cool. I actually made my hearth slab deeper to allow me to have extra room to position the oven and have room up front to acomodate a landing. In essence it should allow me to have the same room to add a landing as your design does with the added CMU. (thats presuming you made your hearth slab according to the suggest size and didnt go deeper like I did. I originally was going to extend my hearth slab to overhang off the edge however I didnt want to create a failure point. I love the look of a chisseled edge granite and plan to go to a local rock yard and perhaps look at granite treads used for steps. They can also polish the surface. This is cheaper than going to a granite counter supplier. My thought was to make sure that I would overhang the granite by nor more than 1/3rd the overall depth of the stone. perhaps I would use some construction adhesive. I want to create a thermal break instead of butting the landing up against the entrance. Some people seem to just let a 1/4 void suffice as a thermal break, where Iva also seen other fill this walled aluminum rectangular tubes with scrap fire blanket. One thought I had was to use a 1 inch wide strip of fiberboard topped with 3/4 inch thick of some other material that would be level with the floor and be safe for contact with food. Im not sure if that is a good idea but the goal is to come up with a good heat break without having to have just a gap . Any thoughts?

GianniFocaccia, In the link you posted, with your set of 3 pictures, that last pic shows the layout and thickness of each piece. What is the 4" wide yellow area you have in the area by the transition from the floor to the landing? Is that a fill of some material or is that a void with your landing hanging over that?

I thought of the hammer drill and rebar approach as well. When it came down to it I figured I had two choices presented to me. If I wanted an overhang when its all said and done, then the hammerdrill, rebar, and a frame with secondary pour would be one answwer, however if I started with an overhang and later wished I hadnt then Id have to cut that off. The later seemed like it would be a nightmare of a task. I like the look of a thick chisseld and polished edge stone. I could accomodate that by a granite tread perhaps or by a poured concrete with silicon liner ofter used when pouring concrete countertops. Thoughts of whether acid staining the concrete, polishing it, just as a concrete countertop would be built, all ran through my head, but then I heard others warn about concrete countertops in the pacific northwest climate. With natural stone being what I leaned towards I then thought how weird it might look to have a flat edge concrete hearth overhang topped with a 1 1/2 inch granite slab. I would prefer it be all the same material rather than see concrete and something else. The way that Jeeppiper used tile certainly would cover that up, but I hadnt considered tile. So when striving for that chiseled stone edge with a 4-5" thickness, I thought perhaps a stone tread, polished, could be a nice look, when making sure just to not exceed 1/3 the depth of the stone as an overhang

[GianniFocaccia]

Re: Hearth landing

GianniFocaccia, In the link you posted, with your set of 3 pictures, that last pic shows the layout and thickness of each piece. What is the 4" wide yellow area you have in the area by the transition from the floor to the landing? Is that a fill of some material or is that a void with your landing hanging over that?

The lighter-colored strip between the oven floor and landing is insulating firebrick (IFB).

[stonecutter]

Re: Hearth landing

The 3cm granite will be fine up to 12". I think the bigger thing is that it would look thin asthethicaly. If your plan is a square landing and you want the same look, then you can clad the face with the same granite.

[Eastside3]

Re: Hearth landing

The 3cm granite will be fine up to 12". I think the bigger thing is that it would look thin asthethicaly. If your plan is a square landing and you want the same look, then you can clad the face with the same granite.

Instead of a 3cm granite piece that would be used for countertops, I was thinking of going to a local rockery and getting a granite tread. I've seen 5' sections that were cut to be 6" deep and up to 15" wide. I was going to secure this with construction adhesive to the hearth slab and make sure that 2/3rds of the width of the tread was resting in the hearth. So a 15" wide tread would be overhanging the edge by no more than 5 inches. Thoughts?