Wednesday 4 November 2015

Repairing and Levelling a Concrete Hearth

So we've have cleaned up the chimney breast and inglenook in Teeny's room, now turning our efforts to the hearth. We might want to use the fireplace again in this room, not now though, for now we just have to make the area safe and draft free for our wee boy.


I would love a wood burner in here, and that was just the plan before Teeny joined the family. This room was destined to be a studio/office/work-room, but I know you'll agree a little squidgy, funny wee boy is a much, MUCH better use of the space - Typically wee people and wood burners don't mix well. Never the less, we want to leave our options open for the future.

The original hearth was cracked (just superficial damage) and it sat about a centimetre below the new level of the floor - we had all the floorboards and joists replaced.

Having done the research we found the best solution was levelling compound. It comes dry and bagged in a tub to mix it it.


Though messy, it is reasonably simple to work with -  you just need to follow the instructions on the tub.

Measure, stir, stir again, stir some more, and pour.

We were just bringing the hearth up to the floor level so we didn't need to build any kind of frame to hold in the mixture. Just filled any gaps with expanding foam filler to avoid leakage into the void under the floorboards. We left it overnight to set.



Nice, clean, level surface. We've still to finish white-washing the chimney breast and inglenook, then we'll be sanding the floor - We are nearly done!!! *Exciting*

The Nitty Gritty

  • The levelling compound is own brand from screwfix - One full 15kg tub was just enough to do this small hearth (roughly half a square metre, 1 cm thick)
  • We will be tiling the hearth and may install a small woodburner in the distant future - I'm not sure it would stand up to the heat of an open-fire

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