How to install hardwood flooring around a fireplace.
Installing hardwood around fireplace hearth.
As such they are not regulated by the same safety codes as wood burning fireplaces and each model has its own requirements.
The idea of installing hardwood flooring in a room with a fireplace is one that many homeowners find appealing until it s time to install the flooring around the fireplace mantel and hearth area.
Suddenly the idea can seem complicated.
Undercut the hearth.
It might even be best to start laying the flooring around the fireplace then working towards the rest of the room.
Gas fireplaces are considered gas appliances not true fireplaces.
Laying hardwood flooring is relatively simple.
Transitioning from hardwood to a hearth is tricky whether the hearth is level with the floor or raised.
I am floating the floor over an underlayment and a wood subfloor.
Right next to a fireplace there could be some in floor heating wires that stick up from the subfloor and a curved hearth of the fireplace to contend with image 1.
The problem i am anticipating is how to hide the 1 2 inch expansion gap by the brick fireplace hearth and the built ins.
Unfortunately inexperienced installers will handle it this way either because they do not know of other solutions or don t care to handle it any other way.
There are a number of ways to do this.
One of the best options for installing hardwood floors around a brick fireplace is to undercut the hearth if you have a raised hearth.
You place the boards on the subfloor fit the tongue and groove ends together tap them to fit.
Installing hardwood around a fireplace is not that complicated.
Some gas fireplaces are built with zero clearance fireboxes meaning you can put combustible materials right up to the sides front and bottom.
Installing hardwood moldings around fireplace hearths has never been an attractive solution for covering up those gaps.
The wood requires expansion gaps on all sides to.
Trimming a wood floor around a hearth.
But don t let that deter you.
In this case a floor has to be custom fit.
Hardwood at fireplace hearths.