Hello All,
I'm in the process of building my fireplace and I'm having second thoughts on how I handled the hearth area. See the picture attached. Instead of building it up with block I instead filled the hole with concrete and broken pieces of cinder block and then smoothed out the top so it's ready for fire brick. I figured it would be stronger this way. My concern now is the that the concrete may expand/contract in the hearth area and cause issues with the rest of the structure. The side and back walls are 16" wide and all the cores are filled completely with concrete. Do you think there will be an issue? If so, is there anyway to correct it?
I'm in the process of building my fireplace and I'm having second thoughts on how I handled the hearth area. See the picture attached. Instead of building it up with block I instead filled the hole with concrete and broken pieces of cinder block and then smoothed out the top so it's ready for fire brick. I figured it would be stronger this way. My concern now is the that the concrete may expand/contract in the hearth area and cause issues with the rest of the structure. The side and back walls are 16" wide and all the cores are filled completely with concrete. Do you think there will be an issue? If so, is there anyway to correct it?
