wrote in message
...

"Steve B" wrote in message
newsUfYg.1457$BC6.876@fed1read01...
I want to put a two foot strip of tile around my wood stove at my cabin.
It is going to go on top of plywood or particle board, or whatever wood is
under the carpet.

Do one use an adhesive or grout to get the tiles to stick to the wood?
Or adhesive, then grout the joints. And what keeps the grout joints from
working loose as the floor flexes? Is there flexible grout?

You have carpet in a cabin?

It's a cabin. Get 3 big inch-thick pieces of slate or granite the right
size, and just set them in place and let gravity do the work. Hold them in
place, if needed, with a strip of hardwood screwed to the floor around the
outside. More important, what is under the stove and behind it? In the old
days, we used to use sheets of asbestos board, looked and worked about
like the current cement backer board. Rather than a ring, I'd seriously
look at pulling the stove loose long enough to put a continuous something
underneath, the better to have no cracks to catch ashes or sparks, and to
make cleanup easier.

But if you have your heart set on tile- same rules as tiling a bathroom-
floor has to be stiff, usually done by screwing down a layer of cement
backer board. In the old days, they framed the floor an inch or so lower
there, and put down a mortar bed with chicken wire in it, and laid the
tile over that. Some people do get away with using mastic for ceramic, but
I'm really not sure what they use for grout to keep it from cracking.

aem sends...

The floor in that corner of the room is four inches thick of concrete. I
believe it is a form poured base for a wood burning stove that is then set
in place once the cabin is framed and flooring installed. It is like a
square with one corner triangle trimmed off. Carpet comes up to the
concrete base. I want to make a two foot strip of tile between the concrete
and tile. Back wall is natural stone about six feet out each direction from
the corner. Sorry I wasn't clear.

The corner that the stove sits in is pretty safe, having a concrete base and
stone walls.

Steve