I have a raised brick hearth in front of my fireplace. The two options that I can think of are to run my flooring up to the brick or to frame out the floor in front of the brick and butt the flooring up to the framed area. For reference, the flooring will run perpendicular to the length of the hearth.

What other options do I have? I looked through the picture gallery for examples, but only found pictures of hearths level with the flooring. Examples of other options would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Mike in Kentucky

Undercut the brick so the flooring slide underneath.

Diamond blade on an undercut saw.

Here is a limestone hearth I undercut.











Here is one I'm on right now. No finished picts yet.

Undercutting does look the best. The other option of picture framing it is a good option as well. Some well made fired clay bricks are very hard and will be difficult to cut. I recall trying to install some lead insets into some very hard bricks using a diamond bit and an impact drill/hammer. I gave up after awhile and installed them into the mortar instead. I can't imagine some genuine river rock being too easy to undercut as well. But that faux stone should cut like butter.

Great pictures.

Can I rent a power saw to undercut the brick? Is there a special term or name for this saw? I do like this option better and will try and go that route if I can cut the brick.

Sometimes referred to as a powered jamb saw, Super Saw or undercut saw. Crain makes them.
http://www.craintools.com/fs-specialtysaws.html
I have never seen them for rent around here.

Let me start by saying I am no professional, and Gary is the one to listen to. This is more a question for Gary.

While you can't rent the undercut saw (or maybe you can), you can achieve this same result using an angle grinder with a diamond wheel, and a real steady hand, correct? The problem is that the angle grinder won't have the benefit of being preset to cut at a certain height.

Ron

Yes, I suppose you could try it. Maybe attach the grinder to a block of wood set at the correct height? Just an idea.

ronblagrone, the tool you see pictured above ins simply an ngle grinder retro fitted so one can ajust the height.

Like Gary said you can shim it up to the required height and undercut anything, Even river rock. yup yup yup But get the 7 incher for that.

Yes before I got my Crain, I had an angle grinder with a 4" segmented dry cut diamond blade mounted in it. The collar the mounted the blade sticks down a good ¼". I sat the blade on top of a piece of scrap flooring, and pushed the scrap up to the collar and used the flooring on the colar as the blade rested on the flooring, to cut(hard to describe)

It is a dusty mess, unless you make a dust catcher out of a cardboard box with a hole cut in one side for the shop vac. and a flapper cut in the over side to direct the dust off the blade. It is still dusty, but no where near as without it.


Here is that last F/P hearth I was cutting in the last picture. Got to it today.

Dampen filter in shop-vac for more dust containment or even use two shop vacs, one on each side of the grinder for virtually zero dust.

Two is better than one in this instance.

I prefer to undercut stones or uneven hearths that are jagged up front. I've scrolled sawed individual pieces before to the profile of each area where the wood meets hearth also.

In this instance I installed pieces of flooring underneath the bottom edge of cultured stone before doing the fireplace. Because of all the mortar and loose grit that would result from doing the stone after the hardwood install I chose to do the hearth first then removed pieces of flooring underneath to leave myself a perfect fit for the installation.

That is the ideal way to do it. But in many situations, the hearth is already there and set on the subfloor so it will need to be undercut. Many good suggestions on this thread. Which type of blade is best for this work? And can I get it for my old Crain Super Saw?

Contact Crain and see if they still have diamond blades for the supersaw.