Another Artistic Medium, concrete!

I recently purchased a wood pellet stove to help cut fuel cost and attempt to use a more renewable resource for home heating. Part of the puzzle of installing a stove is the heat proof pad that the stove sits on. You could easily buy one at the store that sells the stoves, they are made of tile and look ok, nothing special, but they cost $400 or more.

With the recent renovations and building we have been doing at the office I was able to watch my buddy John build 2 concrete countertops and thought this would be a perfect construction method for the pellet stove. Here are a few shots I took along the way.

This first image jumps ahead many steps but I constructed the mold out of melamine, using black silicon I drew a branch pattern freehand. All the seams are filled with silicon as well then smoothed with your finger, this gives nice rounded corners when the mold is removed. The leaves are cut out of copper flashing and glued upside down to the bottom of the mold.

4 inch steel mesh is hung by wire halfway down in the mold.

Mix up some Quikrete 5000, keep it on the dry side, I used 2 80lb bags

Shovel it into the mold and smooth it out. This next step is VERY important. Rap the sides and bottom with a hammer for at least 20 minutes to get the air bubbles out, I suggest a nice Pale Ale for this part. Then let it cure for 3 days and unscrew the mold and pray.

Then I covered the bottom with some white felt to protect the floor.  Finally, find a friend with big muscles ( Ryan) and drop into place.

Enjoy!
Bill