Replacing our fireplace hearth has been on my to-do list for months. Although it’s a smaller project, I’ve been putting it off because I knew it would be a pain in the butt with lots of steps. Still, seeing the old, dingy-looking hearth bugged me every time I walked into our living room, so this month I finally decided to tackle updating it.

Here’s what this part of the house looked like when we first moved in.

A few months later I updated our floors and spruced up the mantel, which really improved the look of the room, but I didn’t have a fix for the fireplace figured out yet so I left it for the time being.

One rainy Sunday morning, I got antsy and started picking at the old porcelain tiles. Next thing I knew I was going at them with a crowbar and there was no turning back! Now the update is finally done and I’m so happy with it.

How To: DIY Tile Fireplace Hearth

Here are the steps I took to complete my first-ever tiling project and update our fireplace.

Step 1: Remove Old Tiles

The first step was to tear up the grimy old tile and mortar.

The tiles around the edges came up so easily I could pull them off with my hands, but the sections in the middle were still attached pretty solidly. I bought a floor scraper to help pop the tiles off the floor and it made things much easier.

Step 2: Level The Foundation

Once the old tiles were removed, I was left with an uneven concrete foundation. As with most old houses, our home’s surfaces have settled into all sorts of weird slants and angles over the years. Before I could put down new tile, I needed to level the foundation.

This was a part of the project I was actually excited about. I first read about self-leveling concrete on The Art Of Doing Stuff and I’ve been dying to try it ever since. Basically, it’s a liquid concrete that you mix up and pour onto an uneven surface. Like hot lava, it oozes and spreads out across the floor before it dries, leaving a nice level surface on top. I used Levelquik RS. This project took about half a bag.

Before you pour the concrete, you’ll need to create some barriers at the edges where you want the concrete to stop, otherwise it’ll run into every tiny little nook and cranny. My barriers were very fancy, cobbled together with painter’s tape and cardboard from cereal boxes. They worked great. Once the concrete dries you can rip them up or slice the tops of them off with a utility knife.

To mix the concrete, I bought a large mixing paddle (like a giant Kitchenaid mixer attachment) seen above and rented an industrial mixer from Home Depot. The industrial mixer was legit, but I realized afterward it was probably overkill. If you have a strong drill, pairing that with a mixing paddle will work just fine to mix the concrete. Just charge your drill up ahead of time so it’s nice and powerful. The paddle fits right into the head of the drill like a drill bit.

When you pour the concrete onto your surface, use a trowel to help spread it out, like spreading cake batter in a pan. The consistency isn’t that different from cake batter either. It dries to the touch pretty quickly and you can walk on it in 4 to 6 hours.

Step 3: Paint Inside The Fireplace

One of the things that initially stumped me about this space was figuring out what to do with the inside of the fireplace. I wanted to be able to actually use it, and I was worried that if I put tile in there it might crack under the heat.

Finally, it dawned on me that since we usually have a screen over the fireplace, it didn’t really matter what the inside looked like. I decided to keep things really simple and paint the concrete floor and brick walls of the fireplace with a black high-heat paint.

I used Rustoleum High Heat Enamel, which is designed for use on surfaces that get really hot, like fire pits and grills.

Step 4: Lay Tile

Now that our fireplace was prepped, it was time to lay the tile. The hardest part of this whole project was finding a tile that would work for this space.

First of all, it had to be something my husband and I could agree on. Although he doesn’t share my interest in home improvement, he is *highly invested* in making sure our home isn’t “too girly.” To him, this means anything that’s a color or is even remotely trendy, so I usually stick with neutrals.

Secondly, after cutting about 479 pieces of laminate while redoing our floors, I was not at all interested in using a saw to cut the tile. I wanted a material that could be cut with a tile cutter, which ruled out marble and other natural stone. Porcelain and ceramic were our best options.

Since it was my first time working with tile, I wanted them to be larger so there were fewer to work with (a.k.a. less of an opportunity to screw things up). And finally, since the fireplace hearth butts up against our laminate living room floors, I needed a tile that had some kind of matching accent pieces that could be used as a border around the edges.

Ultimately, I decided on this beige 12” by 12” tile and matching border pieces (which I learned are called ‘jollies’—how adorable). The tile was $0.99 per square foot from Lowe’s. It met all of the above criteria and you can’t beat that price.

Laying the tile was the easiest part of this project. It’s very straightforward: you measure the tile, score and break it using the tile cutter, spread some mortar on the back like you’re buttering up a slice of bread, and stick it in place. I used the same trowel that I did to spread the concrete to spread the mortar on the tile. Use tile spacers to keep the spacing even between each tile. I used this basic tile cutter and pre-mixed thinset mortar.

The only point where I ran into trouble was when I got to the very last corner. The way things measured out, I needed to slice a very thin piece (about ¼”) off the top right tile to get it to fit into place. A tile cutter isn’t meant to make such thin cuts, so every time I tried I would end up snapping the whole tile in half. So frustrating!

The standard procedure for making this kind of thin cut would be to use a wet saw, which I would have either needed to rent or pay someone to do. At this point that seemed like way too much of a hassle for such a small task.

Instead, I grabbed a pair of tile nippers from our neighborhood hardware store and used those to make the final cut, snipping off a tiny bit at a time. This was super tedious and took about half an hour, but it got the job done.

I used some gritty sandpaper and my oscillating multitool to smooth the rough edge left behind by the tile nippers. I highly recommend this tool, by the way. It can be used for sanding, cutting and more. It has come in handy so many times since I got it!

The last tile fit in place beautifully.

Step 5: Grout

Once the mortar dries for 24-48 hours, it’s time to do the final step and pour the grout. When you buy your tile, the recommended grout to use with it will usually be listed on the box or display. I mixed up the suggested grout in a bucket the same way I did with the concrete.

Pour the mixed grout over the joints in the tile, then use a rubber float (a tool made specifically for spreading grout) to push the grout deep down into the tile joints. I used a flexible putty knife to work the grout into the smaller crevices.

At first I was being super careful with the grout, but then I figured out that you can get pretty messy with it and just wipe up the excess after the fact. It doesn’t dry that quickly. Use a big, soft grout sponge to make cleanup easier.

Finally, I added this fireplace screen, which I adore.

Here’s the finished product.

This was quite an involved project for such a small area, but I think it goes a long way toward making the room feel complete. Eventually I’ll add new blinds and curtains to the windows on either side of the fireplace to polish things off.

What do you think? Was the outcome worth all the steps involved in this project?

Materials To Tile Your Own Fireplace

• Floor scraper
• Drill and mixing paddle
• 5 gallon mixing bucket
• Self-leveling concrete
• Trowel
• High heat paint
• Tile (here’s the one I used, along with mtching 12-inch jollies as the border)
• Tile cutter
• Thinset mortar
• Tile spacers (I used 1/16″)
• Tile nippers for making irregular cuts
• Grout
• Grout float
• Grout sponge

Need a hand getting started on a DIY project of your own? Download my free DIY Project Checklist to map things out.

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