Hi Tom, Larry and Westcoaster - Thank you! ya I was wondering if the tile might be too heavy... Maybe I'll end up using stainless or brass sheeting... But in the meantime I plan to just build out a prototype of the heat shielding using just mineral board to see the amount of heat I'll be dealing with... I never knew about firebricks.. thanks! The stove didn't come with any firebricks inside and doesn't mention them in the manual... but maybe that's going to be a part of my design... thanks again.. Do you have any recommendations on where I can buy thermal mineral board?