FlipFlopLife

A new construction woodburning fireplace will be built, fieldstone-clad, with a raised hearth, similar to the one in the photo. The mason proposes to build the hearth extension simply laying atop the adjoining wood-framed floor structure, rather than cantilevering a reinforced concrete slab from the all-masonry fireplace structure. Should the AHJ allow this? The former AHJ official, in office for many years, was weak on code and inspection, and permitted many fireplaces built by this mason this way, while other masons were doing cantilevered slabs to support extensions. The new AHJ official, who lists a small array of alphabet symbols after his name to cite his training and certification, may not catch this. Should he?