I've got an old fireplace, and the hearth in terrible shape. I pulled up what looked partially like tile and partially like patio pavers. They were about an inch thick, and inbedded in sand. Beneath them is concrete. I think the concrete is a couple inches thick. It's not cracked, but it's not level and there's lots of voids in it, so it isn't smooth. This concrete is between 1.5" and 2" lower than the surrounding floor. I'd like to put in a new tiled hearth, but not sure of best method. I need to smooth out the existing concrete, and raise it about an inch so that the tile is flush with the surrounding floor. Should I pour some new concrete on top of the old, and tile onto that? Not sure how I feel about tiling over an inch of new concrete poured over old. Self leveling concrete? Raise it up with some concrete, then plywood on top? It's not going to get a lot of foot traffic and nothing heavy will be set on it, so part of me just wants to make it relatively smooth with some concrete and then anchor some plywood to it, maybe some backerboard, and throw the tiles on top of that....

[ATTACH]62391[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]62392[/ATTACH] Surface scratches [ATTACH]62393[/ATTACH] Can anyone tell me what kind of marble tile this is? I noticed a couple of small surface scratches in the area under the shower valve, how would you deal with these? Also, the horizontal seam under the valve has old grout (no caulk), which is cracking and disappearing, while the rest of the horizontal seam between the marble tiles, appears to have caulk on top of old grout. How would you deal with this? FWIW, caulk appears to have been used on the vertical seams between the marble tiles as well as the horizontal seam between the marble tile and the vinyl shower pan.