Local fireplace repair and service in Delaney Park

Steel fireplace units set inside masonry

Some masonry fireplaces were built around a steel fireplace unit, a factory-made steel firebox with masonry laid around it. The Florida Building Code allows these when they are installed to their listing or to the code's own section on steel units. Under that section the steel lining has an air-circulating chamber ducted to the interior of the building, and the circulating air ducts are metal or masonry.

The steel box is the part that sees the fire. When it rusts through, splits at a seam or warps, the repair depends on how the unit was installed and what its listing allows. It is not the same job as repairing firebrick.

Our crew identifies these units by the steel lining and the circulating air ducts, checks the steel and the air channels that can be reached and explains whether a repair is possible or the unit has reached replacement. All of it goes on the estimate.

Deciding between repair and a new factory-built unit

Repair makes sense when the metal box is sound, the label is readable and the failed parts can still be sourced. Replacement comes into the picture when the firebox has burned through, several parts have failed together or the listed parts are no longer made.

A new unit is a bigger job than it looks. It can involve the chimney system, the framing around the box, the hearth extension and the finish on the wall, because each is tied to the listing of the unit that goes in. That work belongs to our fireplace installation service, not to a repair visit.

Our technicians in Delaney Park lay out both paths side by side in writing, with what stays, what changes and how much disruption each brings. We do not predict how long either option will last, because that depends on use and care, but we do tell you which one we would choose for our own home.

A sagging or cracked lintel over the opening

The lintel carries the masonry above the fireplace opening. The Florida Building Code requires it to be noncombustible, with bearing on each end of the opening. Where it sits behind the face, the signs of trouble show in the masonry around it.

Trouble can show as a crack running up from a top corner of the opening or bricks above the opening dropping slightly. Where the lintel is a steel angle, rust can bow it, and water from a leak higher on the chimney may be feeding that rust.

Our technicians look at the lintel, the brick it carries and the ends where it rests. A rusted angle may be cleaned and protected, or it may need replacing with the masonry above supported during the work. That is a bigger job, and the estimate explains the steps and the face repair that follows.

Broken panes and doors that bind on their tracks

Fireplace door glass is made to handle heat, but it can still crack from a knock or a door swung shut too hard. A cracked or broken pane should not be used until it is replaced, and the new glass has to be the type that door was made for.

Bifold and sliding doors also wear at their tracks and hinges. Ash settles in the channel, pins bend and panels drag or jump off the track.

We clean the tracks, straighten or replace pins and fit glass made for that door. On a factory-built unit, door and glass parts come from the maker's list for that model.

• Cracked or missing glass panes
• Panels that drag, stick or leave the track
• Hinge pins bent or missing
• Handles and pulls that have worked loose