Family-owned hearth repair serving Lake Mann Estates

Measuring the opening decides the rest of the plan

Every size question on a hearth goes back to the fireplace opening, meaning its width, its height and whether its bottom sits at floor height or above it. Those three numbers decide which thickness and which extension size the code expects.

Our specialists take them at the start of the visit and write them on the estimate, so the plan for the hearth is tied to your fireplace instead of a generic drawing.

• Width of the opening across the front
• Height from the firebox floor to the top of the opening
• Height of the firebox floor above the extension
• Depth and width of the existing extension

Adding a border to reach the required size

A hearth extension that falls a few inches short can sometimes be brought up to size with a border of matching or contrasting material, built on the same kind of noncombustible support as the rest of the extension.

The border has to be part of the hearth, set in place and supported, and thick enough for the rule that applies to your fireplace. A strip of tile glued onto the wood floor is decoration only. We draw the border on the estimate with its dimensions so you can picture it before approving.

Hearth tiles that have shifted out of line

Tiles that have slid, tilted or opened their joints show movement in the bed or the base. A hearth whose grout lines have wandered is telling you the tiles are no longer held firmly.

We check whether the movement is old and stable or still happening. Stable shifts can be reset during a finish repair. Active movement is traced to its cause first, because resetting tiles over a moving base only straightens them for a while.

How heat reaches the floor through a hearth

Heat moves through solid material, so a thin or cracked hearth passes more of it toward whatever lies below. The code's thickness rules and some manuals' insulating layers exist to slow that path.

When we find scorched or darkened material at the edge of a hearth opening, we treat it as a sign that heat has been getting through. The repair restores the thickness and the layers before the finish is replaced.

• Thickness restored
• Insulating layers rebuilt where a manual calls for them
• Finish replaced last