Cracked panels and worn fireplace parts fixed in Lake Terrace

When a cracked panel needs replacing

Makers set their own limits for when a cracked refractory panel should be replaced, and those limits live in the owner's manual for each model. A panel that has lost pieces, crumbles at the edges or leaves steel showing behind it is past any reasonable limit.

We read your model's guidance, look at every panel and tell you which ones need replacement now and which can be watched. The estimate names each panel by its position and its part number.

• Pieces missing from the panel
• Crumbling edges
• Steel visible behind the panel
• Cracks wider than the manual allows

The cap at the top of a metal chimney

A factory-built chimney ends in a listed termination, a round top or a chase-style top in one maker's system, and each termination comes with its own instructions. It keeps rain and debris out, and one maker's design includes a spark arrestor.

Rusted, dented or missing terminations let water and animals into the flue. We replace them with the listed part for your chimney and check the pipe below while we are on the roof.

The smoke shield and the top of the firebox

The top of a factory-built firebox includes parts such as a smoke shield and an inner dome that guide smoke toward the damper and the flue. In one maker's parts list, both are marked as not field replaceable.

Damage there changes the conversation. We tell you what we see, which parts can be serviced and when the finding means the fireplace should be replaced as a whole.

• Smoke shield
• Inner dome
• Damper area above them
• What the parts list allows in the field

Earlier repairs with the wrong materials

Prefab fireplaces sometimes arrive at a repair visit carrying old fixes, such as a panel patched with mortar, a crack covered with cement, sheet metal screwed over a hole or a pipe section borrowed from another system.

We identify those repairs, explain why they fall outside the listing and replace them with listed parts where they are available. Old patches are removed carefully so the steel behind them can be checked.

• Mortar on panels
• Cement over cracks
• Sheet metal over holes
• Pipe from another system