Fireplace repair and maintenance in Riverside Acres

Finding the rating label without taking anything apart

The Florida Building Code requires a factory-built fireplace to be listed and labeled, and that label usually carries the maker, the model and the listing details our technicians need before ordering parts. Where it sits varies from one maker to the next, and the owner manual for your model may show the spot.

Look only where you can see without tools. Do not pull panels, unscrew trim or reach into a unit that was used recently. If the label is hard to find, a note of what you did see is plenty to start with.

Our crew reads the label on site and writes the model on your estimate, so every part we quote matches the fireplace it goes into.

• The maker's name on the label or the firebox
• A model or serial number
• The owner manual, if it came with the house
• Invoices from any earlier repair

Unvented gas logs and factory-built fireplaces

An unvented gas log set releases its combustion products into the room rather than up a chimney. The Florida Building Code keeps unvented gas log heaters out of factory-built fireplaces, except where that fireplace system was tested, listed and labeled to take one.

When unvented logs turn up in a factory-built unit, our technicians check the label and the manual for that permission. If it is not there, we explain the rule and do not service the logs in that fireplace. Gas log work and venting questions belong to our gas fireplace repair service, which picks up from there.

If the fireplace was built for wood and the logs came with the house, the written finding helps you choose between going back to wood and a listed gas option. Our crew in Riverside Acres writes that finding on the estimate.

Handles and linkage you work from the room

A masonry fireplace needs a ferrous metal damper, set in the fireplace or the chimney above it, that can be operated from the room with the fireplace, according to the Florida Building Code. A broken handle, a slipped chain or a linkage rod that has come off its pin takes that control away.

Without it, homeowners end up reaching into the throat or lighting fires with the damper wherever it happened to stop. Neither is a good idea. Keep hands out of the throat and leave the fireplace unused until the control works again.

The repair replaces the handle, rod, chain or pins with parts that suit the damper you have, then checks that open and closed are easy to tell apart. If the damper itself has failed, a replacement is written up as its own job. Whenever the damper body is still sound, you keep the damper you have.

Door gaskets and baffles in a wood insert

A wood-burning insert is a closed stove set into the fireplace, and it depends on a tight door. The rope gasket around the door and the glass can wear flat or fray, letting air in where it should not. Many inserts also have a baffle above the fire that guides smoke and heat, and it can crack, warp or slip out of place.

Both are model parts. The gasket size and the baffle material are set by the insert's maker, and the manual shows how they fit. A generic gasket that is too thin, or a baffle cut from other material, changes how the insert burns.

The insert's label tells us the model. We replace the gasket and baffle with the maker's parts and check the door seal before leaving. EPA guidance says to keep the doors closed except when loading or stoking a live fire, and a sound gasket is what makes that work. The model and the parts are written on the estimate as well.