Fireplace repair for South Orange homes

Questions worth asking a fireplace repair company

Before anyone works on your fireplace, a few plain questions separate a careful fireplace repair company from a guess.

Clear answers should come without pressure. A company that cannot say what kind of fireplace you have cannot say which rules the repair has to follow, and one that cannot name the failed part is quoting for luck.

Our technicians expect these questions and answer them on site in South Orange. The same answers then appear in the written estimate, so you can set it beside any other quote and compare like with like. If we think a repair is not worth doing, we tell you that too, in writing.

• Which fireplace type is this, and how can you tell?
• Which part failed, and how did you confirm it?
• Are the parts listed for this model, or generic?
• What is included, and what is left out?

Outside air kits and their controls

Some factory-built fireplaces have an outside air kit, a duct that brings combustion air in from outdoors. The Florida Building Code treats that duct as a listed component of the fireplace, installed to the maker's instructions. The Heatilator Accelerator owner manual, as one example, shows the outside air control separately from the flue damper control, and the two do different jobs.

Problems can show up as a control that will not move, a cold draft from the fireplace when it is idle or a duct that has come loose or filled with debris at the outdoor end. Mixing up the two controls is easy, and closing the wrong one can change how the fire burns.

Both controls are checked against the manual for your model. We clear or reconnect the duct where it can be reached and replace a failed part with the maker's kit. On estimates in South Orange, the outside air items sit apart from the rest of the fireplace work.

Wax and sawdust logs belong in open fireplaces

Manufactured firelogs made of wax and sawdust are convenient, but EPA wood-burning guidance says many are made for open-hearth fireplaces only. They should not go into a wood stove or a fireplace insert unless its instructions allow them.

For open fireplaces, EPA advises following the log maker's instructions and burning one log at a time, both for cleaner air and for fire safety. Stacking several at once goes against that advice.

If you have a factory-built fireplace, its manual may give its own guidance on firelogs, and our technicians check it whenever a customer asks. If firelog residue or signs of overheating turn up during a repair, we explain what we saw and add a note for your fireplace to the written record. That note covers the fuel your model is meant to burn.

Refacing a masonry fireplace after the repair

Refacing changes the look of a masonry fireplace with new tile, stone, brick veneer or plaster over the old face. It works well on a sound fireplace and badly on one with hidden damage, because the new face covers cracks and loose joints that still need fixing.

Combustible trim and mantels may only sit so close to a masonry opening under the Florida Building Code, and a new face can change those distances. Thick stone can also narrow the opening or cover part of the hearth extension, which changes the measurements the code cares about.

Our crew repairs the fireplace first, then checks the refacing plan against those distances and the hearth extension. Whoever builds the new face then starts from a sound fireplace and a written list of the limits for your South Orange home.