Your fireplace repair team in University

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 University, the outside air items sit apart from the rest of the fireplace work.

New stone or tile around a factory-built opening

Refacing a factory-built fireplace looks like a finish job, but the manual decides much of it. A model's manual can set which materials may cover the face, how close they may come to the opening and whether anything may overlap the unit's front edge. Those limits are part of the listing the Florida Building Code requires the unit to keep.

Before new stone, tile or a mantel goes up, our crew checks the plan against the manual for your model. We confirm what has to stay exposed, which grilles must stay open and how far the hearth extension has to reach.

You get those limits in writing before any finish work starts, so the new face can be planned around them.

• Distance from the opening to any combustible trim
• Grilles and air slots left uncovered
• Face materials the manual permits
• Hearth extension size under the new floor

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

Fireplaces in rental and second homes

A fireplace in a rental or second home is used by people who do not know it. Guests may build larger fires, burn whatever is handy and leave the damper open or closed at the wrong time, and damage can sit unnoticed between stays.

Owners and property managers usually want a working fireplace, clear rules for guests and a record of what was done. Our crew in University works with owners and managers directly, including access arrangements when the owner is away.

Repairs are timed around bookings where possible, and anything that makes the fireplace unsafe to use is flagged in writing right away so it can be closed to guests until it is fixed.

• A written record after each visit
• Screens and doors that close properly
• A short fuel and ash note for guests
• Repairs scheduled between stays