Smoke chamber repair in Avondale, troweled smooth

Open joints, flaking parge or loose brick in the chamber, fixed by local Avondale specialists and backed by our guarantee.

Fully licensed and insured
Locally owned
Family owned and operated
Same-day service

Call (904) 920-5495 Free Inspection

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Get a quote for chimney and fireplace repair and installation in Jacksonville.

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(904) 920-5495 Free Inspection

Smoke chamber specialists for Avondale fireplaces

Locally owned in Jacksonville
Family owned and operated
100% satisfaction guaranteed
Free inspection and estimate
Same-day service available
10% off any service

We tell you when the chamber is not the cause and the flue or the house is.

Free inspection and estimateWe look above the damper in your Avondale fireplace, measure the chamber and write down what we find at no cost.
Upfront pricing, no hidden feesCleaning, resets, parging and cure time are priced line by line before the first trowel goes in.
Family owned and operatedA family-owned local crew does the reaching and troweling through the throat, and cleans up after itself.

Call (904) 920-5495 Free Inspection

Shiny black glaze on the chamber walls

A hard, glossy black coating on the smoke chamber is glazed deposit, built up from cool, smoky fires. Brushes skate over it, and refractory mortar does not bond to it. Parging over glaze leaves a coat that can let go in sheets. Glaze also hides the condition of the brick underneath it.

In Avondale, we remove the glaze from the chamber first, by the method the deposit calls for, and write that step on the estimate as its own line. Then the walls get their parge coat on clean masonry. Call (904) 920-5495 for the free inspection.

Avondale does not reach the coast. Avondale is a neighborhood inside Jacksonville city limits.

Smoke chamber work we take on in Avondale

Loose chamber units reset in refractory mortar
Flaking parge coats removed and redone
Glaze removed before any new coat
Your Avondale fireplace protected while we work above it

Call (904) 920-5495 Free Inspection

From the first look above the damper to the first fire in Avondale

Tell us what the fireplace does
Spilling smoke, a stale smell or grit on the damper plate tells us what to bring to the free visit.
Chamber measured and mapped
Height, width and wall slopes are measured, and each wall, the shelf and the flue transition are checked.
Cleaned, reset, parged
Soot and glaze come off, loose units are reset, joints filled, then refractory mortar goes on in layers.
Cured and draft tested
The product cures as its data sheet directs, then a small fire shows how the fireplace draws.

What wears a smoke chamber in Avondale

Avondale is inland, so the chamber's troubles come from inside the chimney rather than from sea air: heat, acidic condensate from smoke, and water that gets down an open flue.

Repairs in Avondale follow those causes, with the water stopped and the surface rebuilt in refractory mortar.

10% off any service booked within 72 hours of inspection

For your Avondale fireplace, the chamber repair and the discount sit on separate estimate lines.

Call (904) 920-5495 Free Inspection

What the smoke shelf is for

Behind the damper, at the foot of the chamber, sits a level masonry ledge called the smoke shelf. Cold air sliding down the back of the flue hits it and turns upward, joining the rising smoke instead of pushing it out of the opening. It also catches debris that falls down the chimney.

A shelf repair clears the debris, fills its cracks and gaps, and leaves a firm top that drains toward the firebox. A shelf that holds water, or one that is cracked through, lets moisture into the masonry below the chamber. A shelf buried under fallen debris can do neither job, which is why clearing it comes before anything else.

Open joints in the chamber walls

Heat, acidic condensate and water wear mortar out of chamber joints, leaving gaps between the bricks. Those gaps lead into the body of the chimney, where heat and smoke were never meant to go, and they hold deposits a brush cannot reach.

We rake out loose material and fill each open joint with refractory mortar before any parging goes on. Filled joints under a smooth coat are what keep the chamber sealed; a coat stretched over hollow joints cracks along them. Filling them also stops the joints from carrying heat into the masonry behind the chamber.

Checking the draft after the repair

A smoke chamber repair is judged by how the fireplace draws. Once the cure allows, a small test fire, or smoke held at the opening, shows whether smoke now rises cleanly through the throat.

If smoke still spills, the chamber was not the only cause, and the estimate already said what else we saw, such as an undersized flue or a house that draws air down the chimney. We write down the result of the test either way. The test shows you as well as us that the fireplace now draws the way it should.