Family-run fireplace restoration in Brentwood

Firebox, smoke chamber, damper and face, restored as one job in Brentwood after a free look, with no hidden fees.

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

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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

Local restoration pros who keep the original look

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

Family owned and local, we put the sequence and every waiting period into your Brentwood estimate.

Family owned and operatedA family business plans your Brentwood fireplace as one job, so each step happens once and in the right order.
100% satisfaction guaranteedYou approve the trial patch and the mortar sample before the face is touched, and our guarantee covers the result.

Call (904) 920-5495 Free Inspection

Mortar that does not match

A repair done in the wrong mortar stands out from across the room: too gray, too smooth, joints wider than the rest. It can also be harder than the brick, which pushes cracking and water into the brick itself and defeats the purpose of the joint.

Where earlier patches clash or are too hard, we cut them out by hand and repoint with a mortar matched to the original in color, sand and joint profile, and no harder than the brick it sits between. Mismatched patches on your Brentwood fireplace? Show them to us free; call (904) 920-5495.

Brentwood is a neighborhood inside Jacksonville city limits. Brentwood sits in Duval County.

Clean, repair, repoint, protect

Unused fireplaces brought back to working order
Flue, smoke chamber and firebox cleaned before assessment
Open firebox joints and cracked firebrick redone on the heat side
Rooms protected while the work is done

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From first cleaning to first fire in Brentwood

Clean and assess
Everything from the hearth to the flue top is cleaned, then checked and written up part by part.
Heat side first
Firebox, parging and damper repairs are made in refractory materials and left to dry.
Trial, then the face
A trial patch is cleaned and a mortar sample made for your approval before the face work.
Repoint, cure, clean
Face joints are repointed in layers, left to harden, then the face gets its final cleaning.

Smoke from an old fireplace inland

Inland in Brentwood, a smoky old fireplace is about the damper, the smoke chamber and the air in the house, not the weather.

Restoration fixes the fireplace causes and names the rest.

10% off any service booked within 72 hours of inspection

Restoration earns the discount whether this is your first job with us or not.

Call (904) 920-5495 Free Inspection

Face mortar softer than the brick

On the face of an old fireplace, the mortar should give way before the brick does. Preservation Brief 2 from the National Park Service calls for repointing mortar to be softer than the masonry units, measured in compressive strength, and no harder than the historic mortar it joins.

Harder mortar forces movement and water into the brick, which then cracks or loses its face. So restoration mortar for the face is picked to suit the brick on that particular fireplace, not for convenience, and its type is named on the estimate. The firebox, on the heat side, follows its own refractory rule.

Taking smoke stains off brick

Smoke staining is its own category in the Brick Industry Association's cleaning guidance, which notes that scrubbing with a scouring powder, particularly one containing bleach, and a stiff bristle brush is often effective.

That is mild compared with what people reach for, and it is where we start, after a trial patch. How much comes off depends on how deep the stain has worked into the brick; some faces come up close to new and others only lighten. We tell you after the trial which to expect, rather than pushing harder chemistry at a stain that will not come out.

Mantel and trim near an old opening

Florida's R1001.11 lets an exposed combustible mantel or trim sit on the fireplace front only if it stays 6 inches or more from the opening. Closer than 12 inches, it may project from the face no more than an eighth of an inch per inch of distance.

During restoration we measure every combustible piece near the opening against those figures. Trim that is too close is listed by itself, because it must change before the fireplace is used, and the estimate shows the measurement that put it on the list.

Safety work and face work on one page

Damper freed and rehung, or replaced where rusted through
Face joints raked out by hand to a depth set by their width
Deep joints filled in thin layers and tooled at thumbprint hardness
Lintel checked for rust, sag and bearing

Fireplace restoration questions from Brentwood

Why not use acid on the brick?

Brick industry guidance advises against unbuffered muriatic acid, which can etch mortar, discolor brick and cause new stains on light-colored brick. We use the gentlest method that works in a trial.

Is a restored fireplace inspected at the end?

Yes. We check the firebox, smoke chamber and damper after the work and run through the first fire with you once the materials have dried.