Local fireplace restoration in Garden City

Brick stays brick in Garden City: the original opening, hearth and pattern kept, with joints matched in color and profile.

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

Fireplace restoration experts for Garden City homes

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

The damper is freed or replaced and checked open and shut before any fire.

Family owned and operatedA family business plans your Garden City 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

Crumbling joints on the face

Mortar falling out of the joints on the room side of a fireplace is a face repair, and it needs a different mortar from the firebox. Face mortar should be softer than the brick around it, so that any future movement cracks the mortar, which is easy to renew, rather than the brick, which is not.

Joints are cut back to sound mortar by hand, filled in thin layers and tooled to match the old profile, with the color coming mostly from the sand. Loose mortar on the face of your Garden City fireplace? Have it checked free at (904) 920-5495.

Garden City is an inland community. Within Jacksonville city limits, Garden City is its own named neighborhood.

Clean, repair, repoint, protect

Flue, smoke chamber and firebox cleaned before assessment
Smoke chamber parging restored
Face joints repointed to match the original
Worn or damaged face brick replaced with matched units

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How our restoration pros bring back a fireplace in Garden City

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.

Rain down an unused flue in Garden City

Storms of the hurricane season, June through November, reach well inland. In a fireplace left unused, rain down the flue can stain the face and wet the firebox without anyone noticing.

We trace water marks to their source during restoration.

10% off any service booked within 72 hours of inspection

The restoration comes 10% off and carries our 100% satisfaction guarantee like any job.

Call (904) 920-5495 Free Inspection

How deep old face mortar comes out

Before repointing, old mortar is removed to sound material. The National Park Service guidance sets a minimum depth of 2 to 2 1/2 times the width of the joint, which for most brick joints means about half an inch to an inch, and any loose mortar beyond that also comes out.

A shallow cut leaves the new mortar clinging to a thin ledge, and it pops out. We measure joint widths first and cut to the depth they call for, leaving square corners at the back of the cut giving the new mortar a solid back to hold. The depth is checked along each joint before filling starts.

New mortar next to old

Even a well-matched mortar looks different at first. The National Park Service guidance expects a visible difference between new and old mortar when the work is fresh, and advises against staining new mortar to force a match in most cases.

The difference narrows as the new mortar cures and weathers, and indoors it also takes on some of the room's tone over time. We tell you this before the face work starts, so a fresh joint that looks a shade lighter on the first day is expected, not a surprise. The mortar sample you approved is the target it grows toward.

Cleaning the face after repointing

Fresh face mortar has to harden before it is cleaned. The National Park Service guidance says the mortar should be fully hardened first, with thirty days usually sufficient, and that the masonry should be soaked with water before any chemical cleaner and flushed afterward.

So on a restoration, the final cleaning of the face waits for the new joints. We schedule that visit on the estimate, a month or so after the repointing, and the fireplace can be used for fires in between once the heat-side repairs have dried. The final visit also checks the new joints for any hairline cracking.

Cleaned and checked in Garden City before a plan is priced

Deep joints filled in thin layers and tooled at thumbprint hardness
Mantel and trim distances from the opening measured
Hearth extension size and condition noted separately
Order of work and drying times written on the estimate

Before an old fireplace is brought back

Can you restore an old fireplace in Garden City without changing how it looks?

Yes. Restoration keeps the original brick or stone, the size of the opening and the joint pattern. Changing the facing or surround is remodeling, which we do not do.

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.