Local fireplace repair in Green Cove Springs

A lintel that is pushing the brick

The masonry above a fireplace opening sits on a lintel, which the code requires to be noncombustible, with at least 4 inches of bearing at each end. Where that lintel is a steel angle, rust is its weakness. Steel grows as it rusts, and a rusting angle can lift or crack the brick it carries, which shows as a horizontal crack just above the opening or a course of brick that has bowed. Surface rust that has not moved the brick is cleaned and protected.

An angle that has lost metal or already cracked the face needs the brick above it taken down, a new angle set with full bearing at each end, and the brick relaid. We tell you which, with what we measured.

An outside air inlet that no longer opens

Factory-built fireplaces with an outside air kit have a duct from an exterior inlet to a small damper near the firebox. The outside end is screened, and the code calls for corrosion-resistant mesh with openings no larger than a quarter inch. Lint, leaves and insects can close the screen, and the inside damper can stick shut. Either way the fire goes back to feeding on room air, which is what the kit was installed to prevent. We open the control, check that air actually moves at the firebox end, and clean or replace the screen and damper parts from the maker's list.

Screens that keep sparks on the hearth

A wood fire throws sparks, and the screen across the opening is what keeps them off the floor. Mesh curtains sag, tear or come off their rods, and on a factory-built unit the screen is a listed part replaced with the maker's own. We check that the screen closes fully across the opening without gaps at the sides or the bottom, that its rods and pulls work, and that nothing combustible is kept close to the hearth where a spark could land. A torn or missing screen is a small line on the estimate, but it is a safety line, and it goes near the top.