Old fireplace restoration in Green Cove Springs

Firebox, smoke chamber, damper and face, restored as one job in Green Cove Springs 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

Heat-side repairs use refractory mortar; the face gets a softer mortar matched to the brick.

Family owned and operatedA family business plans your Green Cove Springs 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

Why cleaning comes before the estimate

Soot and loose debris hide cracks, open joints and missing parging. An estimate written over a dirty firebox guesses at what is underneath, and restoration jobs that start on a guess tend to grow halfway through, which is the complaint people bring to us from earlier attempts.

Our condition list is written after cleaning, from what we actually saw with a light and a probe, and it keeps the price steady once the work starts. Want an honest condition list for the fireplace in Green Cove Springs? Start at (904) 920-5495.

At the 2020 Census, Green Cove Springs was home to 9,786 people. Green Cove Springs does not reach the coast.

What fireplace restoration covers in Green Cove Springs

Open firebox joints and cracked firebrick redone on the heat side
Soot-stained faces cleaned after a trial patch
Mismatched old patches cut out and redone
Stone fireplace faces cleaned and repointed

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From first cleaning to first fire in Green Cove Springs

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.

One plan for an old fireplace in Green Cove Springs

Well back from the coast, an old fireplace in Green Cove Springs still needs every part checked: flue, smoke chamber, damper, firebox, lintel, face and hearth.

Restoration puts them on one page in the right order.

10% off any service booked within 72 hours of inspection

Restoration booked within 72 hours of the inspection in Green Cove Springs comes 10% off.

Call (904) 920-5495 Free Inspection

Filling deep joints in layers

Deep joints are not filled in one go. The National Park Service guidance has areas deeper than an inch filled first, then the whole joint built up in layers of about a quarter inch, each pressed into the back corners and left to reach thumbprint hardness before the next goes on.

Most mortar shrinkage happens as it hardens, and thin layers keep that shrinkage from opening a crack at the edge of the joint. It takes longer than packing the joint full, but the finished joint stays tight to the brick on both sides. On a fireplace face, that is what keeps a repair tight for years.

Getting the color from the sand

Most of a mortar's color and texture comes from its sand. The National Park Service guidance on repointing notes that when the sand is matched successfully, the color and texture of the new mortar usually fall into place.

We look at the old mortar broken open, not only its weathered surface, and choose a sand close in color and grain size before adjusting anything else. Tinting new mortar is a last resort. A small sample is mixed and left to cure so you can compare it with the old joints before the face work begins, and the chosen mix is recorded.

The hearth extension on an old fireplace

For a masonry fireplace, today's code wants the hearth extension to run 16 inches into the room and 8 inches past both sides of the opening, rising to 20 and 12 inches once the opening reaches 6 square feet.

Older fireplaces were not all built to those figures. Restoration measures the hearth against them and notes any shortfall, along with cracks or loose edges. Hearth work is priced as its own line, in material matched to the original where it can be found, so you decide on it separately from the rest of the fireplace.

Safety work and face work on one page

Condition of each part, hearth to flue top, written up after cleaning
Safety repairs listed apart from appearance work
Damper freed and rehung, or replaced where rusted through
Floors, mantel and walls protected, rinse water contained

Fireplace restoration questions from Green Cove Springs

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.

How long before we can light a fire?

Once the heat-side repairs have dried for the time on the mortar maker's data sheet. The date is on your ticket, and the face work can continue after that.