Fireplace restoration for Julington Creek Plantation homes

Family-owned fireplace specialists check your Julington Creek Plantation fireplace free and write down every part from the hearth to the flue.

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

Call (904) 920-5495 Free Inspection

Get Your Free Inspection

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

Quicker by phone? Call (904) 920-5495

Call our chimney crew

(904) 920-5495 Free Inspection

Fireplace restoration experts for Julington Creek Plantation 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 room is protected and the rinse water caught, so only the fireplace changes.

Family owned and operatedA family business plans your Julington Creek Plantation 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

Matching the old joint profile

The shape of the mortar joint, whether flush, concave, raked or beaded, is part of how an old fireplace looks. A repair tooled with a different profile stands out even when the color is right, because the light falls on it differently.

We look at the surviving joints, copy their profile and tool the new mortar at the right stage of hardening so it keeps both the shape and the color. The profile is noted on the estimate. Want repairs that disappear into the old work on your Julington Creek Plantation fireplace? Call us at (904) 920-5495.

Julington Creek Plantation lies within St. Johns County. Julington Creek Plantation is inland.

What fireplace restoration covers in Julington Creek Plantation

Open firebox joints and cracked firebrick redone on the heat side
Mismatched old patches cut out and redone
Efflorescence identified and its water source found
Rooms protected while the work is done

Call (904) 920-5495 Free Inspection

Clean, repair, repoint, finish

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.

Efflorescence on an inland fireplace

White bloom on fireplace brick in Julington Creek Plantation means water has been moving through the masonry, carrying salts from inside it.

We identify the deposit and look for the water source before cleaning it off.

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

What restoration keeps and what it leaves out

Restoration puts a fireplace back in working order with the materials, size and shape it was built with. The opening keeps its proportions, the face stays brick or stone, and new mortar follows the old joints. A new facing, a different surround or a new mantel design would be remodeling, which changes the look and is a different kind of job.

Keeping that line clear keeps the estimate honest. Every line on it either repairs something that exists or cleans something that exists, and nothing adds a new look. Where a part cannot be saved, the replacement is matched to what was there, and the estimate says so.

Hand tools on old joints

Hand chisels and a small hammer are the traditional way to take out old mortar, and the National Park Service guidance calls them the least damaging method for historic masonry. Power saws and grinders are faster, but on thin brick joints they tend to chip the brick edges and overcut the vertical joints.

Chipped edges make a joint look wider than it was, and no amount of careful mortar hides that afterward. On an old fireplace face we cut by hand, and any power tool is limited to places where it cannot touch the brick edges. It takes longer, and the estimate reflects that honestly.

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.

Safety work and face work on one page

Safety repairs listed apart from appearance work
Smoke chamber parged smooth where parging is missing
Face joints raked out by hand to a depth set by their width
Face mortar matched in sand, color and profile, softer than the brick

Fireplace restoration questions from Julington Creek Plantation

Will all the soot come off?

That depends on the brick and how long the stain has been there. We clean a small trial patch first and show you the result once it is dry.

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.