Family-run fireplace restoration in Lakeside

Local restoration pros bring an old fireplace in Lakeside back to safe use without changing how it looks. The inspection is free.

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

Call (904) 920-5495 Free Inspection

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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

The room is protected and the rinse water caught, so only the fireplace changes.

Family owned and operatedA family business plans your Lakeside 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

White powder on the brick

A white, powdery bloom on fireplace brick is often efflorescence: salts that water brings out of the masonry and leaves behind on the surface as it dries. It is usually harmless in itself, but it shows that water has been moving through that brick, and brick can show other white stains too.

We identify the deposit before choosing how to clean it and look for where the water came from, since lime run and scum need a different approach. White marks on the fireplace in your Lakeside home? Call (904) 920-5495.

Lakeside lies within Clay County. Census takers counted 31,275 people in Lakeside in 2020.

Clean, repair, repoint, protect

Flue, smoke chamber and firebox cleaned before assessment
Stone fireplace faces cleaned and repointed
Rooms protected while the work is done
Drying times and the first fire date for your Lakeside home

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.

Mantels added over the years in Lakeside

Old fireplaces in Lakeside can carry mantels and trim added long after they were built, sometimes too close to the opening.

Restoration measures every piece against the code's distances.

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

Heat-side repairs use refractory materials

Inside the firebox and the smoke chamber, the building code sets the materials. Firebrick goes into C199 medium-duty refractory mortar, the class R1001.5 names, and firebox joints stay at a quarter inch or less.

The same mortar class is required for smoke chamber parging. Restoration uses those materials on the heat side even where the original builder did not, because they are what hold up to the fire. The ordinary mortars used on the face have no place inside the firebox, and the estimate names the refractory product separately from the face mortar so the two stay apart on site.

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.

Two mortars in one fireplace

A restored fireplace carries two different mortars, and mixing them up causes trouble. The firebox and smoke chamber take medium-duty refractory mortar meeting ASTM C199, as the code requires. The face takes a masonry mortar picked to be softer than the brick, as preservation guidance advises.

Refractory mortar on the face would be harder and look wrong; face mortar inside the firebox would break down in the heat. We keep them apart on site and on the estimate, and the ticket names both products, so anyone working on the fireplace later knows which went where.

Safety work and face work on one page

Firebox joints and firebrick in C199 refractory mortar
Smoke chamber parged smooth where parging is missing
Trial cleaning patch on the face, judged dry
Smoke stains and efflorescence identified before cleaning

Fireplace restoration questions from Lakeside

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.

Will the new mortar match the old?

We match the sand, color and joint profile, and test a sample first. Fresh mortar looks slightly different at first and blends as it cures.