Local fireplace repair in Middleburg

A rough smoke chamber above the damper

Above the damper, the smoke chamber narrows from the width of the firebox to the size of the flue. The code calls for its walls to be parged smooth with refractory mortar and limits how steeply they can lean: 45 degrees from vertical for prefabricated linings or rolled walls, and 30 degrees for corbeled masonry. A chamber left as stepped, unparged brick catches smoke and slows it on the way up. When a smoke test points past the damper, we look at the chamber with a light from below, and parging it smooth is priced as smoke chamber repair, separate from the firebox work.

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.

Loose tile at the front edge of the hearth

The front edge of the hearth extension takes the heat of the fire and the traffic of the room, and tile there can loosen when the adhesive under it was not meant for the heat. A hollow sound when you tap the tile is the sign. The repair lifts the loose pieces, removes the old adhesive down to a clean noncombustible base, and resets the tile in a setting material rated for the temperature at that spot. Matching an older tile can be the hard part, so you know whether we are resetting your original pieces or need replacements.