Local fireplace repair for Ponte Vedra Beach homes

Raised hearths and the thinner extension

When the floor of the firebox sits at least 8 inches above the hearth extension, the code allows the extension to be thinner: at least 3/8 inch of approved noncombustible material instead of the 2 inches it otherwise requires. That exception is why a raised hearth can carry a thin stone or tile apron. It does not change how far the extension has to reach. A raised hearth that has been lowered, or a room where new flooring has built up the floor level, can take the fireplace out of the exception, so we measure the height as it stands today.

The cold start

A flue full of cool air resists the first smoke of a fire, and a chimney on an outside wall can hold air cooler than the room. Until the flue warms, smoke can spill out the front, then clear once the draft is established. That pattern, smoke for the first few minutes and none after, is a cold start rather than a defect. Warming the flue with a little rolled newspaper held under the open damper before lighting, and building the fire toward the back of the firebox, can settle it. If the smoke keeps coming after the flue is hot, the cause is something else, and we keep looking.

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.