River Hills fireplace repair

Fireplace Repair? For Safety’s Sake, You Could Need a Fireplace Replacement

Many things can happen during erection of a River Hills house – not all desirable.

A new River Hills home has many working components. Some require very exacting installations to function safely and properly. House builders, while skilled at many things, are hardly ever experts in the detailed installations of every mechanical part.

Enclosed fireplaces are one example. While desired for their cheery ambiance and effective space heating, wrong installation of fireplace inserts can cause risks that threaten life and home: carbon monoxide escaping. Smoke backup. Live embers leaping onto outside surfaces.

Safety problems with a fireplace insert are often discovered during a fireplace inspection and cleaning in River Hills. Periodically a fireplace repair is not feasible. If the fireplace is compromised, a complete fireplace replacement is necessitated.

Recurring fireplace inspections are always advisable, for both safety and operational efficiency. Hiring an expert such as Butler Chimneys, your fireplace and chimney inspection company in River Hills, ensures that a fireplace is operating properly and your loved ones safeguarded.

Safety concerns can be found with both gas and wood-burning fireplaces. More often than not, the reason is incorrect installation. Usually a problem isn’t viewable from outside the fireplace – a closer look inside, by a trained eye, discovers a compromised joint, section or non-working part.

If a part can be replaced, it must be substituted with the duplicate manufacturer’s part. Aftermarket parts are notorious for causing issues such as smoke backup, or exhaust not drafting properly. If a fireplace ignites a house fire, insurance benefits could be denied if substitute aftermarket parts were used.

Often, though, conditions mandate a total fireplace replacement. A box with rust is immediately verified as unsafe. If a fan stops functioning, replacement is not an option. A degraded refractory panel has to be replaced.

In these cases, the entire fireplace system should be removed, along with the nearby façade. It’s a multi-day process for professionals such as Butler Chimneys. The work creates an opportunity, though, for a homeowner to institute improvements they might have already thought about.

Many seize the moment to transition from wood burning to gas. Though without the heat generation of wood, gas is far more convenient (and less labor intensive) as fuel.

Others might select an open wood-burning fireplace, rather than enclosed. While a net minus for warmth, this design has traditional aesthetics that many find comforting. An open fireplace is far less pricey, too – usually one-third the cost of a replacement insert.

The façade buttressing the fireplace can be majorly redesigned, as well. Tile, stone or brick veneer, or composite wood are popular choices. The hearth might be reimagined in limestone, tile, brick or stone. The mantle can be reworked to resemble steel or wood.

Fireplaces are a desirable feature in River Hills homes for many reasons. Realistically, these benefits involve potential hazards that shouldn’t be ignored. So don’t – contact Butler Chimneys for fireplace and chimney inspection and cleaning and, if needed, changing a fireplace insert. Just because work wasn’t done correctly initially, doesn’t mean you have to co-exist with its risks.