Guthrie fireplace repair
Fireplace Repair? For Safety’s Sake, You Might Need a Fireplace Replacement
Many things can occur during erection of a Guthrie home – not all welcome.
A new Guthrie residence has many working parts. Some need very exacting installations to function safely and efficiently. Home builders, while good at many things, are often not experts in the precise installations of every mechanical element.
Enclosed fireplaces are often one. While desired for their comforting ambiance and effective space heating, wrong installation of fireplace inserts can create risks that threaten life and home: carbon monoxide escaping. Smoke backup. Live embers flying onto outside surfaces.
Safety concerns with a fireplace insert are often discovered during a fireplace inspection and cleaning in Guthrie. Periodically a fireplace repair is not feasible. If the fireplace is compromised, a total fireplace replacement is necessitated.
Regular fireplace inspections are always wise, for both safety and operational efficiency. Hiring a professional service such as Butler Chimneys, your fireplace and chimney inspection company in Guthrie, ensures that a fireplace is functioning correctly and your family protected.
Safety concerns can be found with both gas and wood-burning fireplaces. More often than not, the reason is incorrect installation. Often a problem isn’t obvious from outside the fireplace – a closer check inside, by a trained eye, identifies 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 infamous for generating problems such as smoke backup, or exhaust not drafting correctly. If a fireplace sparks a house fire, insurance coverage could be turned down if substitute aftermarket parts were involved.
Often, though, conditions require a complete fireplace replacement. A box with rust is immediately flagged as unsafe. If a fan stops operating, replacement is not an option. A degraded refractory panel has to be replaced.
In these examples, the entire fireplace system should be taken out, along with the surrounding façade. It’s a multi-day undertaking for professionals such as Butler Chimneys. The project creates an opportunity, though, for a homeowner to pursue improvements they might have already thought about.
Many grab the opportunity to change over from wood burning to gas. Though lacking the heat production of wood, gas is far more user friendly (and less labor intensive) as fuel.
Others might opt for an open wood-burning fireplace, rather than enclosed. While a net minus for warmth, this design has old-fashioned aesthetics that many find comforting. An open fireplace is far less costly, too – typically one-third the cost of a replacement insert.
The façade surrounding the fireplace can be totally reworked, as well. Tile, stone or brick veneer, or composite wood are popular selections. 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 Guthrie homes for many reasons. Realistically, these benefits entail potential hazards that shouldn’t be neglected. 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 properly the first time, doesn’t mean you have to co-exist with its risks.