Oakwood fireplace repair
Fireplace Repair? For Safety’s Sake, You Might Need a Fireplace Replacement
Many things can transpire during erection of a Oakwood residence – not all desirable.
A new Oakwood home has multiple working components. Some involve very exacting installations to operate safely and properly. House builders, while good at many things, are often not experts in the precise installations of every mechanical element.
Enclosed fireplaces are a prime example. While enjoyed for their cheery ambiance and effective space heating, wrong installation of fireplace inserts can cause hazards that threaten life and home: carbon monoxide leakage. Smoke backup. Live embers escaping onto outside surfaces.
Safety risks with a fireplace insert are often revealed during a fireplace inspection and cleaning in Oakwood. Sometimes a fireplace repair is not feasible. If the fireplace is compromised, a complete fireplace replacement is necessitated.
Recurring fireplace inspections are always wise, for both safety and operational efficiency. Hiring an expert such as Butler Chimneys, your fireplace and chimney inspection company in Oakwood, ensures that a fireplace is working correctly and your family protected.
Safety concerns can be discovered with both gas and wood-burning fireplaces. More often than not, the culprit is incorrect installation. Often an issue isn’t viewable from outside the fireplace – a closer look inside, by a trained eye, identifies a compromised joint, section or non-working part.
If a part can be replaced, it must be swapped out with the duplicate manufacturer’s part. Aftermarket parts are notorious for generating problems such as smoke backup, or exhaust not drafting properly. If a fireplace ignites a house fire, insurance coverage could be turned down if substitute aftermarket parts were involved.
Often, though, conditions demand a complete fireplace replacement. A box with rust is immediately identified as unsafe. If a fan stops operating, replacement is not a choice. A degraded refractory panel must be replaced.
In these instances, the complete fireplace system should be uninstalled, along with the nearby façade. It’s a multi-day undertaking for professionals such as Butler Chimneys. The work creates a window, though, for a homeowner to institute improvements they might have already considered.
Many use the moment to transition from wood burning to gas. Though without the heat generation of wood, gas is far more user friendly (and less labor intensive) as fuel.
Others might select an open wood-burning fireplace, rather than enclosed. While a net negative for warmth, this design has old-fashioned aesthetics that many find comforting. An open fireplace is far less costly, too – usually one-third the cost of a replacement insert.
The façade buttressing the fireplace can be totally reworked, too. 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 wanted feature in Oakwood homes for a variety of reasons. Realistically, these benefits come with 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 something wasn’t done correctly initially, doesn’t mean you have to co-exist with its risks.