Hi all,
I bought a 100-year-old Florida house about two years ago. The previous owner did a pretty much complete restoration . Unfortunately, a lot of the work she did herself and her standards of quality are, I’ve since found, much less than mine.
Today though, I took the mantel off the original fireplace, and a cover that hid the firebox. The previous owner covered the firebox because she said it was too expensive at the time to bring the flue and everything else up to code. Anyway, I wanted to change the mantel she installed and look at the possibility of putting in a gas log . However, as you can see from the attached pictures, I found the fireplace in appalling conditions. Yes, those are pieces of wood holding up the bottom courses of bricks.
I rumaged around and found a picture pre-renovation. It turns out the original fireplace had a brick mantel – the previous owner had demolished it, and, from the looks of it, weakened the firebox and possibly the chimney. Much of the chimney is exposed on the second and third floor and it is in good condition, so the damage seems confined to the first floor.
Ok, I’m looking for comments and suggestions here. I am planning on having a Mason come and look at it, but I’d like some other opinions. Is it remotely resonable to repair this, or will the whole thing have to come down? I know this isn’t a legal forum, but do you think I’d have any recourse against the previous owner as she is the one who did the damage (and obviously did not disclose it to me)? Any other comments would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Andy
Replies
Fireplaces are ugly when the the mantle is removed. I have seen a lot worst situations where the firebrick is falling out. I looks like someone trid to patch and repair. Since your not in eathquake country the repair are more cosmetic than structural. If the fireplace is rebuilt by a real chimney guy, it should be good for another 100 years.
The wood looks like it was place under the metal ledger, if the ends are supported by bricks and there is a metal ledger, it should not fall.
I see no court case, if it was blocked off the previous owner never implied it will work. Build a fire now, it will work (if you put a glass fireplace door), but it looks like crap.
Replaceall the firebrick, grout between the firebrick and chimney bricks, install a new legder, install a new mantel/Face and you will have a fireplace that's better than it ever was originally. Cuz you may find the chimney was never grouted, no steel and todays motar is stronger.
By the way, if you dont use a fireplace glass door, it will suck all the warm air out of you house.
Thanks for the reply. Your opinion is conforting! Right now, there is no metal ledger, or anything under the bricks at the upper opening of the firebox, so that would have to be installed. I can do most of the mortar work myself - I repointed the chimney above the roofline, and I've laid CMU's before, but I'm worried about structural issues and have never worked with a fireplace.
Thankfully I don't live in earthquake country, only hurricane country!
Andy
You are going to keep that wondeful blue paneling, right? What happened to the original paneling...is it under the blue?
Whenever you are asked if you can do a job, tell'em "Certainly, I can!" Then get busy and find out how to do it. T. Roosevelt
Yeah, the blue stays :)
No, that's new beadboard the previous owner put in. She tore out the old paneling and the drop ceiling. Unfortunately, she also ditched the original heart pine trim :(
I'm not up-to-date on codes, but from what I remember I think there are some real issues there. Does the chimney have flue tiles in good shape? If not, they're gonna need to be installed. I think current code requires fire clay be used. btw the tiles. The framing looks too close for 4" chimney wall width. Think that typically needs to have a 2" airspace to framing. 8" wall width I think can be butt up against it. Looks like a stove opening above - that needs to be sealed up.
From the pics it doesn't look like there's room for a real smokebox (the area btw the firebox and the first flue tile). Looks to me like only about 7c above the opening. Now, the firebox is narrow and deep, so you might be able to get away with that from a draw standpoint, but I'd bet the bricklayer's gonna say something about that also. I would not want the current setup you have. Is there a damper? Not even sure they're required by code, but I wouldn't have a fireplace without one.
The bricklayer's gonna be able to help you more than I can from these pics, but I don't think it's a "point 'em up and fire it up" job.
Thanks, that's good info. I'm going out of town next week, so I'll get a Mason after that. Hope I can find a good one in my area - Brick masonry, especially fireplaces, are uncommon in my area of Florida.
There are no flue tiles in the chimney, it's all just brick. I don't think there's enough room to put tiles in, andy the chimney actually makes a bend in the attic to meet the roof peak. It's pretty small too. I was hoping a SS duct would be sufficient for a gas fireplace, but I'm not sure about the code for that.
The box itself is about 31" wide, 31" tall and 19" deep at the base. The back slopes in toward the front, kinda like a rumsford.
Yeah, there is a stove opening/cleanout, which will be sealed - there are also cleanouts (I'm guessing that's what they are) in the second floor and attic. It definitely doesn't meet the airspace requirement, as a lot of the original framing sits right on the masonry.
There's no damper currently, but one will be installed.
Also, I don't intend to bring this back to be able to burn wood fires - mainly because it would probably have to be completely rebuilt. I just want to be able to put in a nice gas log. Fortunately, there is a vent on the bottom of the firebox for fresh air.
Thanks a lot for your advice!
Andy
Much as I hate to say it, I agree that gas is your only option to avoid tearing the whole thing down. And I know next to nothing about gas inserts.
The last 5 years I was doing this (bricklaying) I was in Gainesville. A guy I worked with for a little while was from ME and we got a lot of the fireplace work in the area. Tried looking him up in Yahoo but couldn't find him in either the white or the yellow pages, in case you were close.
Good luck.
Rick
If it were me........I'd rip out the entire fireplace cause its really ugly IMO.....but whatta I know?
If yer lookin' at a gas log I spose there won't be much heat so why not fabricate a mantle atop a wood facing over the brick?
Be a fireplace in florida
andy
My life is my passion!
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Yeah, it is real ugly. I don't know how I'd rip it out without taking 3 1/2 stories of chimney with it though. I have a decent mantel that will fit the opening - I'm just looking to stabilize the parts that need it, put some new fire brick or tile on the surround, and whatever else I need for a gas log. That should make it look good - I'm just ignorant of the safety issues with a gas log in this thing.
Thanks a lot for you comments!
Andy
From the original photo it looks like the thing never drew right in the rist place - checck out the smoke stains above the firboxe opeing.
And what the heck is that round terra cottat tile doing sticking out in the middle of the lintel?
I'm with AndyC, tear the whole thing out and go with a good installation of a gas log setup.
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