Firebrick and firebox repair across Gainesville

The firebox is the brick box your fire sits in, lined with firebrick made to take direct flame. Heat wears it down: joints open, bricks crack and faces flake onto the hearth. Our local family business repoints and replaces firebrick in refractory mortar, or relines and rebuilds a worn-out firebox, and your free inspection shows which one fits.

• Fireplace firebrick replacement for cracked or thinned bricks
• Fireplace mortar repair with heat-rated refractory mortar
• Cracked firebox repair on the back and side walls
• Firebox rebuild when the walls have bowed or loosened
• Cure timing from the mortar maker before your next fire

1. Let the firebox go cold

   Hold off on fires for a day so our pro can handle and test every wall.

   01

2. Tap and probe each brick

   Hollow-sounding bricks and soft joints get marked on the back, the sides and the floor.

   02

3. Rake, set and repoint

   Soft joints get raked back and packed with refractory mortar, and split or thinned firebrick is swapped for new.

   03

4. Wait out the cure

   The mortar maker's schedule decides when you light a small fire, and you'll have that date.

   04

Our pros match the fix to what failed, beginning with the smallest repair that will last.

Firebrick to ASTM C27 or C1261

Dense refractory brick at least 2 inches thick, the lining the Florida Building Code allows for a masonry firebox.

Refractory mortar to ASTM C199

Medium-duty, heat-rated mortar laid in thin joints. Ordinary masonry mortar doesn't belong here, since it breaks down in the heat.

Solid masonry backing

Brick, grouted block, stone or concrete behind the firebrick wherever a wall is rebuilt, the backing FBC R1001.5 names.

1. 01

   How many bricks have failed

   A few units and some joints is a short job; a worn wall means relining.

2. 02

   Repair or rebuild

   Rebuilding a firebox takes far more time and material than repointing.

3. 03

   Firebox size and shape

   Large or angled fireboxes take more firebrick and more cutting.

4. 04

   Matching the look

   Buff, red or dark firebrick is matched as closely as supply allows.

• The back, side walls and floor of the firebox
• Firebrick repair needs, with each worn unit marked
• Joints between firebricks, probed for gaps and soft mortar
• Fireplace brick repair around the opening's face
• The damper frame and the throat above the firebox
• Signs of water coming down onto the firebox floor

• A crack splitting the rear firebrick

  Heat has split the brick. Our pros tap it, and solid ones can stay for now while any that shift or ring hollow get swapped.

• Gaps where mortar used to be

  Open joints let heat through to the brickwork behind. Our pros clear them out and pack in fresh refractory mortar.

• Flakes of brick in the ashes

  The firebrick faces are wearing thin. Our pros cut out the worn units and set new firebrick.

• A back wall bowing toward the room

  The lining has let go of the wall behind it. Relining that wall or rebuilding the firebox is the fix.

• Fireplace Repair and Service Fireplace faults fixed, from firebrick and dampers to hearths and smoke.
• Fireplace Hearth Repair Cracked, loose or undersized hearths and hearth extensions in front of the fire.
• Chimney Damper Repair and Replacement Dampers that stick, rust, warp or rattle, handles included.
• Prefab and Zero-Clearance Fireplace Repair Panels, metal fireboxes and chimney pipe on factory-built fireplaces.
• Fireplace Restoration Neglected fireplaces brought back to safe, working order and their original look.
• Electric Fireplace Repair Heating, flame and control faults on electric fireplaces and inserts.

• Your fireplace repair bill starts with what it's built from Brick fireplaces and factory-built units break in different ways and get fixed with different materials, which is why their repairs are priced so differently.

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