American Fork · Utah County
Fireplace Installation and Remodels in American Fork
Before choosing an appliance, answer one question honestly: is this fireplace supposed to heat the room, or is it supposed to look like a fire? The right box is different for each.
An open masonry fireplace is a poor heater. It looks wonderful and it sends most of the energy up the flue along with a good deal of the air you paid to warm. That is not a defect; it is what an open fire is. If you want heat, the answer is a closed appliance, and in American Fork that usually means putting one into a fireplace you already have.
Retrofitting an insert into an older masonry opening
The downtown housing stock gives us plenty of large old fireboxes with large old flues, and both of those are advantages for a retrofit. There is room for a substantial insert, and there is room for the liner it needs.
That liner is the part people try to skip. A modern insert produces cooler exhaust than an open fire, and if it exhausts into an original flue several times its own cross-section, that exhaust slows, cools and condenses on the way up. The result is rapid creosote in a wood insert and, in a gas one, moisture and corrosion. A correctly sized stainless liner running the full height, connected directly to the appliance and insulated where required, is not an upsell. It is the installation. Where the original flue is unlined brick, the liner is doing double duty as the containment the chimney never had.
New installations and relocations
On the newer side of town, and in remodels that move a fireplace to a different wall, the constraints are clearances, framing and the route the vent takes. Direct-vent gas gives the most freedom because it can terminate through a sidewall, which opens up walls a chimney could never reach. Wood needs a vertical run and needs to terminate at the proper height above the roof, which shapes where it can go.
Remodeling the surround
Plenty of jobs here are finish work: an inherited 1990s brass-and-marble hearth brought up to date with new facing, a rebuilt mantel and a hearth extension in proportion to the room. The one rule that never bends is the clearance from the appliance opening to combustible mantel and trim, which comes off the appliance label. We tell you those numbers before a design is drawn rather than after it is priced.
What happens on the first visit
We measure the opening, look up the flue, and establish what the chimney can support before recommending an appliance. Choosing the unit first and discovering the flue afterwards is how installations go over budget.
Questions
Installation in American Fork — common questions
Do we really need a new liner if the chimney is already lined?
For a wood or gas insert, almost always yes. An existing clay flue built for an open fireplace is far larger in cross-section than an insert needs, and oversized flues let exhaust cool and condense. A correctly sized stainless liner connected straight to the appliance is what makes the installation work as intended, and most manufacturers require it.
Can a gas fireplace go on a wall with no chimney?
Yes, if it is a direct-vent unit. Those draw combustion air in and exhaust out through a coaxial terminal that can pass through an exterior wall, so they open up locations a masonry chimney could never serve. The wall still has to be an exterior one and the terminal has to keep its clearances from windows, doors and soffits.
We want to keep the original fireplace look but make it usable. Is that possible?
Often it is. In older American Fork homes we can frequently keep the visible masonry, correct what is behind and above it, and line the flue, leaving the room looking as it did. Whether the existing firebox can stay depends on the condition of the firebrick and the smoke chamber, which we check before committing to it.
How long does an installation take?
The work itself is usually a day or two once everything is on site. What sets the schedule is appliance lead time and whether any chimney repair has to happen first. We would rather sequence the repair before the install than fit a good appliance to a chimney that needs work.
Also in American Fork
Our other services here
Chimney Sweep Inspection Chimney Repair Fireplace Repair Gas Fireplace Caps & Dampers Dryer Vents All American Fork services
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