Fireplace Installation and Remodels in Eagle Mountain

Replacing the unit the builder chose

Production builders specify to a budget, and the fireplace is one of the places the budget shows. A lot of Eagle Mountain homes have a large open-fronted firebox that looks impressive and heats almost nothing, because most of the warm air it makes goes straight up the flue along with air the furnace already paid to heat. Dropping a sealed insert into that opening changes the arithmetic completely. The insert draws its combustion air from outside through a coaxial vent, so it stops using room air, and it puts its heat into the room instead of the roof. In most cases the existing chase can carry the new venting, which keeps the work inside one room and one visit.

Basements, which is where the second fireplace goes

Houses here were built with room to grow, and a large share of them have basements that were framed and left. When one gets finished, a fireplace is usually on the list. This is the easiest time to do it. The framing is open, the vent route can be planned before the drywall goes on, and a direct-vent unit can terminate through a rim joist or a sidewall rather than climbing three stories. What we need to establish first is the vent path and the termination location, because manufacturers publish minimum clearances from a termination to windows, doors, soffits, gas meters and the ground, and those clearances are not negotiable. On a walkout basement they are usually easy. On a buried foundation wall with window wells nearby, they take planning.

What a remodel actually involves

Most of the hearth remodels we do here are cosmetic on the surface and structural just behind it: taking off a dated marble or tile surround, correcting the framing and the mantel height, and refacing in stone, tile or plaster. The one thing that cannot be waved through is the clearance from the firebox opening to combustible material, and mantel depth and height sit right in the middle of that. A deep timber mantel set too low over a firebox is a slow ignition problem, and it is one of the more common things we ask homeowners to change in a design they have already fallen in love with.

Wind and the termination, again

This is an open, exposed part of the valley. When we choose a termination point for a new install we take that seriously, because a termination tucked into a windward corner or under a deep soffit will give you nuisance shutdowns for years. Getting it in the right place at install time costs nothing. Moving it afterwards means opening a wall.

How we quote

We look at the space, establish what venting is genuinely possible, and price the work with the parts named. Licensed and insured, one crew from framing through to the last piece of stone.