New Fireplaces and Hearth Remodels in Provo

Start with what the opening can carry

What can be done with a hearth depends far less on taste than on what sits behind the tile. The size and condition of the existing flue, whether the chimney is masonry or a framed metal chase, how much clearance there is to structural timber, and whether gas has ever been run to that wall between them decide which of the options below are even available. We work that out on the first visit, because designing around a plan the chimney cannot support wastes everybody's time.

Sealed inserts in old masonry openings

The large open fireboxes in this city's older houses look wonderful and heat almost nothing. A significant share of the warm air they produce leaves up the flue, along with air the furnace already paid to heat. A sealed insert with a properly sized liner running the full height of the chimney changes that completely. The masonry stays, the mantel stays, the proportions of the opening stay, and the fireplace stops being a hole in the wall every January.

Rooms that never had a hearth

Direct-vent gas has made this straightforward in a way it was not twenty years ago. The unit draws combustion air from outside and pushes exhaust back out through the same coaxial pipe, so it needs no chimney and never competes with the house for air. That matters in better-sealed Provo homes where a conventional open fireplace would struggle to draft at all. What it does need is an exterior wall or a legitimate vertical route, and a termination point that will not dump exhaust across a walkway, under a soffit, or beside a window that gets opened.

Choosing the fuel honestly

Wood gives the best heat and the most work, and it commits you to a sweep every year. Gas is the one households actually use on a Tuesday evening, and with a standing pilot or battery ignition it still runs when the power is out. Electric is a finish rather than a heat source, and we will say so instead of selling you one as a furnace. If the reason for the project is that a room is cold, that narrows the list very quickly.

The parts of the job that do not photograph well

Hearth extension depth, clearance to combustibles, how the liner connects at the smoke chamber, and how the chase top is finished are what make an installation safe and what make it pass an inspection years later. They are also completely invisible once the stone goes on. We would rather spend an extra half day on those than on the mantel, and we will explain what we did so you can hand it on to the next owner.