Our Process
Venting work for Bertha gas fireplaces
What a Type B vent is for
Type B gas vent is made for listed Category I gas appliances with draft hoods. DuraVent's Type B instructions list gas fireplaces among the appliances that use it and say it must not vent Category II, III or IV appliances, oil-fired or wood-burning appliances. Florida's fuel gas code requires vents to be listed and labeled, with Type B vents listed to UL 441.
If your Bertha fireplace is a natural vent model, our team confirms from its manual that Type B is the specified vent and that the pipe installed is the listed product it names.
Venting through block or brick walls
A wall built only of noncombustible material changes the opening around a termination. DuraVent's instructions allow a hole with zero clearance to the vent pipe through a wall of masonry block, brick or concrete only, and only where the appliance maker allows it. A wall with any wood framing needs the specified framed opening and clearance.
A wall that looks solid from outside can have framing behind it. Our team checks what the wall at your Bertha home is made of before cutting or resizing an opening.
If you smell gas near the fireplace
A gas smell is an emergency before it is anything else. Leave the house and call your gas utility or 911 from outside. Appliance safety instructions add that no appliance should be lit, no electrical switch touched and no phone used inside the building.
Once the utility or responders have made the home safe, our team can inspect the venting and the fireplace connection in Bertha and explain what we find. Vent work is planned only after that.
Roof flashing and storm collar on a B-vent
Where a B-vent passes through the roof, the Type B instructions call for a hole giving a 1 inch air space, a roof flashing fitted tightly to the roof with shingles overlapping its top edge, non-hardening sealant at the flashing base and at the pipe joint, and a storm collar over that joint for a watertight seal.
Water staining on the ceiling near a vent pipe can point to that flashing or collar. Our team checks the roof penetration for the B-vent serving your Bertha fireplace and reseals or replaces the flashing and collar where needed.
