Fireplace Services
Inside a new fireplace installation
The listing or the Florida Building Code sets the rules, and every line of the price is written first.
Firestops at every ceiling and floor
Wherever a factory-built chimney passes through a ceiling or a floor, the manuals we follow call for a firestop spacer. The firestop holds the chimney at its listed clearance and closes the opening between one space and the next.
We install the firestop the chimney maker lists at every penetration and confirm the gap around the pipe before the ceiling is closed. Each one appears in the estimate, so the route is fully accounted for. In a two-story house the chimney may pass through several of them, and each one is checked before the ceiling below is finished.
Carrying the chimney's weight
A factory-built chimney adds weight to the framing that supports it. The Florida Building Code requires those supporting members to be designed for the added load, and one maker asks for the pipe to be supported during construction.
Support points are marked on the plan and the framing under them checked. Supports, straps and braces from the listed system are part of the estimate, never an afterthought. On an upper floor or an older frame, that check can decide whether the fireplace goes on the wall you picked or the one beside it.
Building the chase
An exterior chase encloses the chimney on the outside of the house. One fireplace maker asks for it to be framed like the house walls, with the listed air space around the chimney, a noncombustible chase top and never a single-wall pipe inside.
Our crew frames and sheathes the chase to the manual and fits the chase top from the system. The outside finish can match your walls, and the estimate lists who handles it. Inside the chase, the chimney keeps its listed air space from top to bottom, and insulation stays off the chimney sections as the manual requires.
Airspace around masonry
The Florida Building Code keeps combustible framing away from a masonry fireplace, with at least 2 inches of airspace at the front and sides and 4 inches at the back. That space is left open, apart from the fireblocking the code requires.
We frame the surrounding walls to those distances and check them before the drywall goes up. The airspace is invisible in the finished room and essential behind it. Behind a finished stone or brick face, that gap is the one part nobody sees again, so we check it twice before the face goes on.
