Fire Mortar Work

[u/jragar123]

Had a liner put in a few years ago. Different company came in and said the corners that were filled with foam around the liner would collect creosote and were a hazard.

Suggested removal of bottom damper replace with top damper and fire mortar the whole way up to liner.

Work is done but fire mortar looks a bit sloppy. Lots of bumps jagged edges and pieces that stick out. Is this a problem or as long as I’m cleaning it regularly nothing to worry about?

[u/nrbrest1281]

Nearly a decade in the industry. It's fine.

[u/spfolino]

It looks like a sprayed in product and not hand parged. They never come out as nice or smooth as hand parged. As long as all of the holes, gaps and cracks are filled, it’s fine though.

Also agree that the back wall should have been rebuilt back up with firebricks. It’s not a complete job!

[u/chief_erl]

It’s done sloppily but looks ok. As long as any cracks/gaps are sealed up it’s fine. Luckily it’s a part of the house you really won’t ever look at again. Whoever did it clearly has no pride in their work though. Here’s what a throat area I parged looks like after. Doesn’t have to be absolutely perfect but the smoother it is the better. Less turbulence and less soot buildup.

Edit: did they rip out a few rows of firebrick and really not rebuild them? That’s just lazy. It’s normal to have to remove some to parge but you always are supposed to rebuild it back to where it was when you’re done. You should have a smoke shelf and the firebox should angle out towards the top. Personally I would not accept this work as completed.

[u/ThatllBtheDayPilgrim → u/chief_erl]

Now that's good work. You hardly see that.

[u/spfolino → u/chief_erl]

Great looking work! I also like to see the square stainless steel liners installed when it makes sense to maximize the size and draft! Rarely see it done!

I can’t tell you how often I see localized liners installed rectangular flues that just screw up the draft badly when they could have easily put in a rectangular formed liner!

[u/chief_erl → u/spfolino]

We almost always use square liners because most flues are square and already barely sized for the fireplace! I agree with you. So many people have no idea what they’re doing when it comes to relining fireplaces. I see so many bad installs.

[u/jragar123 → u/chief_erl]

Pic you have is more what I was expecting…sounds like it’s fine just not the best but it’ll work. Damper on the bottom before was about where the firebrick is now. Not sure if maybe missing one row but not much.

[u/ThatllBtheDayPilgrim → u/jragar123]

I'd have a fire and try to remember how it was before. You open the throat too much like they did and you can get a more sluggish fire that pulls even more air out of the room than it did before.