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Cracks in fire box mortar and bricks

11 years ago

I discovered these about halfway through this fireplace season (so Probly Dec or so) and have had multiple fires since then. The cracks are mainly in the mortar between the bricks but there are some bricks with cracks too. The Mortar also seems brittle like its a bit too easy to remove to me.

Pretty sure this is considered a brick/mortar fire place not pre fab but still it seems a bit cheap in construction, again, to me personally.

The house is 22-23 years old and we will have lived here four years this July and not that it would have been but nothing about this was brought up during the purchase inspections.

I cleaned the crap out of the box, scrubbed the carbon off the cracks with a SS brush for better viewing and just replaced the log rack (or whatever the steel thing the burning logs sits on), not that it's pictured anyway!

Comments (2)

berlin
11 years ago
That's a pre-fab fireplace with cast refractory panel, not a proper masonry fireplace.

Those cracks are a non-issue and very common. As long as the panel remains intact (no chunks falling out exposing the steel box etc.) you are perfectly fine. The bigger concern with these cheap pre-fabs is the propensity for the non-stainless inner stack liner to rot completely out thus allowing heat to reach the wood framing that makes up the chase.
Brandon Smith
Original Author
11 years ago
I knew there was something chintzy about this fire place!

But it's better to learn that I have a safe lame box then if I had found out I had an unsafe proper masonry fire place.

Thank you, your input is greatly appreciated.

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