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Fireplace Renovations

To Do or not to Do your own Fireplace Renovations

Christopher Smith

Is there a fireplace in your home? Nothing is greater than a blazing fire on a cold winter evening. However, if your fireplace is old and has seen better days, it may not create the focal point you’d like to have. In fact, you may even have resorted to trying to cover up the old eyesore by placing a couch or easy chair in front of it. There are a lot of ways you can renovate your old fireplace to bring give it a hot, new look and to get it back into working order again if you choose. Keep in mind, however, that most fireplace renovations are easier said than done, because there are a lot of technical aspects you have to consider.

If you’re only planning to give your fireplace more updated look, it will be fairly easy to alter the unit cosmetically. Brick fireplaces can be cleaned, re-mortared, refaced, or painted in order to make them more appealing fixtures in your rooms. Prior to doing any type of renovation work, take the time to thoroughly clean your fireplace and assess the condition the various parts of it are in: the fire box, the surround, the chimney, and the hearth. Fireplaces that have seen a lot of use can show age, cracks, and smoke damage which you’ll have to address when renovating it. However, if you have basic do-it-yourself skills, you should be able to do a cosmetic fireplace renovation yourself. Many different styles of prefabricated surrounds and decorative stones and tiles are available to help simplify the task for you.

Maybe you’d prefer to get the old relic up and running again. That’s going to take considerably more expertise than a cosmetic makeover and will probably necessitate your hiring professional help for at least part of the job due to the health and safety issues that are involved. It could be that you’ll need to rebuild the entire fire box or chimney which will require masonry skills. You might also be considering converting your gas fireplace to a wood burner or vice versa. Obviously these tasks are going to be much more demanding than just overhauling the outside appearance. Be sure you never tackle a fireplace renovation without knowing the work that is going to be involved.