The fireplace has been around for thousands of years and in all that time has remained largely unchanged. It’s a remarkable example of human ingenuity and like all the best ideas people have come up with its simple in both concept and execution. In fact it’s so simple that people tend to take it for granted, even to the point that when something happens to the fireplace or chimney they’ll put off repairs. But while the fireplace won’t ever rival the space shuttle in complexity the 2 actually have 1 important thing in common: even seemingly small problems can lead to catastrophic failures.
The Importance of Timely Brick Repair for Toronto Homes
Often times when homes settle cracks will appear in the brickwork of the fireplace. Sometimes these crack are tiny and almost imperceptible and sometimes they’re large. But in any case they can negatively affect the operation of your fireplace and present a very real threat to the health and safety of everyone in the house. How can that be? We’ll tell you.
- Risk of fire – The fireplace/chimney combo looks sturdy as all get out and for the most part it is. But as we said homes can settle and unless they settle evenly (rare, but possible) you may wind up with cracks in your foundation, cracks in your walls and cracks in your fireplace and chimney. Why should you worry about such things? Because the fireplace gets incredibly hot and if cracks are present there’s the very real possibility that flames could penetrate to the surrounding combustible materials and then, well. Let’s just say that’s not good.
- Carbon monoxide – If you have cracks in your fireplace brickwork it’s not only a fire hazard it presents a very real possibility of flooding the house with CO2. Carbon dioxide is a silent, invisible, odourless killer that is a byproduct of the fireplace combustion process. Cracks in the fireplace brickwork can allow this quiet killer to seep directly into the living area of your home. In essence it would be like leaving your car running in the living room. If you notice cracks in the brickwork around your fireplace call Cummins Restorations brick repair Toronto
- Inefficient operation – Your fireplace works on the concept of there being an effective draft that pulls air in from the house to feed the fire. Cracks in the fireplace and/or chimney can undermine the effectiveness of that draft and cause your fires to sputter and burn inefficiently. Not only that but the less efficiently the fire burns the more smoke it typically produces. More smoke equals more CO2 and, as we already know by now, CO2 is potentially deadly.
Don’t take a chance with the health and safety of everyone in the house. If you know of or suspect cracks in your fireplace call Cummins Restorations for expert brick repair in Toronto. We’ve got the experience and expertise to diagnose your fireplace problems in a hurry and set things right.
