The Fireplace Is Not The Hard Part. The Sequence Is.
A hearth scope goes wrong in three places, and all three are decided before anybody lights it: the dimensions the chase gets framed to, the height the flue terminates at, and whether the cover on top of it sheds water. Get those settled while the walls are open and the appliance is the easy part.
Plan review before framing: opening dimensions, clearance envelope, vent path and termination height, checked against the listing for the unit you specified.
Five touches, none of them optional.
A hearth subcontractor who shows up once, after drywall, is a warranty claim with a truck. Here is when we need to be on your lot and what has to be ready when we are.
Plan review, before anyone frames
Send us the elevation, the roof plan, and the appliance you intend to specify. We come back with the opening dimensions, the clearance envelope, the vent run, and the termination height the listing and the code require on that roof pitch. Ten minutes here is worth three days later.
What we need: plan set, appliance model, roof pitch, gas availability.
Framing and rough-in
We set the appliance and run the vent while the cavity is still open, because that is the only moment the clearances are actually verifiable. Firestopping at every floor and ceiling penetration goes in now, gas and electrical are stubbed to the appliance requirements, and combustion air is addressed rather than assumed.
What we need: framed opening to our dimensions, rough gas and power on site.
Chase, cover, and dry-in
The chase cover is the part builders inherit problems from. A flat sheet with no slope ponds water, rusts at the seams, and shows up as a stained ceiling in year four. We fabricate sloped and cross-broken with sealed collars, flash it properly at the roof, and photograph it before it is covered.
What we need: a dry-in date, and roof access before the shingles are loaded.
Finish, trim, and hearth
Mantel projection, hearth extension depth, and the clearance to any combustible trim are governed by the appliance listing, and they are the details that get value-engineered by somebody who does not know they are dimensional requirements. We check the finish carpenter's layout against the listing before the tile goes down, not after.
What we need: the finish detail drawing, and a heads-up before mantel install.
Start-up, punch, and hand-off
We fire the appliance, verify draft and operation, confirm the termination as built, register the manufacturer warranty in the homeowner's name, and hand your superintendent a packet: photographs from every phase, the model and serial, the venting configuration, and the operating instructions to leave with the buyer.
What we need: power and gas live, and the buyer's name for warranty registration.
Three failures, all invisible at closing.
None of these show up on a punch walk. All three surface after the buyer has moved in, which is the most expensive possible time for them to surface.
Clearance to combustibles, buried behind finish
Framing set tight to the appliance box, or a header dropped into the clearance envelope. Nobody sees it once the drywall is up, and it stays hidden until the buyer runs the fireplace hard through a cold week and the trim above it starts to discolor. The correction at that point is demolition, and the argument about who pays for it is worse than the repair.
Termination height that does not clear the ridge
The chimney has to run high enough above the roof penetration and high enough above anything close to it — three feet above where it comes through, and two feet above anything within ten. On a complex roof with a dormer or an adjacent gable, the height that satisfies that on paper and the height somebody actually built are frequently different, and the symptom is a fireplace that smokes into the room on a windy night.
A chase cover doing the job of a roof
Flat, unsealed, no cross-break, thin galvanized. It sheds nothing, holds water at the collars, and drips into the chase framing for years before it reaches a ceiling anyone can see. By the time it is a warranty call it is not a cover problem, it is rot in the framing, and you are back inside a finished house.
A file, not a verbal all-clear.
Two years out, when a buyer calls about a fireplace, the only thing that settles the conversation quickly is a photograph of the rough-in taken before it was covered. That is the point of the packet. It is cheap to produce while we are already there and impossible to produce afterward.
- Photographs from every phase, including the rough-in and the chase before either was closed
- Appliance model and serial number, with the venting configuration as actually built
- Termination height and clearances recorded against the listed requirements
- Manufacturer warranty registered in the buyer's name, with a copy in the packet
- Gas and electrical connections identified, with the licensed sign-off attached where required
- Operating and maintenance instructions to leave in the house at walk-through
Against the plan set, not against a square footage.
The appliance is the smallest variable. What actually moves a hearth number is the length and offset of the vent run, the roof geometry the termination has to satisfy, whether there is a framed chase or a masonry enclosure, and how the finish detail is drawn. Give us the plan and the appliance schedule and you get a scope you can put straight into a bid.
A single appliance set and vented on a straightforward run. The published starting figure, before your plan is reviewed.
Fabrication and roof work priced against the actual geometry, per lot or held flat across a repeated plan.
Prices shown are starting estimates and may change with the condition, access, and scope we find on site. Only a written quote from an on-site visit is a price we commit to.
Gas, electrical and structural scope is carried by a license holder and signed off to whatever your jurisdiction requires. What we hold and how to check it is on standards and licensing.
Send the plan and the appliance. You get dimensions back.
Elevation, roof plan, the model you intend to specify, and how many lots this repeats across. We will come back with the framing dimensions, the clearance envelope, the vent path, the termination height for that roof, and a priced scope. If the appliance you picked is a problem for that plan, you will hear it in the first reply.
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Single-site, multifamily, or national portfolio — tell us the system and the sites.
Builders & GCs — FAQ
How early do you actually need to be involved?
Before framing, and preferably before the appliance is finally specified. The opening dimensions, clearance envelope, vent path, and termination height all come out of the listing for the specific unit you pick, and if the cavity is framed to a generic dimension there is a real chance it does not fit the appliance that shows up. A plan review costs you an email. Re-framing a chase after dry-in costs you a week.
The framer already closed the chase. Can you just work with it?
Sometimes, and sometimes not, and we will tell you which within an hour of being on site. If the clearances can be verified by opening a limited area, we will do that. If they cannot be verified without a real demolition, we will say so plainly and put it in writing rather than install over a condition nobody can see. That is the unpopular answer and it is the only one we give.
Will you hold up my schedule over a clearance issue?
Yes, and you should know that going in. If a chase is framed inside the clearance envelope or a termination will not make height, we stop and flag it, even if drywall is scheduled for Monday. It costs you days. The alternative is a hidden defect inside a finished house with your name on the warranty, and we are not willing to be the subcontractor who let that through to save a Tuesday.
Another crew set the vent before we brought you in. Can you certify it?
We will inspect it and give you a written report on what we can actually observe, including a camera pass through the flue. What we will not do is certify clearances on a penetration we never saw open, because that signature would be worth nothing to you or to a future buyer. If you need those clearances documented, the honest options are a limited opening or a report that states exactly what was and was not verifiable.
Who ties in the gas and the power?
A license holder does, and their sign-off goes into the hand-off packet with everything else. Gas, electrical, and anything structural are carried by the licensed trade to whatever your jurisdiction requires. Everything inside our own trade — setting the appliance, the venting, the chase, the flashing, the termination — is our crew.
We build the same plan repeatedly. Can you price it once?
For a repeated plan with the same appliance and the same roof geometry, yes — we will price the hearth scope once and hold it for the run, which is far easier for your estimator than re-quoting every lot. What moves the number is a spec change, a different appliance, or a lot with a roof condition the base plan does not have, and we will flag those rather than absorb them quietly and make it up somewhere else.
What does the buyer get at walk-through?
The operating and maintenance instructions for their specific appliance, the warranty registration in their name, and a plain explanation of what routine service the unit needs. It is a small thing that prevents a specific kind of first-winter call, where a buyer runs a new fireplace incorrectly, decides it is defective, and it becomes your problem instead of a five-minute conversation.
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