The almost popular/ famous "How Not To Do It Page!"
The pan burner below is a typical problem we see almost on a daily basis now. There are several companies selling you pan burners with glass in them. What they don't know is why or what happens or how does that happen. The flame burns on only one side, why is that? Because there is more to just pouring glass into a pan and hoping it works! The most common answer to customers is "That is just the way it burns" that's as god as "Stupid is as Stupid does". We will explain as we go forward:
Here is your average pan with glass.
So why does it drat to one side? I'm sure you will get many answers but the right one, it's made wrong! Every failure is a success, and their failures our our success. Our pans don't side draft! What is sad they can't fix what is wrong because they don't know how.
The fire pit below has a Azurlite base glass with Aquamarine Blue Topper, Hyacinth Topper, Citrine Topper and Copper Ruby Red Topper. This is a propane fire pit in Texas. Our dealer installed this glass and explained to the customer to eliminate the soot from the propane we had to lean the mixture with air. The customer asked the burner manufacture to come out and inspect the fire pit. The manufacture told the customer the glass was defective and this was causing the soot. The manufacture didn't even know how to get a clean burn on their own product! Needless to say the fire pit is still producing clouds of soot and the customer now knows the manufacture didn't even have a clue. The smell in propane is an added oil to the liquid propane so it can be identified. The oil will still burn off as the fuel is used but we lean the fuel by introducing 6 parts of air to the fuel to virtually eliminate the soot from the fire. Below are before and after pictures of the propane fire pit.
As you can see below the fire pit was creating soot long before we even started. The glass had nothing to do with burner as the burner was in the middle of the glass. The manufactures of most of these propane fire pit and fireplace burners don't even have a clue on what they are doing so please be careful. In this case the manufacture didn't know how to get a clean burn so there fore he said it can't be done! You be the judge, what looks better?
The propane fire pit below is in San Diego California. They had several issues which we resolved but they didn't listen and they don't even use the fire pit because of:
Black soot from the propane, they refused to listen about our venturis/ air mixers.
No safety valves installed for the use of propane. (thermo couplers) (heat switches)
Steel burners tend to rust outdoors especially at the beach area and when it rains the rust runs out on to the concrete deck area. You should use stainless steel or use a cover when not in use.
We recommended a series of burners to equalize the flame but again they knew much better and had little to no flame, boo hoo!
The valve used is a good safety valve when using propane and typically used with natural gas. But this is the wrong valve to use with
a propane fire pit.
Above you can see the rust forming and below you can see the soot on the lava rock. This is not recommended to breath unless you are on death row.
Aside from the soot, small flames and carbon-monoxide he's got a nice fire pit, NOT!
The fire pit below had a few issues:
Never use a screen of any kind!
A cover is recommended for long term non use.
A drain is mandatory under your filler/ glass!
Good idea, bad follow through!
With a screen under the glass which creates an empty cavity for gasses to collect you will be sure to have a fire ball every few minutes, while you may consider this fun it is also unsafe! When you don't cover your fire pit every thing that can fall will fall into your fire pit. Fire pits are magnets for falling debris. If you don't install a drain the water will sit inside and turn a funny color of green and start to smell like yuk. When you finally turn the fire pit on the fire will draw all of the molded stinky water in your fire pit out for you to enjoy, no really! Don't install a drain and you will see what I mean. If you don't have a drain at least make sure you have your cover on at all times as this will keep moisture out as well.
The fireplace below was finished with Starfire and Topped with Red, Light Blue and a darker Blue Topping. The 2 problems were the gas pipe was visible and soot had fallen from above. This was an easy fix. We sent them a few pounds of glass, they buried the pipe deeper and called a chimney sweep to clean the flue. Now the fireplace looks and works great.
The fire pit below is Azurlite and Azurlite Reflective and the result of not using enough filler to allow the glass to cover the ring. As you will see here Maria had to empty and sort here glass because it was mixed up with her filler. All is well now but one heck of a lesson.
The filler is in and under the ring
When you don't have enough filler, you can't cover the ring.
It almost looked good, not!
Here's Maria finishing removing the glass which later she sorted about 300,000 plus pieces apart!
Here we are finished and happy once again. Simple mistakes are difficult to repair.
The fireplace below is in Palm Desert California and was a self install with a crushed lava base, Clear over the lava, Starfire on top of the Clear and Topped with Amber Diamonds and a splash of our Gold . It looked great until they found the burner was too close to the back which burned the back wall. I don't know if this was repaired as we did send paint and instructions on how to prevent this in the future. The fireplace looked great except for the "skid mark" on the back wall.
Above it still looked good here!
About our diamonds, they are made of crystal and when you see them in the fireplace you actually see the fire reflection reflecting the flame backward as if the Diamonds were melting from the inside.
The fire pit below had twin stainless steel burners installed and again we here the age old problem. "My flames are too small". What happened here is the plumber recommended a 1/2" line to be run to the pit from 80 feet from the meter, oops. With no volume you will have no pressure. The line should of been 1" to 1 1/2" to give proper flame height.
Since this was a wood deck with the plumbing underneath which was easily replaced, and yes the plumber took no blame because he said he didn't know better! So if your not sure, ask!
The fireplace below has a Ford Blue base with Ford Blue Reflective Topped with Ice Ice Ice. The only issue we had with this fireplace is that they thought it didn't need to be cleaned and or painted, WRONG! Everything whet fine except they got lazy and didn't clean and paint!
You be the judge!
A single burner is fine if you don't want a larger flame pattern or if your on a budget.
I guess if you wanted the burned look, then you got it!
The fireplace below is a failed attempt to copy our burner design. We even post pictures on how to do it and when you can't even follow instructions, well this is the result. It was not out processed and or tumbled glass which you can see it looks like someone threw trash glass in the fireplace and left the pipes exposed. I don't know what happened but I can tell you this looks terrible!
The burner was way too small, it was a single burner and the hole pattern was wrong, the pipes were exposed, it was a spotty paint job on the walls, the glass looked like a broken window and except for those few items, the fireplace was a nice fireplace, NOT! These mistakes are here to help you prevent these silly mistakes, and a few chuckles.
The fire pit below was another failed attempt from a company called Fire By Design in Nevada. They helped these customers design a propane fire pit with an electronic ignition (fair at best) and with the lack of knowledge about propane here is the failed attempt. The ring was to placed above the glass according to the manufacture (wrong!). There was no air mixer/ venturi let alone calibrating for proper air mixture to insure a clean burn. The company would not even return any calls to the customer and we repaired the system and made it work properly. This home was on the beach in South Florida.
Several thing went wrong here, wrong filler (lava was too large), Bad cage design over the pilot light/ ignition, they buried the ignition system under the ring and glass, the ring was left on the surface, no air mixer, no customer support, the ring that was supplied was a steel ring for outdoors, wrong! This should of been a stainless steel ring and a strong recommendation for a cover because it was at the beach! We would of also given the option of a #304 stainless steel marine grade ring. We also manufacture our our rings as well.
The valve below was an easy install according to the plumber but after he leaves and you turn the fireplace on and only when its time to go to bed, you have the eternal flame because you can't reach in to turn it off. We see this all to often, so please send us your pictures and we will gladly help you from letting this happen to you,
The fireplace below is a ventless propane and a failed attempt of making an air mixer. First if you put rocks in or on your fireplace they will pop out or explode because of their ability to collect moisture. It may be a fun party favor but not recommended in your own home. Second we want to help you convert your burners properly and safely. So if you don't take our advice or follow instructions someone can or will get hurt. The proper air mixers were not installed and they need to be away from the fire/ heat. Drilling holes in the pipe end is not considered adequate or even close to being right.
I don't know what happened as this person never contacted us again. If the house is even still there.
The fireplace below is the fireplace of "Bill" and he wasn't sure where the burners went. So he put them on top and as you can see he should of put them under the glass.
Bill ordered a rectangular pan and it would of looked better if we would of built a trapezoid shape pan to contour the fireplace. Bill did drop his burners under the glass. This was a propane ventless conversion. Looks much better than those log thingies! Hopefully Bill will send us pictures of it finished and burning, maybe. We used Starfire glass in the pan.
The 4 pictures below are of a self install almost gone bad. This is a ventless propane fireplace and if you look at the elbows in the first picture, they drilled holes to get air into the burner. It's a good idea but it could cause more issues than you can imagine. The air mixer/ venturi needs to be below the burn area where it can always receive fresh air and not in the burn area. Second the rocks it left uncovered will pop out into your room and burn what ever it comes in contact with. It's always a good idea to send us your project picture developments so we can monitor your mistakes and fix the issues before you move forward.
We don't know how it turned out as the customer never e mailed us back after we advised them.
This one is a simple fix. The ring of soot had fallen from above onto the glass below. Just remove the soiled glass, wash it and replace it. The soot build up is a direct result of burning Presto Logs in your fireplace. Also if you notice the back wall was slightly burned because the burners were too close to the back wall. The burners have been moved forward now and everything is just fine.
The fireplace below has some very bad plumbing! WOW. If you hire a plumber and you think there is way too may pipes, send us a picture and we will help you out of your mess. You take a look and be the judge.
The pictures above are of a remote control system we built with a safety pilot light system. We built the system for right hand connection and I guess the plumber didn't know his left from his right and tried to connect the unit from the left with a few extra pipes. That plumber was fired and a new plumber who understood what we wanted fixed the pipe nightmare for the customer and all is fine now
The fire pit below will show you how not to do it (bad plumbing) and how easy it is to install a battery operated remote control. The glass used was ford blue and we installed 2 44" stainless steel "H" burners.
In the pictures on the top right, do you see the plumbing sticking out of the pit? Well this was fixed, but not by the plumber that tried to install it. We cut a little bit of concrete and placed the valve in properly.
Above you will see a very poor attempt of a gas burner and valve.
The picture above has our twin remotes inside the box protected from the weather.
We covered the larger lava rock with our crushed lava rock to pour a 1 1/2" ford blue base to cover the lava and burners. Unless you plan to cover your outdoor fire pit we recommend to use all stainless steel burners and parts to avoid rusting.
Once the glass covers the box, it just looks nice. To replace the batteries, move the glass on the top and the rest is simple.
The fire pit above is at the Torrance Marriott in California.
This fire pit was sent to us to convert to a propane burner and we found broken bottle glass in the fire pit. You be the judge. Please look at out Toppers and Toppings page and you will see we don't use trash glass, really! We are updating most if not all of our pictures of our products to show you what you are getting. There will be no surprises when you purchase our glass. Remember you get what you pay for and Imitation is the highest form of flattery! These companies must be in love with us!
This is not our glass! This is what we call recycled glass, trash!
The fire pit below has had a few problems with soot but we were able to fix it's issues. Propane can be a problem if you don't pay attention. You don't need money as it cost nothing to pay attention!
You will pay if you don't get the correct burner, if you don't burn the glass to bad it can be cleaned. There are a few rules when you are burning propane and you must follow them or your pictures will be here as well.
It doesn't start too bad.
In a few hours it goes from bad to worst!
We can fix any problem or issue provided you are willing.
This was a fireplace that was not properly prepared and the customer didn't want to take the time to paint. You be the judge. The base that was used was Starfire and Toppings of Red and Red Orange were uses. The fireplace looks good except for the lack of paint.
The actual fire looks good but it was the lack of cleaning and painting. So if your fireplace needs cleaning and painting, do it or send us a picture for this web page.
This is what happens when you use too much sand on the fire pit!
The side of your fire pit will now burn, oops and don't tell your wife.
The cool kitchen fireplace below has Starfire and looks really nice in the kitchen. The burner was too close to the back wall and soot was formed on the wall up. Be sure to not let the flames hit the walls as this will cause soot.
The mistake made here (below) was the burner was placed on top of the glass with the holes pointing down. When the flames hit a surface they will cause carbon monoxide (bad stuff) the same soot (carbon monoxide) you get on your logs in your fireplace and or on your large lava rock in your fire pits. The burner should of been below the surface and is now! It burns perfect after a minor touch up and we replaced the glass that had soot on it at no charge.So ask your fireplace dealer what is soot, and see what they say. They like to call it carbon (poison). Maybe this is why we are so busy and we do offer a clean burn.
The 4 pictures below are of a failed attempt to poorly convert a ventless burner. You can't just break up any glass and pour it on your ventless burner, a few steps have to be taken as to insure you don't fill the room with carbon monoxide. This person came to us after they almost poisoned every one. What we do works and what was done here kills. Forest Gump said "Stupid is as Stupid does!
The fire table below has a propane burner and is not configured correctly. That is why you will see soot (carbon monoxide) the black stuff on the glass. If you purchased a table from one of these clowns that have you connect a propane tank to a burner ring, you will have problems. We use all the proper safety valves and air mixers to insure a clean and safe burn.
See our propane page. We are the only company manufacturing a propane burner that is safe and built correctly for these fire tables when you are using our glass. The glass used was Starfire and Pale Blue Topper. Since and after the install we did supply the correct burner and it is burning clean as it should be.
As you can see after burning for about 10 minutes the soot is and will be an issue. Carbon monoxide IS NOT GOOD FOR YOU!
The fireplace below has traces of soot on the surface which has fallen from above in the vent. Be sure your vent is free of soot and dirt as it may fall on your glass below. In the event it does fall from above, you can just wash the soot of in warn soapy water. The fireplace below has Starfire and Diamonds.
This one below is almost a cake taker, the one who takes the cake!
The pictures above are of the gas valve in the fireplace. Not a good idea because when you have had the fireplace on for a while, how do you turn it off? Some plumbers, no brains. Don't let this one happen to you.
The fire pit below was a propane burning and as you can see there is the black soot again. They though if they drill holes in the bottom of the fire pit this will fix the problem, noooooooooooooo! We installed a propane burning system and it works just fine now.
The fire pit below is a typical mistake we fix on a daily basis. We have customers coming to us asking why there burner is rusting? Simple, because they were told to use a steel burner outside. We build stainless steel burners on a daily basis to replace rusting burners. This burner rusted through in about 1 year and the rust went all over the patio, yuck!
This is what we try to hide. You have a new and beautiful element in your fireplace and the controls show. What's up with that?
This is the reason we ask for pictures when your project starts and finishes. We try to catch these nasty details before they happen. We also fix issues caused by other companies. We try to do what is best for the customer, you!
The fire table below was purchased from an uneducated builder of fire tables. The problem is the glass was turning black, why? There was no safety system in place and no air mixed was ever installed to mix the propane. This will always turn your glass black with soot (carbon monoxide) (poison) We are fixing these type of problems every week and thanks to those table builders. No you can not burn straight propane with out soot!
This one is sad, funny but true
A customer came in and asked how to convert her direct vent fireplace and we asked her to remove the logs, take a picture of the burner on and off with out the flash. We need to see the burn pattern and the type of burner we would be dealing with. She went home and asked her son to remote the logs so she could do this. Here we go!
All her son heard was:
Logs, Fireplace, Out!
OOPS!
The fireplace below is in San Diego, California and the colors used were:
Cobalt Blue Topper
Steel Blue Topper
Cranberry Pink Topping
Purple Topper
Lilac Topper
Deep Royal Topping
Clear Base
Solex and Solex Reflective
Azurlite and Azurlite Reflective
Blue Green and Blue Green Reflective
and a little bit of Ice Ice Ice on top
wow!
The end pictures show that the burner was too close the wall which was an easy fix by moving the burner forward.
This is where is went a little bit wrong, oops. We just had them move the burner forward and now its fine and the back wall was repainted.
These fire pits below are in Mexico at the 4 Seasons Resort which we supplied the product. But they didn't listen when we told them about propane and how to install it correctly! This is a result of male ego and I can do it myself better! NOT! The second mistake was a SCREEN under the glass as this can and will trap gases which will cause woofing. A small fire ball every few minutes which can scare the crap out of you and every one around the fire feature. If you don't like your neighbor, well anyway.
This has been fixed and now works and looks fine. We will post pictures as soon as they send us the new pictures. We can fix any issues created by d___ies, so please be careful on who is selling and or telling you what.
Burner mis-installed
The pictures above show the burner too far to the right and too close to the back. Simple fix.
Move it to the left and forward.
You can see that pipe dope was used in all of the joints. This does not have to be there as you have 40 to 80 leaks in the burners, why would it try to leak from the joint? You can use a tape or pipe sealant at the wall connection but not on the burners themselves.
We recommend removing the screens as there will be nothing popping out ever again. Even with fake logs they had you install the screens so you would think something is going to pop or crackle, silly!
This customer thought if 1 can of fireplace paint is good then 6 are better.
WRONG!
This is what you can expect from too much paint too fast. Prep the walls from any dirt or other material such as soot, wax from candles or etc. Two to three coats are just fine or as long as you can't see through.
He stripped it and now it looks fine. A lot of work to do it the second time.
The 2 outdoor fireplaces below are in northern California at the Hyatt. They called us about soot on the glass. When we looked at the pictures our first thoughts were PROPANE! No these are natural gas. The fix was actually very simple. This was caused by a down draft from the chimney which we partially closed the flue which stopped the down draft and as you can see they are just fine now.
The fire pit below is a failed attempt of a propane conversion without our help in the beginning. You can't just burn propane! If you try this, this is what it will look like. You need to calibrate the amount of air to propane or it will back fire, burn black or explode! We recommend a thermo coupler, air mixer/ venturi along with several other important factors. We won't tell you who tried this but we will tell you we did fix the issue and now the customer is very happy. We did use Azurlite with Azurlite Reflective.
The fireplace below is a propane pan burner with a lava rock fill. You don't want to crush your own lava rock because of the time. You can use larger lava around the edges of the pan but you will want to use crushed lava in the pan up to the surface of the burners. The glass use in this fireplace was a Ford Blue base with Ford Blue Reflective on top. Topped with Clear Pyrite and Amber accents. The install went very well except for the rock crushing episode.
The fire pit below has a "FPPK" propane burner installed and the burners were exchanged out for stainless steel. If you were to leave the steel burners in you will eventually have rust pouring out of your fire pit onto the patio which will not look very attractive! The glass used was 1/2" Gray and Ford Blue. The controls were inside the bottom housing, nice fire pit but almost a big oops.
nice design.
below you can see where the controls were to be mounted
above you can see the steel ready to rust and make a mess. Remember you get what you pay for.
The fireplace below has a mixed base of:
14 lbs Starfire, 14 lbs Amber and 1/4" Blue Green,
Topped with 2 lbs of Blue Green Reflective and 1 lb of Jade Green Topper.
here are the pictures from start to finish, a couple of the pictures were a little fuzzy from the customer. Oh well.
Now typically is your fireplace looks like yuck, put candles in it and everyone will tell you how nice it looks! NOT! So don't do it! If it's dirty or looks like a skid mark, clean it and or paint it but don't put candles in it.
A typical fireplace where Fake Logs used to live. Now they are residing in the Fake Forest after leaving nice black skid marks on the walls of your fireplace, nice! Actually the soot you see in your fireplace is carbon monoxide but the fireplace manufactures which manufacture the Fake Logs just don't seem to tell you this little fact! It's poison and it's the furthest thing from being green that you could ever get. If you really still like Fake Logs then just sit in your garage with your car running and entertain your friends and family there. It's just a healthy.
The customer here could of painted his flex line to help hide it a little better. Again what was the plumber thinking, hanging logs? Maybe that's why we plumbed the line so high in the air?
Anyway after all of that it did turn out nice.
The fireplace below was installed in Palm Springs, California. The base glass is Starfire and then we topped it with 1 lb of Pirates Topper.
This is a typical fireplace but this one has lava rock stacked up inside, yuck!
Below you can see the flame hitting the back wall creating a soot mark, not very nice looking. The customer didn't want the fireplace painted, why?
There's that soot mark! If you do paint make sure the work is not spotty! That looks nasty as well.
Above you see the typical hard piped burner installed which is fine for logs or lava. But this does not really work well for glass.
Below you see the double burner installed with an 18" flex line.
Test the burner and pour the glass, now it looks nice except for the soot mark!
Now we added 1 lb of our Topper, Pirates!
The fireplace below had a few issues, but easily repaired. Be sure to not let this happen to you! If anyone tries this type of installation, stop them and throw them out! This fireplace installation was in Palm Springs California. It was done with the 2" method which is fine except for the burner the fireplace shop installed. We will explain as we move forward and show you the finished fireplace.
Below is what we saw when we arrived.
Then we tested the burner we were to replace, oh my!
We uncovered to see what was installed and found a single pipe burner. Great Flame! Another issue was the paint job was hideous which was later repainted. Don't let these ignorant installer tell you their stories. They told the customer the paint would dry to match.
We do approve of a sand filler indoors under lighter colored glass, but the burner must be on top!
Now we installed a double burner and just watch!
Below is what they pawned off on the customer, DON'T LET THIS HAPPEN TO YOU!
Much better. Then we took several pictures of the fireplace just because! We did top it off with about 15 lbs of Starfire to help hide the sand that was exposed and it worked out just fine.
The fire pit below is in Palm Springs California. We use Azurlite Fireplace Glass and a crushed lava filler underneath. There were a few issues which we resolved.
First issue: Don't use polished Mexican Pebbles as they will chase you across the yard.
Above, second issue, the ring could of been bigger as we installed a triple 30" stainless steel rind.
Below, third issue the plumber installed a 3/8" reducer, why? :-~ The gas comes is with 1/2", the ring is 1/2" so the plumber installed a 3/8" reducer in between the gas supply and the ring. Why in the heck would he do this? Anyway we just installed a 1/2" flex line and the pressure was back and fine.
Cover the wrong material with at least 1 1/2" to 2" of crushed lava.
And pour the Azurlite Fire Pit Glass
We never were sent pictures of the fire pit burning, but we did test it during our installation.
This surround below was installed in Shreveport Louisiana By Martha Heatherwick.. We first sold the Clear base glass to her contractor and then she contacted us for her surround. Step one is to make a template to replicate how it will look when its finished. How much of the opening do you want to still show? Do you want the frosted glass interior edge or no glass at all. How large or small do you want the frame? Each surround is made to fit your requirements.
We will start with the pictures:
Here is the cardboard template.
One issue came up, Martha noticed the glass had discolored in a few places. So when we got the pictures we enlarged the pictures only to find splash marks on the back wall. Which her children and grand children don't know how that may of happened! The little beggars were throwing some sort of flammable and or liquids in the fireplace to see what would happen.
Below you can see the splash marks.
The fireplace looked very nice but as you can see the surround added the finishing touch.
This surround has 3" of aluminum and 2" of non frosted glass on the interior border.
Result of leaking Acetylene bottle stored in plumber's van on Oct. 22, 2009. Importance of properly storing gas cylinders. Accidentally ignited by activating a remote door lock device. This is not intended to frighten you but to make you aware of what you are doing and who you are hiring! A leak is a leak and each leak should be addressed with caution and care. Here we go!
The old bumper in the palm tree trick. (below)
This is the back of the van. You will not be going an any service calls today! (below)
Just from the percussion of the explosion! (below)
All in all, I guess this is what it looks like when the S__T hits the van!
Here is a classic issue we deal with once in a while. Remember you get what you pay for! If your subject to salt water or salt air by the ocean you must make sure your products and or equipment will hold up as well. If your trying to save a few bucks, you will pay later! We built an aluminum pan with steel burners and we were told this is and was to be indoors. Well, it wasn't! It was actually out doors under the edge of the cover but never the less, it was at the ocean next to the salt water pool.The aluminum pan did just fine.
These parts sat outside uncovered and installed for almost 2 years.
Below, The thermo coupler was broken and trusted from neglect. Then I was asked if we would warranty the parts! Let's see, NOT! We can only help you if you tell us what you are doing. We will always try to find the most cost effective methods but not letting you compromise quality and longevity of the products we build. If you tel us wrong, we will build it wrong!
Above the steel pipes sat under cover fro 2 years to look like this. These should of been #304 stainless steel or even #316 marine graded stainless steel.
Above and below is our FPPK propane manual ignition and which you can see corrosion as well. You could of at least clear coated these to protect them.
Some customers listen, some don't. Steve did in his case. Steve started our by purchasing Azurlite base glass and a 24" ring for his project. His was initially an online purchase, oops. Later he did call and we received his pictures of the issue at hand. We will now share Steve's pictures:
Steve thought he had a ton of extra parts! NOT!
He took out anything he didn't understand.
I don't need this stuff either!
Here is Steve's pit.
Now with Azurlite! Looks pretty cool?
Now light it! That seemed to work for a bit, until the black smoke started. It's a good thing the tank was 10 feet away. You will know soon enough why. But that's why your on this page!
Look, no extra parts for that clean install and design!
Just for giggles let's keep the tank out from under the table. OK dear, your always right anyway!
Holly crap! My neighbor almost owned my fire pit! Now who can tell me what he did wrong? Steve sent us all of those extra parts and we calibrated everything to work properly. No leaks, no soot and a clean burn. He is set as we repaired everything.
The fireplace below was in sad shape due to incompetent installers in Palm Desert California. It was one of the fireplace shops in the Palm Desert area! They came out and sprayed paint over paint over paint etc, etc. But it kept peeling, wonder why? We will explain as we move on:
As you can see it was peeling all over and the shop would not even call her back to fix their nightmare!
Below you can see we had to grind and remove all of the old paint and then we rolled on our Thermolux 1200 degree paint. One hour later.
What else we would like to point out is the glass. Big chunks, leaving air gaps which lead to sub surface burning under the glass causing soot (nasty black smoke). Not only is this sloppy but dangerous and you are creating carbon monoxide for your customer let alone its just ugly! This type of glass/ installation looks like you poured trash glass in your fireplace. We were just contracted to repair the paint portion and she was going to try to get her money back from the fireplace shop (good luck). This is the reason we have a special process (patent pending) to tumble and smooth the glass so that it does not look like this! We have hundreds of dealers across the country, but none like this! When we learn about these types of dealers we black list them and never will sell to them, ever!
This person below tried to build his own propane burner, didn't work out so well.
First he just ran propane into an air mixer without the use of a propane valve, thermo coupler and or a safety pilot light, oops. His complaint was that there was a lot of soot and black smoke. Not to mention how dangerous his set up is as well. Obviously he wasn't worried about all of the plumbing sticking out of the glass either.
Not very nice looking, is it? Now maybe you can see what we do is actually worth it. I would never make your fireplace or fire pit look like this! You get what you pay for. UGLY IS FOR FREE.
They just keep rolling in! Sometimes I get amazed at what the next person will do with out getting advice or the proper parts. This next one is a ventless conversion. He almost got it right except:
He didn't calibrate an air mixer to get a clean burn to the burner,
First sign of issues was the black smoke, you think?
The glass started to pop out when it got hot, not our glass!
Most important, the firebox was constructed of wood, look close. Now what do you think will happen?
Look at the walls, they are turning black! What do you think is happening else where?
The fireplace below had two issues: Soot and glass popping. We built a propane burner and pan but the customer found their glass elsewhere. First cause of soot was sub surface burning (burning below the surface) and as for the glass popping, it seems to be just large chunks of glass cullet. If you want to try this yourself, do it at a friends house first to see how it works out. It almost would of worked out if they would of used the correct glass.
This next fireplace was done with lack of knowledge! First they installed a 18" single burner and some real interesting choices of glass. What they did do correct is have a 3" sand bed under their yuk glass. The first issue we repaired was the stub out on the left side of the fireplace floor. All we did was install a 90 degree elbow and connect a 1/2" flex line to the new double 24" burner. They had left the flex pointing in the air and then reduced it to a 3/8" line and to top that off added they very sad single 18" burner. We repainted their futile attempt (of painting) with dark metallic brown, added 10 lbs of sand and poured 75 lbs of Starfire base glass over the new burner and sand filler. We will explain as we move forward:
Below you can see the black marks under the paint.
Below you can see the flex line that was installed was left above the surface. Now if we tried that I think our customers would take us out and string us up, what do you think? To top it off this customer was an attorney! Completely happy with what we did.
Here is the new paint on the back walls.
Now we added the Starfie base glass. One thing we have been doing a little bit different is to bring the glass out from the front of the fireplace. We let the glass come out of the fireplace from 3 to 6 inches to make it look even more grand. What do you think?
Here is a the almost finished product of what we do! We left several colors with the customer to add. We will post pictures when they arrive.
Just when I thought they couldn't do something different, they did! I agree with the sand as a base under the Starfire base glass. I will explain as we go forward:
I finally understood the weird brackets, he was calculating the height of his burner for sand filler underneath.
Above and below I understand testing the burner.
OK, I give, he taped the holes to prevent sand from getting in the burner. That doesn't really matter as too much sand really can't get inside and if it does, no big deal.
What I don't understand is the burner left on top of the glass. Didn't I show enough pictures for you to get the hint? No really? I guess he missed those few hundred pages of pictures.
If this is the look he was after, then he got it! Different strokes for different folks.
