Fireplace Installation in Richmond CA - a fireplace that fits your home and the rules
Got a cold, drafty fireplace or no fireplace at all? We'll help you pick a gas unit, insert or new hearth that suits your house.
- Fully licensed and insured.
- Free quotes on site.
- We reply within 1 business day.
What does adding a fireplace in Richmond involve?
Fireplace installation in Richmond, CA adds a gas or wood fireplace to your home, or fits an insert into the firebox of the masonry or metal fireplace you already have, so you end up with a fire you'll actually light in the room where you want it.
We're based in Richmond and work across the cities around it, and most fireplace calls start with an old fireplace that's smoky or drafty, a room that never had one, or a remodel where the hearth is still a sketch. The price moves with the kind of unit, how the vent has to run, whether your chimney can be used and what the surround is built from. The schedule usually turns on the permit, the city's inspections and how long the unit takes to arrive. After I've looked at your house, you get a written estimate with your own figure.
How do you know it's time for a new fireplace or insert?
A fireplace you never light
An open masonry fireplace that smokes or barely warms the room usually ends up sitting cold all winter. That's often a good candidate for an insert rather than a rebuild, and every season you wait is another one paying to heat a room while warm air slips up the flue.
Cold air at the hearth
If you feel a draft at the fireplace when it isn't in use, the damper or flue is letting air pass straight through. Left alone, it means a chilly room nobody sits in and a furnace that runs harder to make up for it.
A remodel on the calendar
When you're opening walls or adding a room anyway, that's the easiest time to plan where a fireplace and its vent go. If you wait until the drywall and paint are done, we'd have to open finished walls to run the vent later.
Our fireplace installation work, from fuel choice to finished surround
I start with your home, the fuel you want and the fireplace you already have, because those three decide whether a gas unit, an insert or a new fireplace makes sense. At the estimate I go over the Bay Area's Air District rules on wood burning with you, so you choose with your eyes open. Once you've picked, our crew checks the firebox and chimney, sets the unit, runs the vent and builds the hearth and surround in brick, stone or block, then cleans up.
A lot of people want the wall around the fireplace faced in stone, which is our stone veneer installation work, and it gives you the look of solid stone over a plain firebox wall. When a new fireplace needs a chase or a sturdy backing, or you want a freestanding hearth out in the yard, we lay it the same way we build concrete block walls.
Gas fireplace or stove
This suits you if you want a flame at the flip of a switch and no wood to haul. A gas unit can vent through an existing chimney or straight out the roof or the wall behind it, and the EPA opposes models without outside venting because of indoor air, so plan on a vented unit and a vent route, which I map out at the visit.
Insert in your existing fireplace
An insert works much like a wood stove but sits inside the firebox of the masonry or metal fireplace you already have, so it suits a house with a hearth that's in decent shape. A factory-built, or zero-clearance, fireplace needs an insert designed and tested for that exact unit, so we check your model before anything gets ordered.
A new fireplace
This suits a room that never had one or a remodel where you get to decide where the hearth goes. We build the firebox, the vent or chimney and the masonry around it, and the year your house was built can limit the fuel, which I explain in the questions below.
Get a written fireplace estimate for your Richmond home
We reply within one business day to set up a visit. I come out, look over your house and the fireplace you have now, and send a free written estimate, with no pressure and no obligation.
(510) 369-4799- Based in
- Richmond, CA 94804
- Hours
- Mon–Fri: 8 AM–10 PM, Sat–Sun: 7 AM–9 PM
What happens after you call about a fireplace?
Here's how a fireplace job runs from your side, from the first call to the first fire in a finished hearth.
Call or send the form
Call (510) 369-4799 or send the form, and we'll set a time for me to come out. Have your home's build year, the kind of fireplace you have now and the fuel you'd like handy.
I walk the job with you
I look at the firebox, the chimney and where a vent could run, and we talk through the wood burning rules. You get a written estimate that spells out the unit, the vent route, the surround and the price.
We handle permits and build
If you go ahead, we take care of any permit the job needs before work starts. Our own crew does the work, and I'm on site running it the whole way.
Walk-through and cleanup
We don't leave until the work is done and the house is cleaned up. Then I show you the finished fireplace and how to run it.
Why Richmond homeowners call Stonework Richmond Concrete and Masonry for a fireplace
I walk your fireplace with you
I come out myself and look over the firebox, the chimney and where a vent could run before anything gets priced. If an insert in the fireplace you already have will do the job, I'll tell you that instead of selling you a rebuild.
Brick and stone since 2013
I started this business in Richmond in 2013, after years framing houses as a carpenter, so I know what sits behind the wall a fireplace goes into. That helps most where a vent has to pass through framing, because that's where fireplace jobs usually get tricky.
Fully licensed and insured contractor
We're fully licensed and insured. That matters in Richmond, because the city issues permits only to property owners, their agents and licensed contractors, and a contractor registers with a state license card, a workers' comp certificate and a city business license.
Settle the fuel and the vent route first, because most of this job follows from them. Request an estimate or call (510) 369-4799, and I'll come take a look.
Fireplaces, chimneys and stone surrounds in Richmond
The city requires a building permit before you build, alter, repair or improve any building, and adding a fireplace and its vent changes your house, so we plan on one from the start. When you go ahead, we pull it as the licensed contractor and set up the city inspections, and if I'm not sure what the city wants on a particular unit, I ask before we start instead of guessing.
Wood smoke is a real topic here. The Path to Clean Air plan for Richmond, North Richmond and San Pablo named wood burning a local air concern, and plenty of the calls we get are about swapping an open hearth for a gas unit or an insert. A lot of the homes we work in have original brick fireplaces with good life left in the masonry, so I look hard at the firebox and chimney before suggesting anything bigger. We find the same older brick fireplaces on jobs in San Pablo and El Cerrito.
Questions about fireplace installation in Richmond
How much does it cost to install a fireplace in Richmond, CA?
Installing a typical fireplace in the San Francisco metro area usually costs about $4,000 to $9,000 per job, and that's the going rate around the region, not a price of ours. Where your job lands depends on whether it's an insert or a new fireplace, how the vent has to run and what the surround is built from. I'll put your own figure in writing after I've seen the house.
How do I know if I can put a wood-burning fireplace in my Richmond home?
Check when your house was built, because the Air District allows only gas-fueled or electric heaters in homes whose construction began on or after November 1, 2016. If your foundation went in on or after that date, plan on a gas or electric unit, since a wood-burning one can't be installed there. If your home is older, we'll go through your options together at the estimate visit.
Can I use my wood fireplace on Spare the Air days?
No, the Air District makes it illegal to use a wood-burning fireplace on any day of the year when a Spare the Air Alert for fine particulate pollution is in effect, including alert days caused by wildfire smoke. A home heated only by wood can seek an exemption with an EPA-certified device registered with the Air District, but an open hearth fireplace won't qualify.
How do I schedule a fireplace inspection in Richmond?
Richmond permit holders schedule or cancel inspections, and get results, by touch-tone phone at 510-447-1156. On our jobs we set up the inspections ourselves, but you're welcome to call that line to check a result.
Will a new fireplace actually heat my house?
Usually not much, because most fireplaces are mainly there for the look and some extra warmth, and they're typically very inefficient heaters. Plan on it as a second source of warmth in the room it's in, not the thing that heats the whole house.
What should I ask a fireplace installer before I hire them?
Ask whether they're certified, because a certified installer makes sure the flue liner, the lining that carries smoke and gases up a masonry chimney, goes in correctly. Then ask how they keep the air spaces the vent maker requires around the pipe, since one vent maker warns that missing those spaces to materials that can burn is a major cause of vent fires.
Related masonry work around a new fireplace
Stone veneer installation
Faces a plain firebox wall or a new chase in thin stone, so the fireplace reads as solid masonry without the weight of full-depth stone.
Concrete block walls
Builds a sturdy block backing, a chase or a freestanding hearth wall in the yard, laid square and solid so the fireplace and its finish have firm support.
Service areas for fireplace installation
Stonework Richmond Concrete and Masonry is based in Richmond, California, and works across the cities around it, including Berkeley and Oakland. These 12 cities have their own page, and if yours isn't on the list, just ask.
Richmond, CA
Book a visit to plan your fireplace
Picking the unit and the vent route before anything gets ordered keeps you from buying a fireplace your house or your chimney can't take.