I bought my 1984 house last summer.. had a local HVAC/fireplace duct cleaning guy clean fireplace in the fall. He didn't do a great job, so this year I did it myself. Seems to be a heatform-style metal fireplace with fans in the brick surround (intakes on bottom, exhaust up top). There was no chimney cap when I moved in; I installed one last year. It's a single story and the bricks go all the way through the attic and out the roof.
![[Hearth.com] Fireplace neglected for years.. did my first cleaning.](https://www.hearth.com/talk/data/attachments/320/320384-30eec497d6e44d8225219ad11b5277da.jpg?hash=AvdEGdVySb "[Hearth.com] Fireplace neglected for years.. did my first cleaning.")
When I started poking around today to clean, I found a 10lb pile of mortar on the smoke shelf (plus feathers, dirt, twigs, metal screen, etc.). I went ahead and removed the mortar and don't see any holes in the shelf. I assume it was from when it was built.
Before:
![[Hearth.com] Fireplace neglected for years.. did my first cleaning.](https://www.hearth.com/talk/data/attachments/320/320385-a1bf42dbf2387c53bb91e3a73b05f63c.jpg?hash=5vZwlkXxkz "[Hearth.com] Fireplace neglected for years.. did my first cleaning.")
![[Hearth.com] Fireplace neglected for years.. did my first cleaning.](https://www.hearth.com/talk/data/attachments/320/320386-db14cd9267cd75f109a0aefe58e06ddc.jpg?hash=d4fxfErrys "[Hearth.com] Fireplace neglected for years.. did my first cleaning.")
![[Hearth.com] Fireplace neglected for years.. did my first cleaning.](https://www.hearth.com/talk/data/attachments/320/320389-e4409f639532f98e61d4cb661e88a0e0.jpg?hash=d7OEd19CfJ "[Hearth.com] Fireplace neglected for years.. did my first cleaning.")
After Video -
![[Hearth.com] Fireplace neglected for years.. did my first cleaning.](https://www.hearth.com/talk/data/attachments/320/320387-75c742312cf1f88b9bb6eb524d1c0045.jpg?hash=_tERbET3cQ "[Hearth.com] Fireplace neglected for years.. did my first cleaning.")
![[Hearth.com] Fireplace neglected for years.. did my first cleaning.](https://www.hearth.com/talk/data/attachments/320/320388-2ededb469be4e53a03e6e137ea627d22.jpg?hash=s1WUtRsiSN "[Hearth.com] Fireplace neglected for years.. did my first cleaning.")
I want to seal everything up the best I can as sometimes we get a faint smoke smell in master bathroom (directly behind fireplace), and I wonder if smoke is escaping outside the box via cracks in mortar, steel to brick connection at the base, or gaps around the gas-assist metal pipe (now abandoned) that comes through the steel.
I see some cracking in the mortar on the base bricks. Can I just patch up with some S-Type? Or does it need to be something special?
When I started poking around today to clean, I found a 10lb pile of mortar on the smoke shelf (plus feathers, dirt, twigs, metal screen, etc.). I went ahead and removed the mortar and don't see any holes in the shelf. I assume it was from when it was built.
Before:
After Video -
I want to seal everything up the best I can as sometimes we get a faint smoke smell in master bathroom (directly behind fireplace), and I wonder if smoke is escaping outside the box via cracks in mortar, steel to brick connection at the base, or gaps around the gas-assist metal pipe (now abandoned) that comes through the steel.
I see some cracking in the mortar on the base bricks. Can I just patch up with some S-Type? Or does it need to be something special?
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