The Time is Now

August 6, 2015 Awards, Outdoor Living, Patio Design

 

Texas Custom Patios

We were recently featured in Hearth & Home Magazine for our gorgeous work in outdoor design. We are elated to be noted for our hard work and look forward to doing a dozen more designs in the coming month. If you are thinking about making your backyard beautiful for the holidays, the time to start, is now! Here’s a look at a cozy little corner of one of our award-winning projects.

A dramatic wood burning fireplace is the focal point of this outdoor living space (pictured above). It anchors one end of the gabled pavilion, soaring to the height of the vaulted ceiling. Though beautiful, this massive fireplace did create engineering and masonry challenges on the project.  “The manufactured beam running through the back of the fireplace required many hours of masonry work to make it look just perfect,” says builder Ryan Guikema.

That kind of attention to detail is evident in the entire Outdoor Room. The stone on the fireplace is carried through on the outdoor kitchen island and the seat wall. The seat wall itself is finished with cast-stone caps and low voltage lighting; it surrounds the entire project to define the perimeter of the room.

The ceiling of the pavilion is made of tongue-and-groove pine that has been whitewashed to contrast with the darker cedar beams. There are also curved corbels, rack bracing to match the beams, and columns finished in cedar.

 

Maintaining Your Outdoor Fireplace During Summer Months

February 16, 2015 Outdoor Living, Outdoor Safety
An outdoor fireplace is a great addition to any outdoor living space. It adSONY DSCds warmth, ambiance and can be a great place to hang a TV in your outdoor space. While a fireplace is nice and cozy it does require regular maintenance to function correctly and burn safely during cooler months. Here are some steps you can take to make sure your outdoor fireplace is ready to perform in the cool weather for many years.

Inspection

Your outdoor fireplace should be inspected at least annually by a professional chimney sweep to  ensure it is clean and safe for you and your family. A regular inspection will alert you to potential problems before they become serious. Your chimney sweep will let you know when you are in need of professional cleaning.

IMG_0484Cleaning

A clean fireplace is a safe fireplace. Not only does a clean fireplace look best, it also functions best. It’s tempting just to leave ashes and leftover wood in the fireplace between fires but it’s best to remove the chunks and sweep the ashes once the fire is completely extinguished and cooled. Having a set of tools specifically used for fireplaces will speed this process along. Never use a vacuum cleaner, even a shop vac, to clean ashes as embers can stay hot for days and can reignite inside your vacuum.

Burn

While most people can start a fire it is essential for the health of your fireplace to build the right kind of fire. Hardwoods are best for burning in your fireplace. They burn hotter, longer and cleaner. Learn to build efficient, clean burning fires. A fire that is inefficient is very smokey and makes the firebox and chimney dirty with flammable materials like soot and creosote.

Monitor

Between professional inspections it is important for you to regularly monitor the condition of your outdoor fireplace. Soot and creosote can build up inside the firebox and chimney and can make the fireplace very unsafe. If you don’t know how to recognize these build ups ask you chimney sweep to show you what to look for. If you notice a build up of soot and creosote in your fireplace have it cleaned before you build a fire in it again.
We love our outdoor fireplaces and we know you do too. Make sure you maintain your fireplace during the summer to ensure a safe, cozy experience come fall!

Have a project in mind? We work throughout the Houston and Dallas - Fort Worth areas.

Our Customers Love Us

Texas Custom Patios were a great pleasure to work with on our outdoor addition. They listened intently to what we wanted to create, and gave expert advise on how to make it work. The workers were extremely professional and very clean. The workmanship was superior and the quality of products used was the best. Almost a year after completion they are still in contact and making sure we are still pleased with their work. I could not imagine not using them for a project.

© 2024 TCP Custom Outdoor Living

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