Brick Fireplaces & Fire Pits Gold Coast to Byron Bay
"The complex part of a fireplace is the part no one ever sees."
Tony Steenson
WHAT IS A BRICK FIREPLACE BUILD?
Built once, warm for a lifetime.
A brick fireplace is the kind of thing a household builds itself around for the next forty years. Steenson Brick & Block is a fireplace bricklayer working across the Northern Rivers, Byron Bay and the Gold Coast. From traditional fireplaces with full-brick chimneys to gas-insert fireplaces with the masonry around them, stone-clad fireplaces, outdoor fireplaces and the very popular fire pits.
While a lot of people are opting for a more modern fireplace with the ‘look’ of traditional stone or brick but the convenience of gas or ethanol, Tony and his team can also build the classic all brick fireplaces – a skill many bricklayers don’t have these days.
Outdoor fireplaces and fire pits are also becoming a popular landscaping feature — these are great ways to bring together family and friends and spend some time outdoors.
Built once, warm for a lifetime — fire places are a way to see the beauty of bricks against the warmth of fire.
OUR APPROACH
Bricklaying is the family trade. Fireplaces are a family specialty.
Tony Steenson grew up around fireplace work. His father has been building fireplaces and chimneys his whole working life — a renowned fireplace bricklayer back in Tamworth.
Most fireplace bricklayers won’t take a traditional brick fireplace on. The numbers tell the story — they’re slow, they’re technical, and the part that does the work is the part no one ever sees. Even now days, with 35 years experience, when a job calls for it, Tony still brings his father in as a second eye.
On any fireplace job — indoor or out, brick or stone, traditional or gas insert — Tony likes to have the big conversation up front. He recommends the client brings their inspiration — images or designs, which mean the Steenson team can get to work on the practicalities of getting it to come to life.
THE CRAFT (OUR PHILOSOPHY)
"It’s quite a complex infrastructure inside that no one ever sees."
From the room, a fireplace is the mantel, the hearth and the brick face. From the bricklayer’s side of it, the work is everything you can’t see. The fire box, the throat, the smoke shelf, the flue — every dimension matters. Get one of them wrong and the fire smokes back into the room instead of pulling cleanly up the chimney.
A traditional brick chimney is the part with the most skill in it. The flue is round made from square bricks, three bricks thick, every course laid true — a very different job to dropping a metal cylinder down a stud wall. There’s a reason most bricklayers won’t take one on, and a reason the ones who can build them properly are busy.
For outdoor fireplaces and fire pits the work is in the placement, the heat reflection, the way the structure sits in the yard. A sunken fire pit gathers people in close. A raised one becomes a piece of the landscape.
CONSIDERATIONS
Traditional brick chimney or gas insert
A traditional brick fireplace runs the chimney all the way up in brickwork. A gas-insert fireplace uses a metal flue and the masonry sits as surrounds. Both work. The first is a heritage piece; the second is the way most new builds go.
Brick fireplace or stone fireplace
Nowadays a stone fireplace is the same trade as a brick one with a different face. Brickwork lets you control the rhythm and proportion exactly; stone gives you a more textured, organic look.
Where the fireplace sits in the room
A corner fireplace puts heat into the seating area in two directions instead of one. A central wall fireplace anchors a long room. The placement decision shapes the whole layout, not just the brickwork — it’s worth deciding before the framing goes in.
Outdoor fireplace planning
An outdoor fireplace has different design challenges like wind direction, shade, seating or the relationship to an outdoor kitchen or BBQ area. Built into a new construction, the slab and services can be planned around it. Retrofitted, the work is harder but rarely impossible.
Traditional brick chimney or gas insert
A traditional brick fireplace runs the chimney all the way up in brickwork. A gas-insert fireplace uses a metal flue and the masonry sits as surrounds. Both work. The first is a heritage piece; the second is the way most new builds go.
Brick fireplace or stone fireplace
Nowadays a stone fireplace is the same trade as a brick one with a different face. Brickwork lets you control the rhythm and proportion exactly; stone gives you a more textured, organic look.
Where the fireplace sits in the room
A corner fireplace puts heat into the seating area in two directions instead of one. A central wall fireplace anchors a long room. The placement decision shapes the whole layout, not just the brickwork — it’s worth deciding before the framing goes in.
Outdoor fireplace planning
An outdoor fireplace has different design challenges like wind direction, shade, seating or the relationship to an outdoor kitchen or BBQ area. Built into a new construction, the slab and services can be planned around it. Retrofitted, the work is harder but rarely impossible.
WHY STEENSON BRICK & BLOCK?
Igniting the warmth in everyone.
Tony has built more brick fireplaces, gas-insert surrounds, outdoor fireplaces and fire pits than most bricklayers in the area — partly because the work scares others off, and partly because fireplaces have been the family specialty for two generations.
A fire pit isn’t a piece of brickwork that sits on a slab. It’s the centre of how the back yard gathers together. Tony plans it nestled into the landscaping — sheltered from the wind, sitting in the slope of the garden, surrounded by seating that pulls you in close.
If you want a fireplace or fire pit that is about the warmth of connection as much as the warmth of a fire, get in touch.