Fireplace Safety Recommendations

Keep fireplace sparks at bay. Invest in a wire mesh or glass gate from your local fireplace store to help keep sparks and ash off carpet, curtains, and rugs.

Mesh fireplace screens and curtains are used to protect your home from sparks and embers that can occur with the use of a wood burning fireplace. They are also designed to withstand high temperatures. Mesh curtains minimize the risk of hot embers or sparks popping out of your fireplace and burning your flooring or catching your home on fire.

Should You Use a Fireplace Mesh Screen or a Glass Door for Spark Protection?

Sometimes people think that they can just use a glass door instead of a mesh screen or curtain for spark protection. That’s not the primary purpose of a glass fireplace door. Glass doors cannot be closed while there is a fire in your fireplace. It presents a hazard because the glass can break because of the heat buildup. Mesh curtains can be closed when there is a fire in your fireplace because they allow the heat to pass through. That’s part of their purpose: to keep the hot embers in the fireplace where they belong.

So, remember – glass doors can only be shut when your fireplace is not in use. Keep your doors open if your fireplace is in use and shut the mesh curtain instead. If you don’t have a fireplace mesh screen or curtain, you run the risk of sparks getting out of your fireplace and causing damage.

Using Mesh Doors to Match Any Decor

Some people want mesh doors for their fireplace to help disguise or makeover an ugly masonry fireplace. This is done because mesh curtains can be ordered in a wide variety of sizes and styles. They can be purchased to fit just about any size fireplace. There are mesh screens that are simply pulled along a track to close and open, and there are mesh screens that are built into the fireplace door itself.

There are two things that you should think about if you want to use mesh for decorative purposes. First, remember the true purpose of mesh: to act as a spark guard and protect your flooring (and home) from hot sparks and embers that may pop out when you use a wood burning fireplace. Sparks and embers generally aren’t an issue with gas fireplaces, so if that’s what you have you may not need one. Although the mesh is designed to tolerate high heat, as mentioned earlier, it does eventually become rusty. The rust (and sometimes the age) of a mesh curtain can make it hard to close. That, of course, makes it less effective. More simply put, every mesh curtain eventually must be replaced because there is no way to stop the decay caused by being that close to a fire for an extended period of time.