Tilal
Faqra

Chimneys inside timber joinery

Putting a working fireplace inside a timber surround is a detail that has to be right, not nearly right. The joinery cannot simply be built up to the firebox — there has to be a properly designed and correctly insulated separation between the heat source and the timber, with the insulation continuous and the clearances maintained behind every surface you can see. Done properly, the timber runs right up to the opening and the whole thing reads as one composition. Done casually, it is a fire risk and the wood discolours within a season.

Building for a mountain climate

Faqra is not Beirut. Winters are cold and dry, properties often sit empty and unheated for weeks, then get heated hard when the owners arrive — and wood-burning heat dries the air further. That cycle is punishing for timber. It pushes the specification towards engineered cores that stay dimensionally stable through the swing, balanced facing on both sides of every panel, and letting material acclimatise in the building before it is fixed, particularly when the delivery came up from the humid coast that morning.

Two chalets and a villa

The package covered joinery across two chalets and a private villa on the same development, which brings the same consistency question as any multi-unit project — matched material, one finish standard, and a single team so the third property is built to the standard of the first. See areas we serve across Lebanon.