Converting Wood Burning to gas fireplace (buying a home, buying, maintenance)

[dwalsh85]

I recently bought a new house and it has a wood burning fireplace, but it has a gas hook up to start the fire.

My questions is how hard is it to convert to gas burning, fake logs, since there is already a gas hook up.

I called a local shop and they quoted me $800. Seems a bit high.

[Lookout Kid]

The previous homeowners in our house did this conversion and left a copy of the invoice for us, and the price was similar to yours. But it's a nice system that looks somewhat natural, with glowing embers under the fake logs. You can find something that looks really fake for a lot less money.

[Bellamouse]

Can I ask a dumb question? It is a sincere one. Why would you want to convert to a fake looking gas fireplace? I think real wood would be soooo much nicer? I would be wanting to convert to a natural fireplace if my house had gas/fake logs. Please help me understand why people do this (I never had a fireplace except when I was a kid and I don't have much memory of it, so this is the reason for my ignorance).

[Lookout Kid]

The reasons that people like gas are numerous. No storing wood with mice and bugs in the wood pile, no schlepping wood around, very little maintenance, no cleaning ash and soot out of the fire place, no costly chimney sweeping, and you can have fire on demand with little effort.

I probably wouldn't have paid to do it in our house, but the previous owners did, and we like it. But it is one of the more realistic gas fireplaces I've seen, and it has some sort of heat sink that stays hot and radiates heat in to the house. If we want a fire, we just open the flue and light the flame. Piece of cake.

[Bellamouse]

Well that makes sense. Thank you for the explanation. I seriously had no idea there would be mice in the woodpile. And I didn't consider chimney sweeping. How often does one need to do that with a woodburning FP? We are looking at buying a home with a woodburning FP and now I'm curious as to what that would really entail.

[ToriaT]

It depends on how often you use the fireplace. I have a wbfp and have never used it so I don't get it cleaned. I am thinking of converting it to gas. There is an ease of use factor with gas. I do like the idea of real wood burning so I hesitate. I have had many a fireplace in my lifetime both gas and wb and while wb is nice gas is much easier.

[Lookout Kid]

Note that if you convert to gas, you can almost always just convert it back to wood-burning with little effort. Unless they do something stupid when installing it...

[MPowering1]

People who burn wood often and go through a face cord or more every year get theirs cleaned every season. The creosote can build up and cause a chimney fire, but don't let that deter you from having or using one. I don't even start a fire every weekend, so I can go two years.

I prefer wood burning because of the smell you get from it and the natural cracking you hear from time to time. If you keep your wood away from the house, on a stand so it's raised off the ground, and don't keep any stored inside bringing it in as you burn, bugs and mice are generally not a problem.

[AngelBy]

In my opinion, woodburning stoves make you feel warmer and more ambient, you only need to clean the chimney once a year if you use it daily in winter season (can do yourself or hire someone) .

[Lookout Kid]

Originally Posted by AngelBy

In my opinion, woodburning stoves make you feel warmer and more ambient, you only need to clean the chimney once a year if you use it daily in winter season (can do yourself or hire someone) .

I was reading recently that an EPA-certified wood-burning stove is one of the more "green" ways you can heat your home. They were quite common with people who lived on the rural fringe of where I grew up.