A fireplace can be a beautiful home feature that encourages you to get cozy, cuddle up with loved ones and enjoy a peaceful warmth in your own home.
However, many homeowners find their fireplace challenging to navigate when they need to consider wood, fire starters and safe burning practices. After all, if starting and maintaining a fire seems like a hassle, you’ll likely avoid the task and neglect your fireplace for more days than you’d like.
Thankfully, there is a solution that allows you to enjoy your fireplace while making it more convenient — and safer — to do so. Converting your fireplace from wood to gas can bring several benefits and enhance your at-home experience.
Why Convert a Wood Fireplace to Gas?
For many homes, the fireplace is a focal point of home design and a cozy spot to warm up. This means the space typically needs to look attractive while offering easy function. With wood fireplaces, these needs often clash because the demand of caring for the fire, keeping the space clean and ensuring safety combats the desire for convenience. Gas fireplaces make it easier to manage flames and offer peace of mind.
Advantages of a gas fireplace include:
- Easy off-and-on functions: The convenience of a gas fireplace appeals to many homeowners. Wood fireplaces require a lot of effort to start and maintain. You have to buy or chop wood, transport it to the hearth, start the fire safely and stoke the flames to ensure a safe blaze. Gas fireplaces offer immense convenience, allowing you to start and stop your fires at the push of a button. This convenience enables you to enjoy a warm room whenever you want while having peace of mind about fire safety when you go to bed.
- Cleaner appearance: A gas fireplace’s lower demands translate to a cleaner appearance and fewer supplies in your home or storage areas. You don’t need paper, wood or other fire starters. Gas fires leave minimal physical soot compared to wood fires, meaning you have less to clean after you extinguish the flames. You can even find vented inserts to remove most residue for further cleaning convenience.
- Less storage demand: Creating a storage space for wood can be a hassle for some homeowners, especially those living in small homes or with little property outside the house. However, the chores span beyond finding a location for a wood pile — you also have to store the wood properly to ensure it’s ready for use at a moment’s notice. For example, best practices include keeping the wood off the ground to avoid moisture and covering the pile with a tarp to prevent snow or rain from soaking the wood. Overall, wood storage demands can add complexity to your routine, while gas fireplaces offer a simple alternative with minimal storage requirements.
- Improved home safety: A significant advantage of converting your fireplace to gas is improving your at-home safety. Burning wood requires paying close attention to the flames, ensuring they remain in control at all times. Additionally, you should not leave your home or go to bed with logs burning. While you can safely maintain a wood fireplace, they often present higher risks than gas fireplaces. Modern gas units let you control the start and stop of a fire and feature safety shut-off systems to eliminate any gas-related exposure risks.
How to Convert Your Fireplace to Gas
Once you’ve decided to convert your fireplace, it’s time to put your thoughts into action. Converting your fireplace is pretty simple, and there are only a few steps to keep in mind:
1. Inspect Your Chimney
Before making any changes to your fireplace, schedule a time for a professional service to come inspect your chimney. This inspection will detail whether you have any problems or faults in your chimney that you need to address for efficient burning and safe heat and airflow. It’s crucial to address any chimney problems to ensure your home’s integrity and your safety.
2. Seal Off the Ash Dump
If you have an ash dump, you’ll need to seal it off. These components collect the ash that falls from burning logs to aid in cleaning your fireplace. You won’t need this component when converting to gas because gas models produce minimal to no debris. You can typically find ash dump access doors in the firebox’s center.
3. Choose Your Fireplace Insert or Log Set
Converting to a gas fireplace gives you the option to choose between inserts or log sets. Inserts seamlessly fit into existing openings and often have decorative features to give your fireplace an upscale look. Log sets provide a modern yet traditional look, allowing you to keep an original feel while still experiencing the benefits of a gas fireplace. Although either option can be great, it’s important to consider the various types available of each:
- Direct vent inserts: These inserts possess a venting system, with many modern inserts having two pipes. The venting system allows fresh air to enter and aids in removing emissions. Choosing direct vent inserts is excellent for homeowners concerned about air quality, such as those with asthma or lung issues.
- Ventless inserts: Ventless inserts allow you to experience the luxury of a fireplace even if you don’t have a chimney. These systems let you feel the flames efficiently but keep them smaller due to the lack of outdoor air aiding in combustion.
- Vented gas logs: Vented gas log sets require a chimney and provide natural flames that resemble wood fire flames. Many modern venter log sets also have glowing ember beds to simulate a more natural, cozy illusion.
- Ventless gas log sets: These log sets offer similar benefits to vented sets but often have smaller flames. Many homeowners experience less heat loss with ventless sets compared to vented sets.
4. Speak With a Professional
For final installation, it’s best to contact a professional who can take proper measurements to ensure you find the insert or log set to meet your needs and provide a worry-free installation. Improper log or component placement can be dangerous, so it’s best to leave this task to someone experienced. A professional can also safely run a gas line to your fireplace if you don’t already have one to ensure efficiency and safety for everyone in your home.
As a final step, it’s beneficial to install a carbon monoxide detector near your fireplace as an extra precaution after installing gas components.
Converting a Wood Fireplace to Gas With Atlanta Chimney Doctor
Atlanta Chimney Doctor is your reliable service provider for fireplace and chimney repairs. With over 30 years of experience and a passionate team ready to enhance your safety, comfort and convenience, you can trust us to do the job right. Whether you’re looking for a fireplace remodel or want expert advice when converting your fireplace, we’re happy to help. Request a service to learn how we can enhance your space. We look forward to serving you!
