Randall's Blog

My latest project was to install a gas fireplace in a corner of our living-dining room. I have felt somewhat fire-deprived in our new house. In the NH house I had three fireplaces - one had a wood-burning insert, one had a vent-free gas log set and the last one was unused. Debbie's condo has two nice working fireplaces. This house has an interesting wood furnace in the basement that works with the oil burning furnace but no cheery flame that can be seen and enjoyed. This was my favorite old fireplace:

I decided that we should install a gas fireplace or stove. These run on LP gas that we already have for our cooking stove and are mess-free yet produce supplemental heat even without power and a nice real flame. I had installed a vent-free gas log set in the beautiful fireplace in the dining room of my NH home (above) and liked the simplicity of it. Vent-free gas appliances are somewhat controversial. They claim to be safe and 99% efficient but there are lots of detractors. They can produce carbon monoxide (CO) and use oxygen from the room they are in as well as adding water to the air. I had experience with the log set in NH and never had any problems but I looked into it further anyway. They are illegal in California and Canada as well as other places but the "Vent-Free Gas Products Alliance" claims they are safe.

I guess it depends on how well they are installed and maintained and how much they are used. The house in NH was BIG and drafty which means that there was a lot of outside air coming in. We just tightened up our new house and reduced the air leaks so I will have to keep an eye on our indoor air quality. Adding moisture to the air in the Winter is not a bad thing - in fact I just installed a humidifier on the heating system. Oxygen depletion and CO are bad. On the other hand I can't see how it would be any different than using the gas oven if we baked a lot. I am also looking into a heat-recovery ventilator for the house which should help.

We did look at direct vented stoves and fireplaces but they are expensive. We were quoted $3K to $5K for a good stove or fireplace at various dealers. This was out of our price range. They looked very nice but way too much money. I liked the idea of a small stove but Debbie preferred a fireplace with a mantle. Most of the mantles are pretty large, though, and our room is pretty small. We did see a nice tall & thin corner mantle in one place that we both liked.

I decided that perhaps I could purchase a firebox and log set and build a mantle for it. I even looked at recycled mantles at Historic Albany Foundation's Architectural Parts Warehouse. Some were pretty cool but many were just too big. It's a great place to find windows, doors etc. I also saw some vent-free fireplaces at Lowes that were pretty cheap - $500-700 range. The mantles were not real wood, however. I briefly thought of taking the firebox from the Lowes fireplace and building a mantle for it. A conversation with the local building inspector put a damper on that idea.

I decided to take the easy path and just purchase a small gas fireplace from Lowes ($450) and enhance it a bit. It is sized correctly for the room at 20,000 BTU. It is made by the same company that makes the more expensive stoves and fireplaces sold at dealers. This made the permit process much easier. I decided that I could raise the mantle up a few inches without clearance issues. This would make the mantle more visible in the room and allow it to fit against the wall better. I made the platform out of 3/4 in. cabinet-grade plywood and added some tile to the top. The tile was left over from a bathroom remodel that was done before we purchased the house. I looked into having some stone cut for the top of the mantle and a small insert above the firebox. This too was very expensive - I was quoted $375 for the cheapest stone. Debbie said she liked it without the stone anyway so I just got some thin marble (sold as a threshold for $12.50) and trimmed it for the decorative insert. Running the new gas line was straightforward, once I got the correct fittings...took a few tries.

Now we can have a nice fire for our groundhog party and it came in well under $1,000!