Converting a gas fireplace to woodburning

[leosmommy]

Has anyone ever done this? We have a gas fireplace. It is old, house was built in the 30's, but I don't know when the gas was installed. Point being, it is not a new fireplace, at least 20 years old according to previous owner. It looks nice, but gives off little to no heat and gas is very expensive so we rarely turn it on. Maybe 3-4 times a year, mostly for mood/look rather than practical purposes. I have heard that it is relatively easy to convert from gas to wood burning. Has anyone ever done this?? If so how much cost is involved and what kind of safety precautions were needed. TIA

[SarahFae]

I can tell you that home owner's insurance companies do not like wood-burning anything.

[Wildf1ower]

I haven't done that but we put in a wood-burning fireplace insert into our fireplace and that is the way to go if you can afford to. You get much more heat that way, it's cleaner (less smoke going up chimney), and safer. We have one in our livingroom and it heats up almost our entire house - our furnace only runs a little bit at night. They use liners inside your chimney and they have tight doors, so they are very safe.

[Wildf1ower]

http://www.homeclick.com/web/catalog/product_detail.aspx?pid=187852&cid=187852CI-1101P:H:Froogle&CAWELAID=167191519

I just googled and this was one of the first ones to come up - ours is a different brand but looks similar. It's kind of like a wood stove inside your fireplace.

[cream_city]

If the house is old, you should have someone out to inspect if it will be safe if you convert it to wood burning. My experience with older homes has been that usually the wood-burning fireplaces are dangerous/fire hazards.

We did convert one to a wood-burning insert, but it didn't look very nice to me.

Also, from what I understand, burning wood is worse for the environment than gas...

Maybe you could also research a better gas fireplace? I'm not sure how they work, but ours puts off tons of heat.

[PilotswifePA]

I can tell you that home owner's insurance companies do not like wood-burning anything.


Actually, our Home owner's insurance is pretty low even with our wood burner.

But, with the price of Gas and the cost of wood...it's about the same.

[Babyblue]

I would love to get at least one of our fireplaces working, but the kitchen one would be a nightmare to make safe for dc. our house is from the early 1800's and the kitchen fireplace is almost 4 foot by 4 foot, right now its just sealed and has two wodden doors covering the opening. the kitchen fireplace would also warm the entire downstairs, and if we left the doors open the upstairs too.

how do you keep your very young dc's away from the door if its constructed like that? as I guess the door and sourounding metel gets very hot.

[jamesnve]

new fireplaces .....very attractive..


source:soothingfireplaces.com

[EvilAmy]

Insurance company usually do not insure wood burning stoves in mobile homes, they will however if you install new pipe (triple wall), there is cement board installed under the decorative layer of the wall (and setbacks, the distance of stove/pipes from the wall must be to building codes) and that the stove is certified for a particular use. Regulations are somewhat looser in actual homes, however they do rather you stick with proper piping and triple wall where need be. The #1 issues with chimneys in older homes is that the mortar inbetween the bricks has often began to break down and crumble leaving small gaps in the brick, and if the soot in the chimney happens to ignite it can escape through the cracks and cause the rafters/wall to catch on fire, same with sparks that float up. So it's very important to have your chimney inspected before doing so, and keep it cleaned out.
To make a fireplace efficient and worth something other than decorative you are better off in using a woodstove insert that is made for going into fireplaces, again you need to make sure the chimney is in top shape. We've had too many homes here catch ablaze due to gaps and cracks in the chimney.