Gas log installation (sales, appliances, how much)

[davidbridgman]

We just got a quote from PSNC energy to convert our regular fireplace to gas logs. We thought it seemed kida high, like in the $1200 range total, about $600 for the install and $600 for the logs. Anyone have any experience with this? Any cheaper way to do it?

[pparks76]

Well I went through something similar with PSNC with my Gas grill installed on the deck its an in season out of season thing.... basically you have a few routes you can go but its still the same principle. You are going to pay more for it now because its winter (obviously) and they know you want/need it (Also PSNC is going to be involved either way because they will have to run a gas line to the fire place, costs about 50 bucks or so just for the line).

You can go to a home depot / lowes and buy the fire place and see how much they will charge you to install it or just get your firs place from there and save a few bucks and let the gas company do the rest. as I fond with my grill PSNC purposely resells like only TOP of the line stuff and the brand/model in their catalog I'm betting you cant even find in the store and its really really good stuff but the retail store stuff is pretty good too (I went with the PSNC for the replacement/repair warranty)

Finally you can do all this same stuff but just wait till the summer when they arent seling and no one is thinking about it and most likely you will get a great deal on some stuff they couldnt get rid of! Good luck either way!

[Sayantsi]

$600 for really, really nice logs, but most good logs are closer to $450-500 from what I've seen - you want good logs though.

The gas permit is $80 by itself, so $500 for labor is what you're looking at. If you went to a fireplace store you'd likely save at least $300 imo.

raleigh nc fireplace store - Google Search

[cstleddy]

We bought our house this past summer. We went to Fire House Casual Living on Capital Blvd and got a great education. Vented or Ventless. Remote or no. Got to see and smell (!) a lot of models, live, in action on the sales floor which was VERY helpful as we wanted something that looked real. Advice with the size, "wood" choices, extras such as different embers, differences between manufacturers, etc. We got ours two months ago $500ish and that was on sale. 18" Peterson, vented, no remote but lots of realistic embers. We measured and thought we wanted the 24" but the sales person talked us out of it. It will fit the opening, but too large a unit for the space.

They also gave us a list of preferred installers (gas plumbers) which consisted of two. A basic install (setup and hookup the logs inside the firebox and lock damper open) should have been about $200? We thought our woodburning FP was plumbed for gas as it had a gas stub coming out of the side, but alas, he showed us in the crawl space that it was not hooked up to a gas line. He gave us an estimate to run a line for the FP which was greatly based on the distance. He explained he could not tap into an existing line (with hot water heater, gas range, grill) as the pressure for that line was already borderline and one more item could cause the other appliances to not work properly or worse yet, the pilot light on the water heater could go out and well, you get the picture. He ran about 30' of 3/4" pipe, installed the logs, blacked-out (spray paint) the firebox, locked open the damper, tested it all including the pressure, showed us how to use it all, instructed us on safety and charged us $688. (He original estimate was $550-$680) ($275 materials, $395 labor and the rest was tax).

We love the Peterson log set - it's very realistic and just the right size. glad the Fire House talked us out of the 24". We are very pleased with the installer and the piece of mind we have that the installation was quality.

[MikeNC29]

Whatever you do, please stay away from the "vent-free" gas logs as they are actually house vented/lung-filtered and they send carbon monoxide, nitrous oxide, and a gallon of water vapor for every 100,000 BTU's burned straight into your home. If you read the paperwork that comes with the "vent-free" gas logs, they recommend opening a window when using the logs.

Mike