Have you switched from a wood-burning fireplace to a gas fireplace? (Centreville: hardwood floors, townhouse)

[persnicketygal]

What does it entail? And what would you estimate a switch to cost?
This snowstorm made me realize that I don't want to deal with a wood-burning fireplace in my townhouse -- too messy. And it seems that a lot of people in my neighborhood have switched over.
I have a gas stove, so I'd assume that the lines are in place.

[yolli71]

Yes, my parents did this about a year ago at their home in Centreville. The total cost was around 5k (though I think there were cheaper options down to about 3k). I don't know all the details about the work that went into it, but the fireplace company handled it all.

My parents love the fireplace...it really heats up their family room and kitchen area well. The other nice thing is that it can be used even when there's a power outage (not the blower though).

[JfromReston]

I recently did this and the cost can be highly variable depending on if you pick a gas log set vented (most heat goes up the chimney), gas log set unvented (smaller flame size and all fumes go in house) or a sealed insert (very efficient heating). Do some googling and you will find they each have positives and negatives.

I choose the Mendota Full View Modern with driftwood and rocks.
FullView Modern Gas Fireplaces by Mendota - America's Luxury Fireplace

We have really enjoyed the fireplace in this storm!

[tgbwc]

We just did this last month. A big part of the cost was in running the gas line from the meter to the wall where the fireplace is. I'm thinking it was about $30 a linear foot. The entire estimate was a little over $5k, but after waiting and checking with other companies the first estimate came down to around $3,800.

[menmom1]

When we built our farm home several years ago, we installed a wood pellet stove that heats our whole home (and we have natural gas too!) which is over 4000 square feet with a four (4) car attached garage (7 bedrooms/7 1/2 bathrooms). We also have a second fireplace where we have a wood stove that we can use for a backup heat source if needed.

Living out in Leesburg/Lucketts area, we can have outages due to bad weather. Since we live on land, we also have a whole house Generac generator which uses gas for fuel. Also, DH has a whole home/workshop Generac generator for his workshop/out buildings which has 4-door garage doors for his workshop area--where we store our snow tractors/plows, etc. Luckily, we did not need it this weekend! We ended up helping our neighbors in this driveways clearing out the snow earlier today.

My DH who is a DIY-er and an Electrical Engineer recently installed an under floor heating grid floor in all four (4) of our bathrooms upstairs and in the main level where we have 2 1/2 bathrooms too. One of the main level bathrooms is next to our main level laundry room area which we use when we come in from outside or the garages. He also installed the under floor electric grid downstairs in our basement which has a full bath too.

We have tile in the laundry rooms and other main bathrooms. Hardwood floors throughout our home (main level, upstairs, and in our basement). DH pulled the permits himself for the under floor heating and installation of the pellet and wood stoves. He also installed a gas line for our Weber grills when we built our home and pulled the permits saving us mega $$$!.

As far as gas logs and the installation cost, we also did it ourselves and pulled our own permits for our master bedroom gas log fireplace installation. If a plumber had to do this, it would have cost over $6000 easily! We also have a tankless gas hot water heater large enough for our needs too that we installed. Gas logs will help heat your living area if done correctly.

With six (6) kids under 6 YO (soon to be eight (8) under 8 YO--we are having twins in three months!), we have a lot of "messes" with kids playing outside and inside the homestead.

Glad I have a DH who is a DIY-er! Growing up on farms (both of us) and having a family farm now, we can pretty much be self-sufficient when it comes to home maintenance. Have a safe and good weekend!