Steps to Convert Your Wood Fireplace to a Gas Insert

Three Wood-to-Gas Conversion Options:

 1. Gas Logs

The easiest type of wood-to-gas fireplace conversion. Gas logs sit inside your existing fireplace and have a gas burner. They come in vent-free and vented options. Vented gas logs send the heat up the chimney while vent-free logs vent all of the heat and exhaust into the house. Gas logs are typically more for looks than warmth. 

2. Gas Inserts 

Gas inserts are retrofitted wood-burning fireplaces that use gas to heat the air inside the fireplace and emit the heat into the room. They are much more efficient and easier to manage than wood-burning fireplaces while also being just as productive. They are much more realistic than a gas log set. Gas inserts are the middle-priced option of the three.

Choose from Direct Vent Fireplace, Up-vent Fireplace, or Vent-Free Fireplace:

• Vent-free fireplaces produce the most heat but are outlawed in some states due to their tendency to introduce unburned combustibles into your home that may affect people with allergies and asthma. Note that ventless fireplaces can only be installed in WI homes built prior to 1980.
• Direct vent fireplaces use the chimney to vent the fire’s byproducts and most closely resembles a real-life fire. Direct vents are typically vented horizontally, directly through the walls to the outdoors.
• Up-vent fireplaces are direct vents that are routed vertically through the roof.

3. Built-in Gas Fireplace

Built-in gas fireplaces don’t require an existing chimney or fireplace to be installed. Similar to gas inserts, you can choose from ventless or vented fireplaces. Vented fireplaces expel heat through the wall. Gas fireplaces can be the most ornate and customized of the three types but are also the most expensive gas fireplace to install.