Gas Fireplace Installation in the Seattle Area, WA.

The thing worth understanding about a modern gas fireplace is that most of them are sealed. A direct-vent unit has a glass front that stays closed and a single coaxial pipe that draws combustion air in from outside and pushes exhaust back out through the same penetration. Nothing is taken from the room and nothing is released into it. Because that pipe can run horizontally through an exterior wall, a gas fireplace can be installed on a ground floor, in a bedroom wall, in a basement – places where a vertical masonry flue was never going to happen.

The other real choice is the form. A built-in unit is framed into a wall, finished with a surround, and looks like it was always there. An insert is built to slide into an existing masonry firebox, with a liner run up the existing flue, and is the usual answer when there is already a fireplace. A freestanding stove sits in the room on a hearth pad and vents behind or above it. All three are gas; they are different installations.

What has to be right either way is the gas supply, the vent termination and the clearances. The line has to be sized for the unit’s input rather than teed off whatever is nearest. The termination outside has to keep its distance from windows, doors, soffits and anything that will be walked past, and it has to be flashed where it leaves the building, which is a roofing detail as much as a gas one. We handle the line, the vent and the masonry as one job.