GAS FIREPLACES

Thinking of a gas fireplace? Good choice. They are beautiful, produce a lot of heat and can be neatly inserted into your existing fireplace hearth, all you need is a gas line. What if you don't have a hearth opening already? You're in luck, you can get freestanding gas models that come with a wood mantle surround, they can be corner units or regular straight wall pieces. Some of them are even two sided so they can act as a room divider.

Gas fireplaces produce a cleaner flame and prevent the growth of mold from the storage of real wood in the home. They usually have a blue pilot flame that can be turned off completely in the summer. During the winter you can leave the pilot flame running all the time (like a furnace flame) and then have fire instantly at the flick of a switch during the cold winter nights. My parents have a gas fireplace and so do my in-laws. It's a wonderful thing. No more hauling heavy wood, no more dumping of ash on the carpet trying to clean the soot out of the chimney. No more little pieces of burnt paper on the lawn from the newspaper you used to light the fire. Easy, simple, quick.

Are they expensive? Depends on what you get. They range from a couple hundred dollars to several thousand depending on their size, features and surrounding wood fireplace mantel quality.

Information current as of