Our Services
Fitting gas logs, from burner to diagram
What a gas log set will and will not do for your fireplace, explained before any work starts.
Clean and check the fireplace before the logs go in
One maker's installation rules require the chimney flue, the damper and the firebox to be thoroughly cleaned of soot, ashes and loose paint before its burner goes into a solid-fuel-burning fireplace. The same manual notes that some fireplaces, especially older ones, may need repair before the appliance is installed.
Those parts are checked before quoting, and any cleaning or repair is listed on its own line. Doing that work first means the new set starts in a clean firebox with a clear flue above it, and nothing old is left to foul the burner. The cleaning also lets us see the firebox floor and walls clearly, which is where the burner and the logs will sit for years.
Factory-built fireplaces need a listing check
Metal factory-built fireplaces follow their own listing. Florida's residential code keeps unvented gas log heaters out of factory-built fireplaces unless the fireplace system itself has been tested, listed and labeled for one. The fireplace's own manual often names the gas appliances it accepts.
The fireplace label and its manual are read before any set is quoted for a factory-built unit. If the listing does not allow the set you want, we explain what it does allow. Identifying the fireplace also tells us which damper, screen and doors it came with, and whether a vented set would change how any of them are used. Nothing is ordered until that check is done.
Nothing extra on the burner
Decorations belong off the burner. One maker's vent-free manual forbids placing logs, wood chips, pine cones or vermiculite on the appliance, because they cause improper burning, soot and high levels of carbon monoxide. Decorative granules or glass go on the fireplace floor in front of and beside the burner, away from the controls.
Ember material follows the manual too. Old embers come out before new ones go in, and replacements come from the original maker. We set the ember bed to the instructions and tell you what may and may not be added later. Keeping the burner clear is what lets the set burn as cleanly on its hundredth evening as on its first.
No wood fires once the set is in
A fireplace fitted with a gas log set becomes a gas fireplace. One maker's manual states that solid fuels must not be burned in a fireplace where a decorative gas appliance is installed. Burning wood on or around a gas burner can damage it and the logs. A decorative gas set sits where the wood fire used to be, and the two cannot share the same firebox.
If you still want the option of a wood fire, the set is the wrong choice for that fireplace, and we would rather tell you before installation. For homes that are ready to move to gas for good, we remove what the wood fires left behind and fit the set in a clean firebox.
