Do I have a gas fireplace or just a gas starter?

18 years ago

No, I'm not a total idiot, I've just never seen this sort of setup before. We bought this house lasy summer. It has a masonary firplace and chimney. There is a hole in the floor where a key fits to turn on the gas. There are some ceramic logs in there now, but I'd love to burn wood.

How can I tell if it's a woodburning fireplace w/ a gas starter or simply a gas fireplace?

If it's woodburning, do I need to remove the ceramic logs or can I simply place logs on top?

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Comments (4)

ventupete
18 years ago
I don't think anyone would go to the expense of building a masonry fireplace and chimney just for a gas burner and artificial logs. If you still have a doubt, reach up into the chimney and you will be able to tell pretty quickly if wood's ever been burned in it (just look at the color of your hand). You probably could burn the wood on top of the ceramic logs, but, why would you want to do that? The wood will be high up and you won't get a good looking fire nor will it give off the maximal heat.
Xanndra
18 years ago
You have neither.
What you have is a masonry fireplace with a set of gas logs stuck in them.

You have to remove the gas logs and its gas burner pipe entirely and replace it with a real gas starter pipe that you can purchase from a stove shop or a hardware store. Then you can burn wood in your fireplace again.
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acdesignsky
Original Author
18 years ago
Thanks for the replies.
I agree it would be really silly to build the chimney if you couldn't burn wood. Apparently, the last people who lived here never used the fireplace (according to the neighbors). They did leave behind a cord of wood though. It seems they thought you couldn't use wood either.
I thought about leaving the ceramic logsjust to make it easier to switch between ambient fire (gas) and heat producing flame (wood). Now that you mention it, it would look strange.
I think Xanndra hit the nail of the head. I did a Google for gas starters and they look nothing like to large tray type set up we have. I guess we'll have the chimney folks out to give us an esitmate on a good cleaning and retrofit.
Thanks again. BTW, I got in a flurry since the furnance went out and we have to wait a couple of days for a repairman. It's not below freezing just yet, but the kids and dog aren't at all happy. The gas fire does nothing but send hot, expensive air up the chimney. We were looking forward to an actual warm fire.
leotapentecost_yahoo_com
13 years ago
My house was built in the early 1900 and i know at one time it was a real fireplace. Somewhere along the line someone has install gas heat. I have cermic logs and a gas line that goes into the fire place but the chimney has been cemented up can i still install the gas burner pipe and burn the cermic logs? Will it give off heat? Where Can I find the parts I will need to get this working?