Building a new home — should we frame for a direct-vent gas fireplace or a wood-burning fireplace with a chimney?
For a Waynesville build at nearly 2,650 feet, frame for the heat you'll actually depend on. Winters here run 10–15 degrees colder than Asheville and the heating season is about three weeks longer, so this hearth is a primary heat source — which pushes many owners toward a wood chase they can burn off-grid, or a high-output direct-vent gas unit.
At this elevation, heat isn't decoration
Waynesville sits high and cold, and the older Hazelwood housing stock leans hard on its fireplaces every winter. When the hearth is doing real work — not just setting a mood — the calculus tips. A wood-burning fireplace with a framed Class A chimney gives you heat you own outright and total grid independence; a Regency Grandview kept people warm right through Helene. If you'd rather not tend a fire, a sealed direct-vent gas unit with a blower delivers steady output and lights instantly, and with battery-backup ignition it runs when the power doesn't.
Frame now for what carries you through January
Here's the asymmetry worth settling while framers are on site: a chase built for wood can always take a gas log set or a sealed insert later, but a slim gas-only opening can never become a chimney. In a town this cold, that flexibility is worth the extra framing. Haywood County parts of Waynesville are on the natural-gas main and others run propane — either fuel works. We're a licensed gas contractor, and where it's propane we coordinate the tank and regulator with your supplier and set the appliance for LP.
The Haywood County gas-line question
Running or extending the line is licensed work no showroom or mason can legally do. We coordinate with your builder at rough-in, run and pressure-test the line, pull the Haywood County permit, and meet the inspector. Call (828) 545-0525 early — 35 minutes from our Asheville showroom, and worth a framing-week visit. Deciding before the drywall goes up is far cheaper than retrofitting after.
Fireplace help in Waynesville
We install and service fireplaces throughout Waynesville and the rest of Haywood County — just 35 minutes west from our Asheville-area showroom.
Related questions
- Should I get a gas fireplace or a wood-burning fireplace?
- Which adds more resale value to a home, a gas fireplace or a wood-burning fireplace?
- Which lasts longer, a gas fireplace or a wood-burning fireplace?
- Which fireplace still works during a power outage — gas, wood, or electric?
- What's the difference between a zero-clearance fireplace and a masonry fireplace?