Should I get a gas fireplace or a wood-burning fireplace?
In Asheville, gas is the easy default on our natural-gas mains — but it depends which side of town you're in. A Montford or North Asheville home with an original masonry firebox is a natural candidate for a sealed insert or a real wood rebuild, while newer South Asheville construction takes clean-face gas beautifully. Your house, not just your fuel, decides.
It comes down to your neighborhood
The split we see across Asheville is really a housing-stock split. In Montford, North Asheville, and the older streets around Grove Park, homes came with big open masonry fireplaces that look wonderful and lose most of their heat up the flue. Those are ideal candidates for a sealed gas insert like the Napoleon Oakville X4 dropped into the existing opening, or a full EPA wood rebuild if you want the real fire. Out in South Asheville's newer builds, there's often no masonry at all — a direct-vent gas unit like our best-selling Napoleon Ascent 36 goes cleanly into a framed wall, bedrooms included.
The outage question
Asheville sits at 2,134 feet, and elevation keeps our nights in the 20s well into spring — the season you actually lean on a hearth is long. That's the real reason to think past ambiance to backup heat. Gas with battery-backup or millivolt ignition keeps throwing warmth when the grid is down; wood asks nothing of the grid at all. Electric looks great but goes dark in an outage, so we won't sell it to you as heat.
One licensed company, and the showroom's right here
Our showroom is at 629 Emma Rd in West Asheville, so you can stand in front of both a live gas unit and a wood firebox before you decide — no guessing. And because running or extending a gas line is licensed work in North Carolina, a furniture store or a mason can sell you a firebox but legally can't connect it to fuel. We can, we pull the Buncombe County permit and meet the inspector, and we pressure-test every line. Call (828) 545-0525 for a free in-home assessment.
Fireplace help in Asheville
We install and service fireplaces throughout Asheville and the rest of Buncombe County — we're headquartered right here.
Related questions
- Which heats a room better, a gas fireplace or a wood-burning fireplace?
- Is it cheaper to heat your house with wood or with gas?
- Which requires more maintenance, a gas fireplace or a wood-burning fireplace?
- Which lasts longer, a gas fireplace or a wood-burning fireplace?
- Which adds more resale value to a home, a gas fireplace or a wood-burning fireplace?