Wood-burning insert vs gas insert — which should I choose?
In Waynesville the cold tilts the math. At nearly 2,650 feet your heating season runs about three weeks longer than Asheville's, so if you have a wood source, a wood insert gives you the cheapest heat per fire all winter. Prefer no chores? A gas insert delivers that heat on demand. Either one seals a drafty Hazelwood firebox into a real heater.
A longer, colder heating season
Waynesville sits high and runs 10 to 15 degrees colder than the lower WNC towns, which changes how you weigh an insert. When you're feeding a fire from October well into April, fuel cost adds up — and cordwood you cut or buy locally is the cheapest heat there is. That's the case for a wood insert, and around here plenty of homes have the wood to justify it. If you'd rather not split, stack, and haul all season, a gas insert holds a set temperature like a thermostat and never asks you to carry ash. The right pick is the one you'll actually keep lighting in February.
Old Hazelwood fireboxes, and the fuel question
A lot of Hazelwood's older housing stock has open masonry fireplaces that lean drafty — handsome, but net heat losers. An insert of either kind fixes that with a sealed firebox and a correctly sized stainless liner. Waynesville's fuel is mixed: natural gas serves parts of town, while homes up the slopes run on propane, and a gas insert works on either — we just set the orifices and pressure for your fuel. Gas is licensed work, so we pull the Haywood County permit and pressure-test the line before the first flame.
See it before you decide
We're 35 minutes away in Asheville, with gas and wood inserts burning side by side at the showroom, and we make the drive out to Waynesville for a free in-home look at your fireplace. Call (828) 545-0525.
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.
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