Local Gas Fireplace Installation in Jacksonville

Direct-vent or B-vent

A direct-vent unit is sealed behind its glass and draws all of its combustion air from outside through the outer passage of a pipe within a pipe, while the exhaust leaves through the inner one. A B-vent unit, also called natural vent, burns room air and sends its exhaust up a vertical Type B gas vent through a draft hood.

Direct-vent gas fireplace installation is the more flexible of the two, since the vent can end at a side wall or on the roof, and section 303.3 of the Florida Building Code, Fuel Gas allows direct-vent appliances in bedrooms when installed to their listing. A B-vent unit has to rise vertically, and in a bedroom the room has to meet section 304.5, whose standard method asks for 50 cubic feet for every 1,000 Btu per hour of input. Vent-free units are a different product with different rules.

Heater or decorative listing

Section 605.1 covers vented gas fireplace heaters, listed to ANSI Z21.88, and section 604.1 covers vented decorative gas fireplaces, listed to ANSI Z21.50. A standing pilot with millivolt controls lights without house power, and electronic ignition needs power or a battery backup. Glass-fronted units built to the 2015 revisions of both standards ship with a barrier screen. The maker's sizing guidance for input against room size is the starting point, and the estimate lists the model we recommend and one alternative.

Framing and the face of the unit

To install a gas fireplace, we frame from the installation manual, which gives the framing dimensions, the header height and the clearances for that model. The unit is secured as the manual shows, the air spaces it leaves open stay empty, and the face takes only noncombustible finishes with the heat-rated adhesive the manual names. The mantel chart sets the mantel's height and depth, and for decorative units section 604.2 keeps service panels unattached to the building.

The vent run and the termination

The vent comes from the system the manual lists, and its vent table sets the least and most rise, the longest horizontal run for that rise and what each elbow counts against it. The manual also sets pitch, support spacing and clearances, a firestop goes at each floor or ceiling crossed, and each gas appliance gets a vent of its own.

A wall termination keeps the distances in the manual's clearance table, drawn from NFPA 54, to opening windows and doors, soffits, corners, the ground, mechanical air intakes and the gas meter's regulator vent. It is never recessed, and on vinyl siding the maker's standoff keeps heat off the cladding. A roof route rises to a vertical cap at the height the manual sets, sealed with the vent maker's roof flashing and storm collar.

Gas line, power and start-up

Gas is brought to the unit's shutoff valve by a gas contractor, or on a propane system by the propane supplier, and the manuals require propane tanks to sit outside. A propane fireplace installation adds the supplier as a party. An electrician adds any outlet, and the manuals call for grounding to NFPA 70.

At start-up we read the inlet and manifold pressures against the rating plate, leak-check every connection with a leak-detection solution, compare the flames with the manual after warm-up, set the logs to the diagram and fit the barrier. The first burns give off an odor as the paint cures, so the room is ventilated.

Logs, inserts, venting and the permit

A log set for an existing fireplace is gas log installation. A sealed unit that slides into an existing fireplace is gas fireplace insert installation. Work on the vent run alone is gas fireplace venting.

A new gas fireplace needs a permit, with inspections of the framing, venting and gas connection before the finish closes in, and any gas fireplace installer should hand you the parts, route and trades in writing. Call (904) 920-5495 to start with a free inspection of the room and the outside wall.