THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, February 11, 1995 TAG: 9502090330
SECTION: REAL ESTATE WEEKLY PAGE: 04 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JEANNE MOONEY, SPECIAL TO REAL ESTATE WEEKLY
LENGTH: Long : 119 lines
Call John Nunes a man for all ages. Like his ancestors, he craves the warmth and comfort of a blazing fire.
But he can live without the gritty chores of hauling wood or shoveling ashes. So on cold mornings, Nunes does what any 20th century techno-whiz would: He points a remote control device at his fireplace and zaps a button.
Silently, flames grow and flicker in the hearth. Nunes rests easy. He barely need stir in his bed to fire up the gas logs.
It's much the same way in the living room of his newly built Hampton home. From the couch, he can control his other gas fireplace by mashing a button on a remote.
``I guess I'm inherently lazy,'' says Nunes.
Or simply part of a growing trend of homeowners who are opting for the no-muss, no-fuss gas-flamed logs instead of the traditional wood-burning fireplaces and stoves.
Many homeowners in Hampton Roads, it seems, are having a change of hearth.
Just ask the people who sell and install them, people such as Nunes, division manager for Thulman Eastern Corp. in Hampton. Roughly two years ago, one out of every six fireplaces he sold was gas fed; the rest burned wood. Today, one out of every two or three fireplaces he sells is gas fueled.
``People want instant gratification,'' Nunes says. ``Click it (a remote control device) and you've got your fire on.''
Says Bob Murray, president of Greenbrier Fireplace Inc. in Chesapeake, ``People just don't want to mess with the wood anymore.''
In the past three to four years, Murray has seen the demand for gas fireplaces blaze and the call for wood-burning stoves and hearths fizzle. But not just in new home construction. His company also is busy converting older masonry fireplaces to accommodate gas logs.
Wood burners, Murray says, ``have become a thing of the past.''
Tut-tut, say firewood sellers such as Mick Shaw, owner of Norfolk Farm Market, and Dave Brannock, owner of Dave's Cove Hickory Firewood in Portsmouth.
``They're probably just as many people who yearn for an open (wood-burning) fireplace,'' Shaw says. For them, a gas fireplace is like an artificial Christmas tree. ``It just don't thrill 'em.''
``No, they're not dead,'' Brannock says of the wood-burning fireplaces and stoves. ``It's just gas logs are a viable alternative.''
Plentiful, too.
You say you want a fireplace in your mobile home? Your condominium? Or your bedroom?
Gas fireplace manufacturers say they have gas logs, fireboxes and all sorts of mantels and trim for you.
You say space is a problem?
Gas fireplaces can be tucked in corners and china hutches and between bookshelves. Some slide into the wall and take up about as much room as a big microwave.
You say you don't have a chimney?
Ventless gas fireplaces require none. They work like space heaters and throw all their heat back into the room. Others, known as direct vented, also need no chimney and instead vent through walls. Still others are vented and require a flue.
Some gas logs are regulated with thermostats and others with sensors that shut the system down if the level of oxygen in the room falls too low.
Some are brassy and contemporary and others look like fish tanks with glass faces on two, three or four sides.
And some you can take with you if you move.
The costs?
Gas logs in a vented fireplace cost about $300 to $450 depending on their size. Add about $200 for a remote control device.
Installing the logs and the needed gas lines and obtaining the various city permits will add to the expense. One plumber says those tasks, on average, run about $500 when he retrofits a masonry fireplace.
Fireboxes and trim also will boost the bottom line, depending on what the shopper chooses.
There are potential downs to these gas-fed features.
Open gas fireplaces that burn a yellow flame may leave a sooty residual on your wall or ceiling, says Aloys M. Fohl of A&B Propane in Chesapeake. This can occur when a fire's combustion isn't properly drawing out the flue.
And, if used for prolonged periods, some gas fireplaces can produce enough water vapor to leave your windows and walls moist, Fohl says. Cracking a window should help.
There are other issues to the gas fireplace phenom, ethereal though they might be.
For instance, you'll probably never convince a child that Santa Claus is going to pop out of ventless gas fireplace on Christmas Eve.
And if it's snap, crackle and pop you want in front of the fire, better buy a box of Rice Krispies. Or a sound track. Gas fireplaces won't give you that.
Phyllis Bailey of Chesapeake doesn't mind. After living and working 15-plus years with masonry fireplaces, she's grown to prefer the gas logs. And she's not going back.
``These are so much cleaner and easier to use,'' Bailey says of her two gas fireplaces, one of which is remote-controlled. ``And they put off more heat.''
Dan Maher found out about heating efficiency when he retired his wood stove and installed gas logs in two of the five masonry fireplaces in his Chesapeake home.
``You can walk anywhere in the house and you're warm,'' Maher says.
That wasn't the case when he stoked the wood stove and ran the electric baseboard heaters. ``You kept your long johns on,'' he says.
Maher's heating bills have decreased, too, from about $1,250 for the winter to about $700 for the year.
``There's no comparison in cost for me,'' he says.
Alas, for the rustic wood-burner, gas logs may seem a pale alternative lacking romance and realness.
That's OK with gas-log users such as Nunes. Any fireplace is better than none.
``A fireplace is a given part of the American dream,'' Nunes says. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo on cover by Christopher Reddick, Staff
John Nunes...
Staff photos by STEVE EARLEY
The modern hearth may be a compact ventless gas fireplace in an oak
wall unit from Greenbrier Fireplaces in Chesapeake.
The traditional wood-burning fireplace still has a cozy appeal.
by CNB