Bring Reliable Gas Heat to Your Remlap Home.

Most gas fireplace and insert installations in the Remlap area run $3,500 to $8,000, depending on the unit, the venting path, and whether a propane tank and gas line already exist on the property. A propane insert going into an existing masonry fireplace with a tank already on-site sits toward the lower end. A new direct-vent fireplace built into a wall, plus a fresh propane line run and a new tank set and filled by a local supplier, pushes toward the higher end—tank installation and the first fill alone can add $400 to $1,500. A local dealer will give you a firm number after seeing the house.

Yes, and it's a common project for older Blount County homes with a masonry fireplace that rarely gets used for wood anymore. A propane insert slides into the existing firebox and uses a stainless liner run up your current chimney for venting, so you keep the look of the fireplace without the smoke, ash, or need to season and stack oak or hickory. Since there's no natural gas main out here, the conversion also means coordinating with a propane supplier for a tank if you don't already have one—your installer typically handles that piece alongside the gas line and venting work.

Propane is really the only option for most of Remlap—there's no natural gas utility line running through this part of unincorporated Blount County, so homes here are on propane for any gas appliance, fireplaces included. That means a tank on the property, either owned outright or leased through a regional propane supplier, with delivery scheduled a few times a year depending on usage. It's a normal setup throughout rural Alabama and doesn't limit your fireplace options—nearly every direct-vent gas fireplace and insert on the market can be configured to run on propane instead of natural gas.

Most propane fireplaces with intermittent pilot ignition (IPI) keep working through a power outage because they run on battery backup—typically a few AA batteries inside the unit that take over the moment the power drops. Valor units go a step further: their pilot assembly generates its own electricity through the thermocouple, so there's no battery to remember at all. For Remlap, where ice storms occasionally take down power in the county for a day or two, that battery backup (or Valor's self-powering pilot) is worth asking about specifically when you're comparing units, since it's the difference between heat and no heat when the grid is down.

A gas fireplace is a built-in unit framed into a wall—the right call for new construction or a remodel where there's no existing firebox. A gas insert is built to slide into an existing masonry fireplace opening, sealing it up and using the chimney (with a liner) as the vent path—this is the most common upgrade for older Remlap and Blount County farmhouses with a fireplace that's gone unused for years. A gas stove is a freestanding cabinet-style unit that sits on the floor like a wood stove but runs on propane, which works well in a room without any existing fireplace or chimney. A local dealer can tell you which fits your specific opening and floor plan.

Remlap itself is unincorporated, so permitting for gas fireplace and propane line work runs through Blount County rather than a city building department. Any new gas fireplace installation typically needs both a building permit and sign-off on the gas line work, which has to be run by a licensed gas installer regardless of jurisdiction. Most hearth dealers who work regularly in Blount County handle the permit paperwork as part of the installation, so you generally aren't tracking it down yourself—but it's worth confirming with your installer before work starts.

Vented (direct-vent) fireplaces pull combustion air from outside and exhaust it back outside through a sealed pipe—they're the safest option and the one most local dealers recommend as a primary heat source. Vent-free propane fireplaces burn without any external venting and are legal in Alabama, subject to room-size minimums and an oxygen depletion sensor, which makes them a reasonable option for supplemental heat in a den or bonus room. Given how mild Remlap winters run overall, some homeowners here do choose vent-free for occasional-use spaces where running new venting isn't practical—but for a room you'll actually heat through the season, direct-vent is still the better long-term choice.

Plan on an annual inspection before the weather turns cold—a technician checks the burner, pilot assembly, gas connections, and venting, and cleans the glass and interior. This matters more with propane than it might seem, since a poorly tuned burner wastes fuel and can sooty up the glass fast. Local gas appliance technicians in the Blount County area typically charge somewhere in the $125 to $225 range for a standard annual service call.

Given how mild the winters run here—average lows around 31°F and under 3,000 heating degree days a year—very few Remlap homes rely on wood as a primary heat source anymore, even though oak, pine, and hickory are all plentiful and cheap locally. Some households keep an old wood-burning fireplace going for ambiance or as backup, but for day-to-day heating, propane gas has become the standard because it lights instantly, needs no splitting or stacking, and runs at a steady, predictable output through a cold snap. If your goal is dependable, low-maintenance heat for a bonus room, den, or whole living area, gas is almost always the better fit for this climate. If you already have a working wood fireplace and enjoy tending it, there's no reason to give it up—just know most new installations in the area are going propane.

Open fireplaces suck—literally. As the fire burns, it consumes air your furnace already paid to heat and pulls it out through the chimney, so the house is actually colder after the fire goes out than before you lit it. An insert fixes this: it seals the chimney, puts fixed glass across the front, and turns that hole in your house into a real heat source.

An insert is a fireplace that slides into a pre-existing wood-burning fireplace—if you don't have one, there's nothing to insert it into. A zero-clearance fireplace is built into a framed wall, which makes it the answer for remodels and new construction. Simple test: existing masonry fireplace means insert; blank or framed wall means zero-clearance.

If you're putting a fire in your house on purpose, it's best to work with an expert. Unless you're genuinely experienced in framing, gas line, vent pipe, and the national code on clearances to combustibles, have a professional do it—and ideally the same company that sells you the fireplace, so warranty, service, and liability all live under one roof.

Yes—by creating a comfort zone. A furnace heats every square foot of the house just to warm the one room you're in; a gas fireplace on low burns roughly a sixth of the gas a typical furnace does. Set the furnace around 55–60 degrees as a baseline, then heat the rooms your family actually uses. Families who heat this way commonly save $20–$60 a month.