Keep Your Family Warm and Safe—No Matter What

In most cases, no—not from scratch. Jefferson County building codes, tied to Colorado's Regulation No. 4 for the Denver Metro/North Front Range ozone nonattainment area, have required new residential construction to use gas-burning fireplaces rather than solid-fuel wood fireplaces since the 1990s. If your home was built after that shift and never had a masonry chimney installed, there generally isn't a code-compliant path to add a new wood-burning fireplace today. Homes with a pre-existing masonry fireplace and flue are a different story—those can typically be upgraded with an EPA-certified wood stove or insert rather than built from zero.

It comes down to air quality geography. Lakewood sits right where the Front Range foothills meet the Denver metro basin, and winter inversions here trap smoke close to the ground rather than letting it clear the way it might at a higher, more isolated mountain elevation. Add in wildfire smoke concerns most summers, and the Colorado Regional Air Quality Council has real reason to call High Pollution Advisory days that restrict wood burning across the metro area. Mountain towns west of here, with more isolated terrain and different air basins, don't carry the same nonattainment designation—which is a big part of why wood stoves stayed the default there and gas became the default in Lakewood subdivisions.

Yes. If your home predates the gas-only construction shift and has an existing masonry fireplace and flue, you can still use it, and upgrading to an EPA-certified wood stove or insert is usually the better move—it dramatically cuts particulate output compared to an old open hearth, which matters given how often this stretch of the Front Range sees High Pollution Advisory burn restrictions in winter. Uncertified older stoves and open fireplaces are typically the first things restricted on advisory days; EPA 2020 NSPS-certified units are often allowed to keep burning when older units aren't. A local hearth dealer can confirm what your specific chimney can support before recommending a model.

Cost depends heavily on the condition of your existing flue, whether it needs a new stainless liner, and the stove or insert model itself. Homes with a sound existing chimney and no structural surprises land toward the lower end of a typical wood-insert project; homes needing a full liner replacement or masonry repair before a new unit can go in run higher. Because so few Lakewood homes have existing wood-burning chimneys to begin with, getting a firm number really does require an in-home look from a local dealer rather than a generic estimate—the variables here (age of home, flue condition, whether it was ever used) swing the price more than in a town where wood heat is the norm.

If you're gathering firewood on national forest land rather than buying it, yes. The Arapaho-Roosevelt National Forest, which covers much of the foothill and mountain terrain west of Lakewood, issues personal-use cutting permits from May through October, running roughly $5 to $20 per cord. Ponderosa pine, aspen, pinyon, and juniper are the species you'll typically find permitted in that area—pinyon and juniper burn hot and slow and are prized for heat output, while aspen is easier to split but burns faster. This is really only relevant if you own property or a cabin with an existing wood-burning setup outside city limits; it doesn't change the construction restrictions inside Lakewood itself.

Ponderosa pine, aspen, pinyon, and juniper are the species most commonly available from the foothill and forest land west of the city. Pinyon and juniper both burn hot with a dense, long-lasting coal bed, which suits overnight burns during the colder stretches when Lakewood's average winter low sits around 21°F. Aspen splits easily and lights fast, making it useful as a starter wood or shoulder-season fuel, but it burns through faster than pinyon or juniper. Ponderosa pine falls in between—widely available and reasonably efficient once properly seasoned.

The Colorado Regional Air Quality Council issues High Pollution Advisory and Action Day notices for the Denver metro area during winter inversions, and on the more restrictive advisory days, wood burning in fireplaces and older uncertified stoves is discouraged or restricted, while EPA-certified stoves and inserts are often still permitted to operate. Given Lakewood's position at the base of the foothills, where smoke tends to settle rather than clear, it's worth checking advisory status before lighting a fire on a still winter day. Wildfire smoke in summer is a separate seasonal concern but doesn't affect winter burn rules directly.

For the large majority of Lakewood homes, gas is the more realistic answer, and it's not close. Public Service Company of Colorado provides natural gas throughout the city, most homes built since the 1990s were constructed gas-ready by code, and a direct-vent gas fireplace or insert gives you instant, thermostat-controlled heat without navigating advisory-day burn restrictions. Wood only makes sense here if you already have a working masonry chimney from an older home, or you're heating a cabin or acreage property outside city limits where you can cut your own fuel under a national forest permit. If that's not your situation, our gas fireplace page for Lakewood is almost certainly the better starting point.

Gas is the default alternative for most in-town Lakewood addresses, given how widely Public Service Company of Colorado's natural gas network already reaches and how many homes were built gas-ready. Electric fireplaces and inserts are another realistic option, especially for condos, townhomes, or HOA-restricted properties where venting a gas or wood appliance isn't straightforward—Lakewood's residential electric rate through Public Service Company of Colorado runs a bit over 15 cents per kWh, which is worth factoring into any electric heat comparison. I'd recommend starting with our gas fireplace page for Lakewood first, since it fits the largest share of homes here.

An insert does two things: it seals the chimney completely, so you stop losing air you already paid to heat, and it radiates warmth into the room through the firebox and glass. Most add a heat-exchange fan that pulls cool room air underneath, wraps it around the hot firebox, and pushes it back out warm. Your home is more efficient before you've even lit the first fire.

New wood stoves are 70%+ efficient, so far less heat goes up the flue—which also means less draft to get a fire established. The rule: build a genuinely hot fire for about 45 minutes before you choke it down. Skip that and you get smoke in the room, creosote in the chimney, and a fire that never takes off. Most performance complaints trace straight back to this.

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.

It's a visit where a hearth professional measures your space, confirms the model you picked actually works in your home, and walks the specs—framing, gas line, venting, finish work—before anything is ordered. Some details you just can't know until you see the house. Never make a down payment without one; it's the single most-skipped step that burns buyers.