Keep Your Family Warm and Safe—No Matter What

Yes, but it's genuinely uncommon. Most Lombard homes were built with gas service already in place, and many subdivisions have covenants or lot spacing that make a masonry chimney or Class A pipe run more complicated than in a rural setting. That said, the Village of Lombard Building Division does permit wood-burning stove and insert installations that meet current code—clearance to combustibles, hearth pad requirements, and an EPA 2020 NSPS-certified appliance. It's a smaller pool of local installers than for gas, but they exist.

Because so few Lombard homes install wood-burning appliances, there isn't a tight local price band the way there is for gas. As a general planning number for the Chicago suburbs, expect $3,500 to $8,500 for a stove or insert with a straightforward chimney or Class A pipe run, and more if a two-story home needs a full roof penetration with no existing chase. A local dealer will give you a firm number after seeing your home—this is one of the areas where getting an actual quote matters more than a rule of thumb.

Yes. The Village of Lombard Building Division requires a permit for any new wood-burning appliance installation, including inspection of clearances, hearth protection, and venting. The stove itself needs to meet current EPA emissions standards. Because wood installs are less routine here than gas ones, it's worth confirming with your installer that they've pulled Lombard permits before—not every hearth company in the Chicago suburbs does wood work regularly.

There's no national forest nearby issuing cutting permits, so firewood in Lombard comes from local tree services, landscape yards, and seasonal firewood suppliers around DuPage County—often selling seasoned oak, hickory, walnut, or maple that came from local storm cleanup or tree removal. Expect roughly $250 to $350 per cord for seasoned hardwood delivered, with prices climbing for kiln-dried or premium species. Buy early in the fall; supply from small local sellers can run thin by January.

It comes down to lot size, subdivision covenants, and infrastructure. Lombard's winters are real—17°F average lows and a solid, sustained heating season—but nowhere near the severity of Minneapolis or Madison, where wood heat still functions as genuine backup heat for many rural households. Here, gas lines already reach almost every house, so there's less practical need, and tighter lot spacing in newer subdivisions makes chimney placement and clearance requirements harder to satisfy than in a rural setting.

Yes, and it's one of the main reasons Lombard homeowners still ask about wood. A wood stove needs no electricity to produce heat, unlike a furnace blower or many electric appliances. If you're weighing this against a gas fireplace for outage backup, know that most gas units with intermittent pilot ignition also run on battery backup during a ComEd outage—so the gap between the two isn't as wide as it used to be. Wood is still the more self-sufficient option if you want heat with zero dependence on any utility.

If you're in one of Lombard's older neighborhoods near downtown with an existing masonry fireplace, a wood insert is usually the better fit—it uses your existing chimney with a stainless liner and turns an inefficient open hearth into a real heat source. If you're in a newer subdivision home without an existing fireplace, a freestanding stove with a new Class A chimney run is the more common path, though it requires more construction work since there's no existing chase to use.

The Chimney Safety Institute of America recommends an annual inspection for any wood-burning appliance, and that holds regardless of how often you burn. Because wood stoves are less common here, finding a sweep who regularly services them takes a little more looking than finding a gas technician—ask specifically about CSIA certification and wood-burning experience when you call around in the Chicago suburbs.

For most Lombard homeowners, gas wins on convenience: instant on-off operation, no ash or wood handling, and a fireplace or insert that ties directly into infrastructure that's already at your house. Wood makes sense if you specifically want a fuel source with zero electrical dependence, you already have a usable masonry fireplace, or you have access to affordable local firewood and enjoy tending a real fire. It's a smaller, more deliberate choice in Lombard than in colder or more rural markets, but it's a legitimate one when it fits what you actually want.

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.

On average, a fireplace adds back to the home about the same amount you spent installing it. Add the monthly savings from heating the rooms you actually use instead of the whole house—often hundreds of dollars a year—and the value case is strong before you even count what a fire does for how your family uses the room.

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.