Reliable, on-demand heat for Scott County winters.

Costs vary by project type, but most gas fireplace and insert installations in Scott County run somewhere between $3,500 and $10,000. A direct-vent insert going into an existing masonry fireplace with a gas line already nearby tends to land on the lower end. A new built-in gas fireplace for a remodel or an addition—with framing, venting, and a fresh gas line run from the meter—sits higher. Homes on propane in areas like Long Grove or Dixon may see added cost if a new tank or regulator setup is needed. A local dealer will give you a firm number after seeing your home; that's exactly what our free Project Guide & Parts List is built to set up.

Yes, and it's a common project in Scott County's older housing stock—plenty of homes in Davenport's historic neighborhoods and along the Bettendorf river bluffs were built with open masonry wood fireplaces decades ago. A gas insert typically drops into that existing firebox and vents through the same chimney with a stainless liner, which keeps the look of your original fireplace while eliminating the ash, smoke, and hauling. Conversions in the county generally run $4,000 to $9,000 depending on whether natural gas or propane is used and whether new gas line work is required. It's a straightforward upgrade for a fireplace that's mostly sat unused for years.

Either works, and which one makes sense mostly comes down to where you live in the county. Inside Davenport, Bettendorf, and Eldridge, MidAmerican Energy's natural gas network covers most neighborhoods, so if you already have gas appliances, adding a fireplace is usually a simple tie-in. Out toward Long Grove, Dixon, Buffalo, or McCausland, where gas mains don't always reach, propane from a local supplier is the standard alternative—either an existing tank or a new one set up alongside the install. Most gas fireplace models can be configured for either fuel; your installer sets the correct orifice and regulator for whichever you're using.

Most modern gas fireplaces will, but the ignition type matters. Units with intermittent pilot ignition (IPI) run on a small battery backup that kicks in automatically when the power drops—the fireplace lights on demand off the batteries until service is restored. Just remember to keep fresh batteries on hand, since it's easy to forget until an outage hits during an ice storm. Valor fireplaces work a bit differently: their pilot system generates its own electricity through the thermocouple, so there are no batteries to maintain at all. For Scott County winters—where ice storms along the Mississippi can knock out power for a day or more—that distinction is worth asking your local dealer about directly.

A gas fireplace is a fully built-in unit, typically installed during new construction or a remodel where there's no existing firebox. A gas insert is built to slide into an existing masonry fireplace opening, using the chimney as the vent path—the common choice for Davenport and Bettendorf homes with an old wood-burning fireplace they want to modernize. A gas stove is a freestanding cabinet-style unit that sits on the floor, similar in shape to a wood stove but running on gas, and works well in a room without an existing fireplace at all. Most Scott County homeowners with an existing masonry fireplace end up choosing an insert; new builds and additions usually go with a built-in unit.

Yes—a building permit and gas line permit are required for new gas fireplace installations. If you're inside city limits, that means going through the building department for Davenport, Bettendorf, Eldridge, or LeClaire, depending on where the home sits; in unincorporated parts of the county, permits go through the Scott County planning and development office. In practice, most local hearth dealers handle this paperwork as part of the installation, coordinating the gas-fitting, venting, and inspection so you're not left managing multiple trades yourself.

Vented (direct-vent or B-vent) gas fireplaces pull combustion air from outside and exhaust the byproducts back outside through a sealed vent—they're the cleanest, safest option and the standard choice across Scott County. Vent-free units burn gas directly into the room with no external venting; they're legal in Iowa but come with strict room-sizing rules and require an oxygen depletion sensor, since combustion byproducts stay indoors. For most homes here, direct-vent units are the more common and more broadly recommended option—real heat output, no compromise on indoor air quality, and no restrictions to navigate. A local dealer can walk you through both if you want to weigh the tradeoffs yourself.

Plan on an annual inspection, ideally before the cold season sets in around late September or October. A technician checks the burner, pilot assembly, venting, and gas connections, and cleans the glass and interior—a quicker job than a wood-stove chimney sweep but just as important for safety and efficiency. Most gas appliance service providers in the Davenport and Bettendorf area charge somewhere in the $150–$250 range for a standard annual visit.

It's not that the wood isn't there—oak, hickory, maple, and walnut are all common hardwoods along the county's river bluffs, and a handful of older rural homes near Long Grove or Dixon still burn cordwood for supplemental heat. But with MidAmerican Energy's natural gas network reaching most of Davenport, Bettendorf, and the surrounding cities, wood and pellet heat never became the practical default the way they have in more rural or off-grid parts of the country. Pellet brands like Lignetics and Indeck Energy Services are available regionally, but dealer support and installers for pellet stoves are thin here compared to gas. For the vast majority of Scott County homeowners, gas is simply the easier, more available, and better-supported option—which is exactly why this page focuses on it.

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.

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.

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.