Keep Your Family Warm and Safe—No Matter What

Because wood-burning installs are uncommon in this part of North Texas—most dealers here are set up primarily for gas and electric—expect a wood stove install with new Class A chimney venting through the roof to run somewhere in the $3,500 to $8,000 range, depending on the stove and how much framing or roof work is involved. Very few homes in The Colony have existing masonry fireplaces built for wood, so most projects are freestanding stoves rather than inserts. Get a firm, in-home quote before committing—this isn't a job where a big-box estimate over the phone will be accurate.

No. With only a light winter heating load a year and winter lows averaging 36°F, The Colony's climate doesn't demand a wood-burning primary heat source the way a place like Bismarck, ND or Burlington, VT does. Central HVAC through Oncor or Denton County Electric Cooperative service handles the season for the vast majority of homes here. Where a wood stove earns its keep locally is as supplemental heat for a specific room, decorative ambiance, or backup during a grid event—not as the household's main heat plan.

For some homeowners, yes—this is actually one of the more practical reasons to install one in The Colony. The February 2021 winter storm left ERCOT-served homes without electricity and, in many cases, without heat for days, and central HVAC systems (electric or gas-forced-air with electric ignition and blowers) generally stop working the moment the power drops. A wood stove needs no electricity to produce heat, which is a real advantage if you've been through an extended outage before. If that's your main motivation, tell your local dealer up front—it changes which stove size and chimney configuration makes sense.

Oak, pecan, and mesquite are the three woods you'll most commonly find for sale around Denton County—the same species local barbecue culture relies on for smoking. Oak is the best all-around choice for a wood stove: it splits reasonably well, seasons in about a year, and burns long and hot with manageable smoke. Pecan burns hot and fast and is fine mixed in. Mesquite is popular for grilling but burns very hot and fast with a lot of pop and spark, so it's better used sparingly in a stove rather than as your main fuel.

Yes—new wood-burning appliance installations require a building permit through the City of The Colony's building inspection department, covering the stove's clearances, hearth pad, and chimney or Class A pipe venting per current code. Because wood installs are relatively rare in this area, it's worth confirming your installer has actually pulled permits for a wood-burning unit before, not just gas fireplaces, since the clearance and venting requirements are different.

No—Denton County has no wood-smoke curtailment program or winter burn-ban days like you'd find in a basin climate such as Klamath Falls, OR or parts of the Pacific Northwest. DFW's ozone non-attainment designation is tied to summer vehicle and industrial emissions, not residential wood smoke, so there's no seasonal restriction on when you can burn. That said, being considerate of neighbors in a suburban lot is still good practice, since homes here sit closer together than in rural wood-heat regions.

An insert only makes sense if you already have an existing masonry, wood-burning fireplace to fit it into—and most homes in The Colony, built from the 1980s onward, either have a gas-log fireplace or no fireplace at all rather than an open wood masonry hearth. Because of that, the more common path here is a freestanding wood stove on a hearth pad with new insulated Class A chimney pipe run through the wall or roof. A local dealer can tell you within a few minutes which category your house falls into.

Firewood suppliers around the DFW metro typically deliver seasoned oak, pecan, and mesquite by the rack or cord, with prices in the area generally running $250 to $350 per cord depending on species and how well-seasoned the wood is. Because this isn't a heavy wood-heating region, supply is driven as much by backyard smoking and fire pits as by home heating, so availability is steady but sellers vary season to season—ask whoever you buy from how long the wood has been split and stacked before you commit to a load.

For most homeowners here, gas wins on pure practicality: instant on-off operation, no ash or smoke, and it pairs naturally with the natural gas or propane service many DFW-area homes already have for the water heater and range. Wood wins in narrower situations—homeowners who want a real fire for its own sake, who value a heat source that works with the power out, or who simply like the ritual of tending one. In The Colony's mild climate, wood is rarely the practical default; it's a deliberate choice, and a local dealer can walk you through what that install actually looks like in a home like yours.

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.

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.

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.