What are the benefits of having
a wood fireplace versus gas?

St. Clair: Wood-burning fireplaces give you better comfort and more heat, but you have to clean them more often.

Baynes: Gas is less problematic than a solid fuel like wood.

Worland: The No. 1 thing is that gas is cheaper than buying wood, and it's cleaner because there are no ashes.

Do fireplaces reduce heating costs in winter?

St. Clair: With a wood-burning fireplace, you have to have the flue open, so all the energy in the home is going up the chimney.

Baynes: Most fireplaces are an energy drain. They'll cozy up a room, but once it gets colder outside, they tend to drain the house of energy.

Worland: A wood fire will use up heated air from inside the home and take it up the flue. Gas will only heat the area around the fireplace.

What's the best kind of wood to burn in a fireplace?

St. Clair: Hardwoods like oak, hickory, ash or walnut.

Baynes: The main thing is not so much the type, but that it's dry. Hardwoods do give off more heat.

Worland: Hardwoods like maple, ash and cherry.

What type of maintenance does my fireplace or chimney need?

St. Clair: The key to maintaining your fireplace is keeping the chimney dry. Water and the freeze-thaw process can destroy a chimney faster than anything.

Baynes: If you're unfamiliar with your system, have a certified sweep to inspect it, make recommendations and provide info about its maintenance or operation.

Worland: If you're burning wood more than four times a season, you should get your chimney inspected once a year. With gas fireplaces, you probably won't have to clean the flue except for every 10 to 12 years.

How much does the average fireplace or chimney repair cost?

St. Clair: The average fireplace or chimney repair is in the $4,000 to $5,000 range.

Baynes: It varies so much it's unbelievable; from minor restorations for $180 all the way up to $10,000.

Worland: I only service the gas components, and the average is $80, which covers drive time, labor and service.

What's the strangest thing you've found in a fireplace or chimney?

St. Clair: Animals, both dead and alive. One customer came back from vacation to find a house full of gnats and flies after a dead raccoon decomposed in their chimney.

Baynes: The president of a university called about a problem with his gas logs -he had burned wood logs on top of them and they were buried in ash.

Worland: A lady called saying she smelled gas. Her cat had used the sand in the burner pan as a litter box and she had the fireplace lit. It was a terrible smell.