Fireplace looks nice but leaves the room cold? We fit the right insert, vent it properly and set the clearances so it's ready to light.
Fireplace installation in Escondido usually means fitting an insert, a sealed firebox that sits inside your existing masonry or metal fireplace, so the fire puts heat into the room and the venting is run and the clearances are set before the first fire.
Most people call us because the fireplace looks good and does little for the room, or because they're tired of the smoke and mess of an open fire. The price mostly comes down to the kind of fireplace you have, the fuel you pick, how much venting your chimney needs, how you want the front finished and whether the chimney needs chimney repair before anything goes in it. The schedule turns on getting an insert made for your fireplace and on inspections if your job needs them, so I come out, look it over with you and put the estimate in writing before you decide anything.
I come out to every job myself, so the person sizing up your firebox and chimney is the same one on site running our crew while the insert goes in. Nothing gets lost between the estimate and the install, and you've got one person to ask.
I spent years as another mason's right hand, running jobs and learning how old brick and chimneys are put together, before I started out on my own in Escondido in 2020. I'm still on the tools most days, fireplace jobs included.
We're licensed and insured. If your old fireplace isn't worth putting an insert in, or a simpler fix would do, I'll tell you plainly, because I'd rather do the job you need than the one that's easiest to sell. Call (760) 546-4075 or use the form on this page.
Send the form or call (760) 546-4075, and we'll get back to you within one business day to set up a free on-site estimate, with no obligation to book. I'll come out, look at your fireplace and chimney with you and put the estimate in writing. It helps if you can tell us what kind of fireplace you have and which fuel you're leaning toward.
Whether your insert needs a building permit is up to the city's Building Division, so we check with them before we schedule anything. If it does, we handle the application, which the city takes only electronically, and we meet the inspector, who the city books through its online portal. Once the city has a complete set of plans, review takes about 30 calendar days for each round, so a permitted job gets planned around that wait.
Cal Fire's map puts parts of Escondido in moderate, high and very high fire hazard severity zones, so if you're planning an outdoor fireplace, check where your property falls before we sketch anything, and see the city's outdoor fire rules in the questions below. Indoors, we see plenty of brick fireplaces in older homes that hardly get used and factory-built metal units in newer neighborhoods. We're based in Escondido and do the same work in San Marcos, Poway and the cities around them, from Temecula and Murrieta down to Chula Vista, plus plenty of places beyond our city pages.
Across the US, an installed gas fireplace insert usually runs about $2,300 to $8,000 per job, according to one published price guide, so treat that as a planning range rather than an Escondido quote. That guide suggests confirming the venting and site work each bid includes, and that's worth asking everyone, us included. Your own figure comes from a free on-site estimate, which I put in writing.
It can, as long as the insert is specifically designed and tested for that unit. A factory-built, or zero-clearance, fireplace is the metal box you find in a lot of newer homes, so the first step is finding the maker and model on yours and matching an insert to it.
One installation walkthrough puts a gas insert at three to ten days and says plainly it isn't a do-it-yourself project. Part of that time goes to inspections before the final hookup, including a pressure test on the new gas line before the inspector signs off, so the schedule depends partly on when those happen.
Yes, in a permanently installed fireplace that had building permits issued when it was built, because the city allows backyard fires in one without a burn permit. The exception is a hazardous fire area, which includes property in or next to wildland, where the city permits no outdoor fires at all, so check your lot before you plan one.
An insert is usually the best way, because an open wood-burning fireplace is a very inefficient heater, with drafts pulling your warm air up the chimney. An insert works much like a free-standing wood stove, so far more of that heat stays in the room.
You should plan on one, because the EPA doesn't support gas stoves that need no outside venting, over concerns about indoor air quality, and installing them is illegal in some places. The vent also has to keep its required clearances from anything that can burn, since one vent maker names missing those clearances as a major cause of vent-related fires.
