Wood Burning Fireplaces

[DeanOMac]

The wife and I are looking to build on our infill lot within the next few years and I am attempting to determine whether the City of Calgary still allows for the installation of Wood Burning Fireplaces.

My preliminary research on Google and the City website seems to imply you can with proper permitting, but is it even a remote possibility to get a permit nowadays? Anecdotal evidence suggest you cannot, as when we were house hunting two years ago, all new fireplaces were gas or electric.

Is this because of the maintenance/problems associated with wood burning ones, or is it because for all intents and purposes they are banned/restricted.

Anyone have any experience with this?

[calgarywinning]

I am sure as long as the chimney meets code this wouldn't be a problem at all.

Literally, of the hundreds of new construction homes I have seen, there are no wood fire places going in. Gas is very efficient, and cheap to operate and obviously can be operated in moments by a switch. A lot of gas fireplaces can even mimic the look of a log burning fireplace if you spend the $$. The expense of building a venting stack, maintaining it is probably why you didn't see it in any new homes. I bet it would be double the cost of a nice gas fireplace to build the stack.

If you like the smell and ambiance of burning wood maybe a fire pit area in a yard would suffice?

That being said nothing beats a real fire with real wood and the ambiance. So if that's what you want go for it. There should be no impediment or refusal by the city.

[habernac]

DeanO, my parents had a house built within the last 5 years and had a wood burning fireplace installed, I'm sure it's still legal.

[DeanOMac]

Thanks Calgarywinning and Habby. I guess it is possible, but now I will have to do some serious research to determine if it is worth the associated cost/headache.

Thanks again.

[Wood]

Can I make a DeanOMac burning fireplace?

[topfiverecords]

Get a wood burning insert. More energy efficient than masonry and will be cheaper.

[Ducay]

If you're building, there isn't much cost involved in terms of prep that would be different than a gas fireplace. And even then 99% of the time "code" for any fireplace just refers to follow the installation guidance from manufacturer. So just find a nice looking wood burner (and as mentioned, go for a sealed unit, not an open "masonary" fireplace, there is a reason no one installs them anymore) and find the online installation instructions PDF and you'll be able to see what type of clearances, materials, etc, you'll need to keep in mind in the install.