When the weather outside is frightful, you can warm more than your heart with the use of a fireplace. Fireplaces can heat up a room and help decorate it as well. Many local homes have fireplaces at the center of the living room, and the options from woodburning to gas heating elements with modern or historic surrounds offers something for every home.
The basics
Woodburning fireplaces are prized for the atmosphere they add to a home. The flame looks, sounds and smells authentic. Homeowners can customize the aroma by choosing specific types of wood, and operating costs can be low as long as you have an inexpensive source of chopped wood.
Woodburning fireplaces also produce a lot of heat, easily warming a room. On the downside, owners have to tend to woodburning fires to keep the flames going, and the fires need to be monitored for safety. If you’re building new, adding a woodburning fireplace can be more expensive because of the need for a chimney
Gas-powered fireplaces are an alternative to woodburning and can be safer than woodburning because they don’t create flames, sparks or soot. Gas fireplaces can be operated with a remote control, offering ease of use, and because they don’t produce smoke, the air inside the home remains cleaner.
While gas fireplaces put off heat, they do have some downsides. They require a gas line to operate and can have higher operation costs if natural gas is pricey. Unlike wood, gas is not a renewable resource.
Fireplaces and real estate
In Oak Park, of the 77 real estate listings active as of press time, 25 feature a fireplace. In River Forest, of the 24 active listings, 10 include a fireplace. These run the gamut from woodburning fireplaces to gas-fueled units. In some vintage homes, the fireplaces may be decorative if they have not been well maintained and serviced over the years.
Catherine Simon-Vobornik of Oak Park’s Baird and Warner is currently listing a home with a fireplace. 827 N. Grove is a Prairie Style bungalow with a woodburning fireplace in the living room.
Simon-Vobornik said that for most local buyers, a fireplace is not a must-have item when they are home shopping, but she thinks it’s typically a pleasant bonus when a home has a working fireplace, especially if it’s woodburning.
She calls fireplaces a “welcome amenity” and noted that lighting a fireplace can create a nice ambiance during winter open houses or showings and can help to show off a home in its best light.
Before listing a home with a fireplace, Simon-Vobornik said she makes sure the owners do their homework.
“I will ask, if it is woodburning, when was the last time the chimney was swept? If it has been a while I will suggest they have it cleaned and to keep the firebox clean, as well. I will also ask if they know how old the chimney liner is. That seems to be the typical question a buyer would like to have answered. If it is gas, I will confirm that it is operational and if they can show me how to turn it on.”
For first-time buyers or those that have never had a fireplace before, Simon-Vobornik allayed potential worries by stating that home inspections should cover the fireplace.
“A home inspector will run a gas fireplace to make sure it is working and will show my buyer how to operate it,” she said. “For wood-burning, they will check to see how clean it is, and they will also check the condition of the firebox, chimney and chimney liner.”
Fireplaces as focal points
Beyond the nuts and bolts, fireplaces can impart a lot of style to a room, and a mantle can be a great place to display art or hang some Christmas stockings.
If you’re looking to add style to your existing fireplace or want to make a new fireplace fit in with your historic home, Cassandra Deiters of ReUse Depot said that the store always has a range of mantles on hand.
ReUse Depot, which was founded in 2013 to save reusable building material from the landfill, permits shoppers to browse vintage home items to add to their construction or restoration project.
ReUse Depot is moving from its Maywood warehouse to a new Elmwood Park location, but Deiters said buyers can browse online to see the 10 or so vintage mantles that they typically have in stock.
“We have all different styles from antique to more modern,” she said. “We currently have three from 1902 with full surrounds.”
She added that shopping for vintage fireplace surrounds has benefits beyond keeping something out of a landfill.
“One of the great things about shopping with us is that you get a lot of character.”