Gas Fireplace Safety Inspection and Leak Check in Fort Collins

A gas fireplace safety inspection in Fort Collins runs $125 to $250 for a single unit and comes with a written report: combustible gas detector sweep of the valve, fittings, pilot tubing, and firebox; carbon monoxide reading with the unit running; venting, termination, and clearance check; gasket, glass, and wiring condition; operational test. It is the visit for a real-estate contingency, a house you just moved into, a fireplace that has sat unused for years, or a smell you cannot place.

One thing first, because it is the whole point of this page. If you smell gas, do not book an inspection. Leave the house, leave the door open, do not touch a switch, and call Xcel Energy’s gas emergency line or 911 from outside. A leak is the utility’s emergency. An inspection is for a house that is safe.

What the inspection covers

1. Gas leak check. A combustible gas detector at the shutoff valve, the flex connector, every flare fitting, the pilot tube, and around the burner and firebox with the unit off and again with it running. Small leaks at a flare fitting that was never quite tightened are the most common find, and they are the kind of thing a nose never catches in a room with a fire going.
2. Carbon monoxide. A CO reading at the unit and in the room with the fireplace running. On a sealed direct-vent unit the number should be room background. On a vented log set or a B-vent stove, a rising number means spillage or a draft problem. On a vent-free set it is the whole safety case.
3. Venting and clearances. Outside: the direct-vent termination cap for blockage, nests, corrosion, and clearance to windows, decks, and snow line. Inside: clearance to combustibles, the mantel, TV mounts, and the framing. A chimney serving a log set gets the damper clamp and throat checked.
4. Sealed combustion. On a direct-vent unit, the gasket around the glass is what keeps exhaust out of the room. Hardened, flattened, or gapped gasket, or a cracked glass frame, fails the inspection and gets quoted at $200 to $600.
5. Ignition and controls. Pilot flame quality, thermopile output in millivolts, wiring condition, wall switch and remote, and on electronic units the module, electrode, sensing rod, and battery backup. Ignition parts found weak are quoted from the published ranges.
6. Altitude setup. Fort Collins sits at 4,997 feet, and the National Fuel Gas Code calls for derating gas appliances installed above 2,000 feet by about 4 percent per 1,000 feet. A yellow, lazy flame or soot on the glass on an otherwise clean unit means the orifice or the pressure is wrong for the elevation, and that goes in the report.
7. Operational test and report. Ignition, run, shutdown, relight. You get the readings and the findings in writing, in plain language, with each item marked pass, monitor, or repair, and the repair items priced from the pricing page.

The real-estate inspection

Most general home inspectors light the fireplace and move on. The things that cost money hide behind the bottom louver, and Fort Collins’ housing makes them predictable. The direct-vent units in the late-20th-century subdivisions on the south side, in Loveland, and in the older phases of Windsor are 20 to 30 years old, and a buyer walking into one with a marginal thermopile, a flattened gasket, and a screeching blower is looking at $700 to $1,300 of deferred work. A $125 to $250 inspection during the contingency period puts that on the table before closing. Old Town masonry fireplaces with log sets get the same treatment plus the chimney and damper.

For sellers, a clean report with the readings on it removes the fireplace from the negotiation. For a rental turnover, it documents the unit’s condition and the CO reading for the file.

The new-to-you house and the long-idle fireplace

A fireplace that has sat cold for years is the classic first-fire problem: dust and spider webs in the pilot and burner, a gasket that has set hard, batteries corroded in the receiver, and a former owner’s log arrangement that puts a log on a burner port. Inspection before the first fire is cheaper than the service call after it goes wrong, and if the unit turns out to need a full cleaning, the visit converts to annual service at $175 to $350 and the inspection fee rolls in.

What we will not do

We will not pass a unit with a gasket leak because the buyer’s closing is Friday. We will not sign off on a vent termination buried behind a new deck. We will not test a fireplace that smells of gas before the utility has been called. And we will not tell you a 25-year-old direct-vent unit needs replacement when it needs a $250 thermopile; the replacement page is for units where the valve, the firebox, and the vent are all going at once.

Permits, licensing, and where an inspection fits

An inspection touches no piping and no appliance and needs no permit. When it finds gas piping work to do, that work falls under Colorado’s State Plumbing Board rules, which require a permit and inspections for all fuel gas piping work through the Board or the local jurisdiction, with a rough inspection under air test and a final. Appliance replacement is permitted by the City of Fort Collins (gas fireplaces are on its permit list, with a possible separate Poudre Fire Authority review), by Larimer County as a Miscellaneous Permit in the unincorporated county, or by the town: Timnath, Wellington, Loveland, Windsor, Greeley, and Estes Park each run their own department.

Inspections arranged through this site are performed by licensed, insured Colorado gas and hearth technicians. Fort Collins issues Fireplace Appliance and Gas Piping trade licenses through Building Services at 281 North College Avenue; ask to see the license and the insurance certificate, and ask whether the tech holds the National Fireplace Institute’s Gas Specialist certification, a real, independent credential we do not claim here on anyone’s behalf.

What it costs

We inspect across Fort Collins and out to Loveland, Windsor, Timnath, Wellington, Greeley, and Estes Park, where the propane cabins at 7,743 feet get the tank regulator checked as part of the visit. Send the address, the closing date if there is one, and a photo of the fireplace.