Expert: James Ball - 10/17/2008

Question
James,
  We have a sears fireplace insert that we are unsure if we can burn wood in. It appears that the previous owners of the house installed it and looks like wood has been burnt in it, from the blackened appearance of the interior. There is a gas line in there, now, but looks like it may have been added in there at a later date. 1st question is can we cap off the gas(outside of the firebox) and burn wood? 2nd question is how do we insulate around the insert? 3rd question- the brick(tiles) on the inside of the box are cracked - will that hurt anything and can they be replaced? Looks like they(previous owners) put this in around 1979 and it is a Sears fireplace #155847801. Thank you for any help, as we do not really know anything about this particular model.  Ron

Answer
Hello Ron, that unit is 30 years old, I would have a local Certified Chimney Sweep (www.csia.org, there you can look up by zip code to find one near you) take a first hand look inside and out to see what you have and if it is safe to use.
you might also want to try to contact Sears for the owners manual.
hope this helped
James Ball