DuckSouth.com

I am looking at a home that has a gas fireplace and was wondering if it could be converted to a wood burning fireplace with a gas starter. The house has a chimney but looking inside the fireplace does not look to promising. I have attached a picture of the inside.

Thoughts?

My inlaws may have done that. They have a gas line that runs into the fireplace and they use it to light the fire. Theirs does look larger than the pic though.

What really is going to be a limiting factor is the grade of chimney pipe. You won't be able to put an insert in unless you replumb it with high dollar triple wall pipe...but if you have double wall all the way up, you can buy a bigger prefab firebox and use it as a normal old school fireplace

Not exactly sure how big my fireplace is but the flue is the exact same as the one you are showing and it does great .... mine had never been used before and i just hooked a gas starter on the gas outlet like you were talking and i burn real wood ..... but mine also has a hearth unlike alot of these gas fireplace setups now and i definitely wouldnt burn wood without a hearth