Fireplace and chimney service in Arapahoe County

Arapahoe County has about 269,000 homes, and the Census Bureau's 2024 survey puts the median at 1986. Englewood is the oldest of its cities, with a median home built in 1964 and about 35 percent of its homes from 1940 to 1959. Littleton's median is 1982 and Centennial's 1983. Aurora, the county's largest city, has a median of 1985, and only about 1 percent of its homes predate 1940. That range takes in brick chimneys on post-war bungalows and ranches as well as factory-built fireplaces in 1980s and 1990s subdivisions.

Gas heats about 65 percent of homes across the county and about 77 percent in Centennial. That makes the gas fireplace the most common one we see here, and it needs a yearly check of the pilot, burner, glass seal and vent. The county's metro side, west of Kiowa Creek, is inside the state's winter no-burn area, so an open wood fireplace has to stay cold on Action Days unless it has been upgraded.

Englewood and Littleton: older brick

In Englewood and the older parts of Littleton, many chimneys are 60 to 85 years old with original clay liners. The roughly 135 freeze-thaw days a year in NOAA's Denver normals work on their crowns and mortar. Common repairs are repointing, typically $500 to $2,500, a new crown at $600 to $2,200, and a stainless liner at $1,500 to $5,000 when the old clay is cracked or the flue now serves a new furnace or water heater.

Aurora and Centennial: prefab fireplaces and chase covers

Most homes built since the 1980s have factory-built fireplaces with a metal chimney inside a framed chase, capped by a sheet-metal chase cover. Hail dents those covers, water pools and rusts them, and rust stains run down the siding. A new chase cover typically runs $300 to $700. We photograph hail damage for your insurance adjuster.

Gas fireplaces here also need setting up for altitude. Gas appliances usually lose about 4 percent of their input for every 1,000 feet above 2,000 feet, roughly 13 percent at Denver's elevation.