Valor Gas Fireplaces for Whistler Homes
A gas fire that lights from a remote and keeps warming when the storm takes the power: planned in North Vancouver, installed in the mountains.
Whistler · Squamish · Pemberton
For a great many Vancouver households, the room with the fire is the second home in Whistler: the chalet, the townhouse, the condominium at the foot of the mountain. It is about an hour and a half up the Sea to Sky from our North Vancouver showroom, and the people who visit us often ask whether we work there. We do. We are in Whistler regularly, and we know many of the contractors there.
A Valor suits a mountain house for reasons that have little to do with how it looks. The radiant models need no fan and ask nothing of a wall socket, and the ignition runs on batteries, so the fire lights and keeps warming the room when a winter storm takes the power. It lights from a remote, which matters in a house that is empty between visits, and the L Series carries HeatShift™, which draws the hottest air off the top of the firebox so the wall above stays cool enough to carry a television.
Most of our Whistler conversations begin in North Vancouver. You come to the showroom, you see the fires burning, you bring photographs or plans of the house, and we go through the options and the pricing with you there. From that point the fireplace work is ours: the choosing, the measuring, the vent run, the permit and the installation. Whether you would like to work with your own builder or with people we know in Whistler, we plan the surround, mantel, tile or millwork with the trades doing it.
- Start with
- A visit to our showroom at 1380 Pemberton Avenue, North Vancouver · Tuesday to Saturday, 10 am to 4 pm · 604-987-1293
- Where
- Whistler, with Squamish and Pemberton, and the rest of the Sea to Sky Corridor
- Bring
- Photographs or plans of the house, and the strata’s requirements if it is part of a strata
- Installed by
- Our own crew, with the permit prepared and pricing given at the showroom
What Whistler asks of a fireplace
Whistler sits outside Metro Vancouver and has its own municipal process: the Resort Municipality of Whistler issues its own permits. Metro Vancouver’s wood-burning bylaw has nothing to say about a gas fire. Whether the house is on natural gas or propane, whether it is part of a strata, and what the building department asks for all shape the choice, so we check what applies to your address before anything is ordered, and we prepare the permit. The permit side of wood fires is covered on our page on fireplaces and wood stoves for Whistler homes.
The Valor lineup, for a mountain house
Every Valor we carry, and what each is good for in a chalet, a townhouse or a condominium. Each has its own page, with the sizes and the fronts.
The Valor L Series
For the great room’s long wall of glass and stone: a line of fire that keeps warming through a power cut, with HeatShift™ so the television above stays cool.
The Valor LX2
For the open-plan chalet: the L Series fire glazed on three sides or wrapped around a corner, so the kitchen and the sitting room share one fire.
The Valor H Series
Four sizes of radiant fire that asks nothing of a fan or a wall socket, from the compact H3 to the large-format H6.
The Valor H3
The slim retrofit for a condominium or strata townhome: direct-vent, B-Vent ready, and installed entirely in-house.
The Valor Horizon
For the wide, quiet fire: a generous window of flame in a new chalet wall or an old opening, and listed by Valor as outdoor compatible.
Valor Portrait & P2
Tall, narrow and built for almost any wall: the Portrait for a small old hearth, and the next-generation P2 with a taller flame and the Valor 10 remote.
The Valor G3, G3.5 & G4
For the old masonry fireplace in a mountain house: three gas inserts, lit by battery, so there is a fire when the power is out.
The Valor Madrona
For the cabin or the open-plan room with no chimney: a cast iron gas stove that needs only a floor and a vent.
The Valor President
For the small room: the classic cast iron gas stove, thirteen inches deep, that vents through the top or the rear.
Questions people tend to ask
Do you install Valor gas fireplaces in Whistler?
Yes. Many of the people who visit our North Vancouver showroom have a second home in Whistler and ask whether we work there. We do, and we are in Whistler regularly, with a good working relationship with many of the contractors there. The measuring, the permit and the installation are ours.
I live in the city and the house is in Whistler. How does it work?
It starts at the showroom. Visit us in North Vancouver, bring photographs or plans of the house, and we will go through the options and the pricing with you there. Tell us whether you would like to work with your own builder or contractor, or with people we know in Whistler.
Will a Valor keep working in a mountain power outage?
The radiant models will. They use no fan and ask nothing of a wall socket, and the ignition runs on batteries, so the fire lights and keeps warming the room through a power cut.
Can a Valor run on propane?
Valor offers its fires for natural gas or propane, model by model. Which one suits a Whistler house depends on whether it is on a gas line, and we confirm it before anything is ordered.
What does Whistler require to install a gas fireplace?
A permit through the municipality, and, if the home is part of a strata, the strata’s consent. We check what applies to your address before anything is ordered, and we prepare the permit.
My Whistler home is part of a strata. Can I add a Valor?
Often, but the strata has a say, so it is worth speaking to them before you choose. The H3 was drawn for condominium and strata retrofits. Bring us what you know about the building, and we will plan the fire and the vent run around it.
How much will it cost?
It depends less on the fire than on everything around it: the model, the vent run and how it has to run through the house, the permit and the installation. We do not publish a price list. Visit the showroom with photographs or plans and we will go through the options and the pricing with you there.
A fireplace is only half of it. The other half is who places it.
Maxwell Fireplace is North Vancouver’s Creative FireSpaces™ — and we stay involved in every part of the job. The fireplace itself is ours from the first conversation to the final flame: design and placement, permitting, delivery, installation, and the care that comes after. When the work runs to a surround, a mantel, tile or millwork, we plan it with the trades doing it — yours, or ones we bring in — so the fire and the wall are drawn as one thing rather than two. One point of contact, and nothing lost in the gap between trades.
It’s exactly why a mountain house belongs with us. A second home is often empty between visits, and a fire in it asks for a vent route planned before the fireplace is chosen, clearances drawn against the real wall and floor, and an installation that can be trusted when no one is there to watch it. We serve homeowners and contractors across Greater Vancouver, the North Shore, and the Sea to Sky Corridor — Squamish to Whistler and Pemberton, with Whistler a regular destination for us — and we’d love to show you what’s possible for your room.