Fireplaces for Whistler Homes
A second home in the mountains, planned and installed from our North Vancouver showroom by the people who will stand behind it.
Whistler · Squamish · Pemberton
For a great many Vancouver households, the room with the wood fire is the second home in Whistler: the chalet, the townhouse, the cabin under the trees. It is about an hour and a half up the Sea to Sky from North Vancouver, and the people who visit our showroom often ask whether we work there. We do. We are in Whistler regularly, and we know many of the contractors there.
That matters more than it sounds. A fireplace in a mountain house is a chimney, a permit, a hearth and a wall, and all four are best settled with the people who will build them. The fireplace itself is ours, from the first conversation to the final flame: the choosing, the measuring, the flue, the permit and the installation, with 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.
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 work is ours to do, and we WETT-certify the wood-burning appliances we install.
Prefer a gas fire? See Valor gas fireplaces for Whistler homes.
- Where
- Whistler, with Squamish and Pemberton, and the rest of the Sea to Sky Corridor
- Start with
- A visit to our showroom at 1380 Pemberton Avenue, North Vancouver · Tuesday to Saturday, 10 am to 4 pm · 604-987-1293
- Bring
- Photographs or plans of the house, and any idea of the contractors you would like to work with
- Installed by
- Our own crew, WETT-certified, with pricing given at the showroom
What Whistler asks of a wood fire
Metro Vancouver’s wood-burning bylaw, Bylaw 1303, is the one most Vancouver owners know. It does not apply in Whistler, which sits outside Metro Vancouver. The Resort Municipality of Whistler has its own process: installing or altering a wood stove, fireplace insert, pellet stove or factory-built or masonry fireplace needs a permit.
The municipality’s forms include an application, a scope of work and a checklist for a fireplace, chimney or wood-burning appliance, an owner’s authorization of agent where someone applies on the owner’s behalf, and a strata consent form where the home is part of a strata. We check what applies to your address before anything is ordered, and we prepare the permit.
Wood fires for a mountain house
A few of the Stûv fires that suit a second home. Each has its own page, with the sizes and the certification.
Stûv 30 Compact
A slim black drum that turns to face the room, for roughly 900 square feet: a cabin, a studio, a corner of an open plan.
Stûv 6-in
The small wood insert for the small masonry hearth that no longer burns, in three sizes.
Stûv 16-In
The EPA-certified wood insert that retrofits into the masonry fireplace you already have.
Stûv 21
A built-in wood fireplace whose glass rises to turn one hearth into two: a clean closed fire, or an open one.
Questions people tend to ask
Do you install fireplaces and wood stoves 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, as they are on every Maxwell Fireplace job.
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. We plan anything around the fire, a surround, a mantel, tile or millwork, with the trades doing it.
What does Whistler require for a wood stove, insert or fireplace?
A permit. The Resort Municipality of Whistler asks for one to install or alter a wood stove, fireplace insert, pellet stove or factory-built or masonry fireplace, and its forms include an owner’s authorization of agent and, where it applies, a strata consent. Metro Vancouver’s Bylaw 1303 does not apply in Whistler. 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 fireplace?
Often, but the strata has a say. The municipality’s permit forms include a strata consent for homes that are part of a strata, so it is worth speaking to your strata before you choose. Bring us what you know about the building, and we will plan the fire and the chimney around it.
Do I need a WETT certificate?
WETT certification is what insurers and buyers commonly ask about when a home has a wood-burning appliance. We WETT-certify the wood-burning appliances we install, and only those. Whether your insurer or your strata asks for it is worth confirming with them.
Which Stûv suits a Whistler home?
It depends on the room and the hearth. The 30 Compact is a stove that turns to face the room, rated for roughly 900 square feet, which suits a cabin or a studio. The 6-in and the 16-In are inserts for an old masonry fireplace, the 6-in for the smaller hearth. The 21 is a built-in wood fireplace for a wall that is being built, and the 6-H is a small, freestanding stove. Bring a photograph and we will tell you which one the room can hold.
How much will it cost?
It depends less on the fire than on everything around it: the model, the chimney and how it has to run through the house, the hearth, the permit and the installation. Two homes with the same stove can arrive at quite different figures, so 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 wood fire in it asks for a chimney planned before the stove 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.