Fireplace Brands We Love
Chimney Monkey is an authorized dealer for Acucraft, Urbana, Enviro, Mason-Lite, Stûv and Lexington Hearth, and we design, install and service all of them across Chicago’s North Shore — from Evanston to Lake Forest. Each brand solves a different problem well. Here’s what each one is good at, and which one belongs in your home. Call 847-994-4388.
Get in touch Call 847-994-4388
We install a lot of fireplaces. Over time you develop opinions about which manufacturers hold up — not in a showroom, but three winters later, in a Winnetka house with a fifty-foot chimney taking wind off the lake.
We’re an authorized dealer for all of these, which means we sell them, install them, and service them. It also means we had to choose them. Here’s why we did.
Acucraft — when the fireplace is the architecture
A direct-selling custom manufacturer in Big Lake, Minnesota, building fireplaces since 1979. See-through, peninsula, four-sided, linear, panoramic, circular — if it can be drawn and vented, Acucraft will build it. Gas, wood, or vapor. This is the brand for a gut remodel or a new build where the fireplace is the reason the room is shaped the way it is.
Urbana — luxury gas, cleanly executed
Bay, linear, and traditional gas fireplaces made in North America, with adjustable ember lighting and a genuinely wide range of liners and burner media. Urbana is what we specify when a client wants a contemporary gas fireplace that looks deliberate rather than default, without going fully custom.
Enviro — the practical answer for a fireplace nobody uses
Gas and pellet stoves, inserts, and fireplaces. The Enviro insert is the fix for the most common condition we find on the North Shore: a masonry fireplace in decent structural shape that the family has stopped lighting because it’s messy, drafty, and throws almost no heat into the room.
Mason-Lite — a real masonry fireplace where one won’t fit
Modular, pre-cast lightweight masonry fireboxes made in Riverside, California. They give you the mass, the depth, and the look of hand-built masonry at a fraction of the weight — which matters enormously when you’re adding a fireplace to an existing house, an upper floor, or a patio that can’t carry a full masonry footing.
Stûv — a wood fire designed as an object
Belgian-designed wood stoves, inserts, and fireplaces, adapted for North America. The s30C rotates 360 degrees and opens three ways. The s21 has a guillotine door that lifts to turn a sealed glass fireplace into an open fire. Stûv is what we recommend when the fireplace is meant to be looked at when it isn’t lit.
Lexington Hearth — the mantel that solves the clearance problem
Hand-finished mantels from Lexington, Kentucky — including certified non-combustible beams that look like antique timber but can legally sit where real wood can’t. The honest answer when the fireplace’s clearances and the design want different things.
We’re also an authorized RealFyre® gas log dealer — the right answer when the fireplace itself is fine and only the fire needs upgrading.
Which one belongs in your home?
| If you want… | Look at |
|---|---|
| A fireplace designed around your room, at any size or viewing angle | Acucraft |
| A contemporary luxury gas fireplace with clean lines and a normal lead time | Urbana |
| To make an existing, unused masonry fireplace warm and easy | Enviro |
| Real masonry mass indoors or outdoors, without a full masonry foundation | Mason-Lite |
| A wood fire that’s also a piece of design | Stûv |
| A wood-burning fireplace you’ll actually burn wood in | Acucraft, Mason-Lite or Stûv |
| An outdoor fireplace or pizza oven | Mason-Lite |
| A wood-look mantel your fireplace clearances would otherwise forbid | Lexington Hearth |
| Meaningful heat, not just ambiance | Enviro or Stûv |
Gas, wood, or pellet?
| Gas | Wood | Pellet | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Operation | Switch or remote | Build and tend a fire | Load a hopper, electric ignition |
| Heat | Steady, convenient | Strong radiant | Strong, steady radiant |
| Mess | None | Ash and wood storage | Ash, bagged pellets |
| Our brands | Acucraft, Urbana, Enviro, Mason-Lite | Acucraft, Mason-Lite, Stûv | Enviro |
Most people who tell us they want a wood-burning fireplace actually want the look of one. Some genuinely want to build a fire. Those are different products, and we’d rather sort that out at the kitchen table than after installation.
Why we’re the ones installing them
A fireplace is only as good as the system behind it. Most of what goes wrong with a new fireplace is not the appliance — it’s clearance, venting, termination height, chase detailing, or a chimney that was never built for the appliance now attached to it.
Chimney Monkey has been working on North Shore chimneys since 2017. We keep masons, inspectors, and researchers on staff, which means the person who tells you the venting won’t work in that location is the same organization that will build the chase, flash it, cap it, and put a camera up it when it’s done. We’ve earned more than 1,100 Google reviews doing it.
Get in touch Call 847-994-4388
We serve Buffalo Grove, Deerfield, Northbrook, Glenview, Highland Park, Lake Forest, Winnetka, Wilmette, Glencoe, Evanston, Skokie, Lake Bluff, Highwood, and the surrounding North Shore.
Chimney Monkey · 741 Hastings Dr, Buffalo Grove, IL 60089.