Modern Fire place help

We are trying to find some modern linear fireplaces or ones with simple clean lines. We came across the Montigo L-series  but have heard that some people have had issues with the installation. My other issue is that prices of many of the other modern fireplaces we have found our roughly 2x what a standard fireplace costs.

I'd like something that is sleek, preferably uses glass beads or rocks vs fake logs and I want it it be NG not gel or wood burning.

I need as much help as I can get quickly as our city code requires us to have selected the fireplace prior to getting our permits to start construction and we are literally 4-6 weeks off of our initial schedule already. We had planned to take some more time doing the research but this lit a fire under us.

Thanks,
Jason

Jason, I just intstalled the montigo in a home I had for sale. It works great and looks even better. The marbles are lame.  I repeat the marble are lame. I got the rocks from another company, montigo gives you about 4 rocks and this other company gave us around 20. I got it at a fireplace store on riverside/franklin ave in mpls, but do not remember the name of th store right now.  It was a pretty easy install, I'm a contractor so take that with a grain of salt. The house is under contract so do not think i'm pushing, but my wife is holding it open in Highland Park  , 11 hilltop lane, untill 2 today( the buyers inspection was friday so tech. not sold yet blah, blah) if you want to see it in action.  Every person that walks in demands to know where we got it. Be sure to put a switch on the fan unit because they do put out some heat.  Good Luck.

Thanks this was very helpful. I wished we would have been able to come over and see your place and the fireplace in action. I think we're going tomorrow to check them out.

Have you looked at Rais?  They are beautiful and functional.  www.rais.com  They have built ins and free standing and come in natural gas.

Those are great looking fireplaces. I found a NG fireplace from Kingsman called the Marquis that gives me a modern look I was going for. It's more square than I wanted originally but I'm going to create that linear look with the surround materials.

Check out this really cool very inexpensive fireplace surround material that my Architect Michael Huber used for his personal fireplace, I think he told me he did the entire thing fir under $20. You may have seen this on HGTV's show What's with that house.

Previously Jason Hammond wrote:

Check out this really cool very inexpensive fireplace surround material that my Architect Michael Huber used for his personal fireplace, I think he told me he did the entire thing fir under $20. You may have seen this on HGTV's show What's with that house.

The material is simple concrete backer board that can be found at any home improvement center in the tile section. The materials is used to for under-layment for tiling. If you tell the people at the store what you are using it for, you are sure to get some odd looks, but that's half the fun. The panels are then treated with a concrete stain to get the nice color and covered with a concrete sealer to protect and prolong the look. Depending on the brand of backer board you get, some of it can be scored and snapped but for a job like this I would recommend using a circular saw with a concrete blade to get a precision cut out of it.  The panels are fastened to the wall using screws and over-sized washers.

The entire cost should be pretty minimal as the materials are very inexpensive as long as you can do the work yourself. You might even be able to get some small sample size containers of stain that would save you some cost there.

Jason