Okay so my boyfriend and I are trying to light our gas fire place… we turned on the gas that t's off from the line in the basement which goes out to the main line which goes to a meter. The main line comes from the meter into the basement t's off for the gas pipe to the fire place it goes under the stairs out of the house continues outside and comes up along the fire place chimney and back into the house…. no value out there we checked…comes out of the wall which goes into a vent along side the fireplace.. there is a value inside the fireplace which we have to use vise grips to open because it is to hard to turn by hand… we turned it on and nothing we dont smell or hear anything.. tried to lite it when gas was "on" but nothing… any help would be great we have owned the house for 10 years and our family said we had it lite once but we dont remember how or anything….
Why can’t I get gas to our gas fire place
fireplaceventing
Related Solutions
It is very important to ensure all infiltration paths a sealed off and adjacent walls and floor are properly insulated. Even a hairline crack in the doors can cause enough infiltration to lower temperatures in the area, though no actual moving air can be detected.
Even so, the fact that outside air can freely circulate in the combustion chamber will also be a heat sink, lowering temperatures in the area. More sophisticated devices similar to this utilize automatic dampers that interlock with the fuel supply. These are located on the exhaust flue, and sometimes on the combustion air inlet as well. I don't know if retrofitting such devices is possible on typical residential fireplaces. Such a project must be done very carefully to ensure complete safety. Failure of the system can result in carbon monoxide poisoning, so multiple fail safe measures are called for. Such measures are beyond the abilities of nearly all DIY practitioners. Only fully qualified professionals should perform this sort of work.
Even more so, though flue dampers prevent cold air from freely circulating, they are typically thin sheets of metal with poorly sealed edges, so the fire box will still be fairly cold, albeit much less so.
We had a similar issue. The solution is to stack up larger chunks of lava rock into something that is vaguely pyramid shaped. As you note, the heat rises and if you have a large stack of rock over the flames, the rock will redirect this convective heat through the rock and heat up the rock itself. Once the stack of rock is heated (ours gets quite glowing red in the middle), it radiates the heat out to the sides (where people are sitting) quite effectively... much better than the flat layer of rock in the bottom of the fire pit. Since most of the heat is in the middle of the ring, that is where you want your stack tallest since it will extract more useful heat that way.
The only thing you need to be careful of is the stack of rock tumbling down. Fortunately, lava rock is quite porous and there is a lot of friction between two pieces. You can easily stack the rock in an interlocking manner and test it but pulling or pushing to ensure that the stack is stable, and that red hot rock won't come tumbling out on you while the fire is going. With heating and cooling, the rock will shift over time so it is best to inspect the stack periodically to make sure it stays stable.
Note, I'm talking about large size lava rock, not the stuff I see in your fire pit. Something like what you see here: 
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Best Answer
Well there are simple ways to test to see if gas is present at this fireplace but I see no safety controls on this to make me ever want to use it but of course this is your choice. I see the gas line coming up and there's a 3/8 inch copper line going away from a gas valve to the burner but I see no pilot light. You could with two wrenches undo or at least losen the 3/8" flare nut just on top of the gas valve and then with all cigarettes, candels etc. out wiggle the line if losen or if you undo the flare nut completely and turn the valve so the handel is more virticle. If you hear or smell no gas whatsoever, spraying some soapy water over it will tell for sure, if there are bubbles you've got gas. If you undo it comepletely and the handel is completely virticle and you do hear anything and soap sray shows nothings coming out at all, then someplace there's another valve so turn this valve off again and tighten the nut. Is the Furnace below this someplace. After rereading you mention vice grips, STOP there, turn the gas off at the meter and buy a new valve to replace this one at the fireplace before going further. Nothing can be considered safe if you need vicegrips to turn on the gas valve. Once you take this valve off you might find it's plugged with crap causing your troubles thus the need for vicegrips. For all intents and purposes you should spend the money on someone to install a real millivolt gas valve complete with a pilot light and connect it to a proper millivolt thermostat or switch but a timer might be. This way all you need to do is turn up the thermostat or set the timer the valve engages and the pilot light ignites the burner. First though make sure the chimney is open so your room doesn't fill up with carbon monoxide killing the two of you. I'm positive you would be missed. Never ever forget the dangers of any gas burning appliance, getting the fire is one part, getting rid of the products of cumbustion is the other. A working chimney is so very important, understand??