Can a fireplace make radon levels in my house worse?
Yes, and in Asheville the worst offenders are the very fireplaces that give Montford and North Asheville their character. An open masonry firebox pulls hundreds of cubic feet of room air up the flue, and the house replaces every bit through the slab and crawlspace, dragging soil gas along. Buncombe County is granite radon country, so test regardless of what you burn.
Why the old-house charm cuts both ways
The hand-laid brick and stone fireboxes across Montford, Kenilworth, and Grove Park were built to draw hard, and a wide-open masonry flue is the single strongest depressurizer most homes have. Newer South Asheville construction leans the other way, toward clean-face direct-vent gas that seals combustion off from the room and barely disturbs house pressure. Same city, opposite radon story — which fireplace you have matters more than which neighborhood you live in.
Electric units move no house air at all, but they also can't heat you through an outage, so most Asheville homeowners weighing radon are really choosing between an open wood firebox and a sealed gas one.
Being your neighbors lets us split the work cleanly
We run out of 629 Emma Rd in West Asheville, so these houses are the ones we see every day. Installing the sub-slab pipe and fan that actually removes radon is its own licensed specialty, and it isn't the trade we're in. Our lane is the fireplace's share of the problem — a [sealed direct-vent install](/services/gas-fireplace-installation), a combustion-air kit that feeds the fire from outdoors, or [converting a depressurizing open firebox to an insert](/services/wood-to-gas-conversion) so it stops pulling on the ground under the slab.
Test first, then fix both halves together
A short-term radon test kit costs almost nothing and answers the question in a few days. If the number comes back high, address the mitigation system and the fireplace at the same time, because a radon fan fighting a fireplace that still depressurizes the basement is a losing battle. As a licensed gas contractor we pull the Buncombe County permit and pressure-test every line we run, so the hearth half is handled right. Call (828) 545-0525.
Fireplace help in Asheville
We install and service fireplaces throughout Asheville and the rest of Buncombe County — we're headquartered right here.
Related questions
- Does a fireplace pull air out of my house, and does that matter for air quality?
- Do fireplaces cause more air quality problems in tightly sealed new-construction homes?
- Can an unused fireplace or chimney cause moisture and mold problems in the house?
- Why do I smell smoke in my house when the fireplace isn't even burning?
- Do fireplaces create dust in the house?