Can a fireplace make radon levels in my house worse?

Rentals hide the problem

Radon can't be seen or smelled, and a busy rental with a rotating set of tenants is exactly where nobody thinks to test. An open masonry fireplace in one of these WCU-area houses pulls hard on the house every time it burns, drawing soil gas up through slab cracks and the crawl, and no one's the wiser until a test kit says otherwise. If you own rental property here, testing the lowest lived-in level is a cheap piece of landlord diligence.

Whether the house is on natural gas in town or propane up the ridge, the fix for the fireplace's pull is the same.

Old Dillsboro hearths pull the hardest

The historic homes in Dillsboro carry original masonry fireboxes and older flue liners, and those wide-open hearths move the most house air of anything we work on. The Tuckasegee valley's cold-air drainage and river moisture also degrade those flues fast. Closing an old firebox with a sealed [direct-vent gas insert](/services/gas-fireplace-installation) stops the radon pull and fixes a tired, leaky liner at the same time — combustion sealed off from the room, air drawn from outside.

How we work it from Asheville

Sylva is about 50 minutes west of our showroom, so we plan these jobs efficiently and get the fireplace side right the first time. Radon mitigation — the sub-slab system — is a separate specialty we don't install; our part is the hearth, permitted and pressure-tested as licensed gas work a handyman legally can't do. Test first, then coordinate the mitigation and the fireplace. Call (828) 545-0525.