In Arden, those 1980s and 90s homes in Royal Pines and Skyland are the reason to pay attention. Many were built with open masonry fireplaces that draft hard and pull heat straight up the flue — and if you burn wood in one, a spark-arrestor cap is standard safety equipment. It's the exact vintage of fireplace that never came with one.
The drafty open firebox is the ember risk
Arden's established neighborhoods are full of open masonry fireplaces from the 80s and 90s building boom — the kind that feel drafty because they pull warmed room air up the chimney and run a net heat loss. That strong updraft is also what lofts glowing embers over the crown on a cold night, onto roofs that in Skyland and Royal Pines sit under mature trees and fill with leaves by fall. The arrestor mesh catches those embers where they start. On this vintage of fireplace, it's usually the piece that was never installed in the first place.
Cap it, or turn it into a real heater
Because these open fireplaces waste heat, a lot of Arden homeowners use the cap conversation as a starting point for a bigger fix: a sealed gas or wood insert with a correctly sized liner. That ends the draftiness, turns a heat-losing firebox into an appliance that actually warms the room, and — since we run the licensed gas line and reline the flue — leaves you with one accountable install instead of a masonry crown and a mystery flue. If you're keeping the open hearth, though, cap it and burn with confidence.
Fifteen minutes south
We're 15 minutes south of the Asheville showroom, close enough for a quick look at your flue. Call (828) 545-0525 and we'll size a cap or price out the insert — whichever fits how you actually use the fireplace.
Fireplace help in Arden
We install and service fireplaces throughout Arden and the rest of Buncombe County — just 15 minutes south from our Asheville-area showroom.