In Brevard the honest lead isn't sparks — it's water. Yes, if you burn wood you need spark-arrestor mesh, but in a town that catches 80-plus inches of rain a year, the cap's job of keeping the flue dry may matter just as much. Either way, an open chimney here is a chimney taking on weather it shouldn't.
The rainiest ground we serve is hard on open flues
Transylvania County's waterfall country pays for its beauty in rainfall — 80-plus inches, with a soaking wet season from March into June. That water is what cracks crowns, spalls brick face, and rusts steel dampers on Brevard's older downtown chimneys, and it pours straight down any uncapped flue. A properly fitted cap sheds it before it can start the freeze-thaw damage that turns a small masonry crack into a rebuild. Around Connestee Falls and Sherwood Forest, where crawl spaces and chimney chases already fight constant moisture, a dry flue is one less place for water to do quiet, expensive harm.
And yes, the sparks still count
None of that cancels the arrestor's original job. Brevard's cabins burn real wood, often up an open masonry flue that drafts hard on cold Pisgah nights, and the mesh basket catches embers at the source before they reach a roof under heavy tree canopy. In the dry autumn stretches between rains — when the Forest Service starts posting fire-danger notices around Pisgah — an uncapped wood flue is a genuine wildfire liability, not just a house risk.
One cap, several problems, forty minutes out
A single stainless cap with arrestor mesh handles sparks, rain, and the raccoons and swifts that nest in idle flues. We're about 40 minutes southwest of the Asheville showroom; call (828) 545-0525 and we'll size one to your chimney and check it as part of your annual service — and given Brevard's moisture, we'll flag any crown or liner damage the wet has already started before it spreads.
Fireplace help in Brevard
We install and service fireplaces throughout Brevard and the rest of Transylvania County — just 40 minutes southwest from our Asheville-area showroom.