Does a fireplace I never use still need to be inspected?
Yes — and in Weaverville that catches people off guard, because a lot of the idle fireplaces here are new. Reems Creek's fast-growing construction puts a gas fireplace in the great room that many owners rarely light, and new doesn't mean checked. A dormant unit still needs eyes on it before you trust it in the cold.
The unlit fireplace in a new build
Plenty of Weaverville homes come with a gas fireplace the owner never really uses — installed by the builder, switched on once, then left. Sitting idle, a factory unit still collects dust and spider webs in the pilot assembly across the off-season, and its gas fittings can loosen or seep with no flame drawing anything up the vent and no one in the room to smell it. A first-year inspection on a builder-installed unit often turns up a burner never quite dialed in or a connection that wants tightening. On the natural-gas mains that serve Weaverville, an unused gas fireplace is not a set-and-forget appliance, however new the house looks.
Old downtown fireboxes have the opposite problem
Weaverville's older downtown homes run the other way — original masonry fireboxes, often inefficient and long dormant. Left unused, those chimneys draw nesting animals and take on moisture that this north-facing valley's slow-warming, damp mornings never quite dry, and freeze-thaw at 2,250 feet opens the cracks. Whether your fireplace is a year old off Reems Creek or a century old near Main Street, the fix is the same: a periodic inspection before you relight, and a real-estate check if you're buying or selling. We're about 15 minutes north of Asheville, so pre-season timing is easy. Call (828) 545-0525.
Fireplace help in Weaverville
We install and service fireplaces throughout Weaverville and the rest of Buncombe County — just 15 minutes north from our Asheville-area showroom.
Related questions
- I just moved into a home with a fireplace — should I have it inspected before using it?
- Do I need a chimney inspection when buying or selling a home?
- Why is there moisture or rust in a fireplace I rarely use?
- How do I keep birds and animals from nesting in my fireplace vent or chimney?
- How should I shut down and protect a fireplace in a second home that sits vacant for months?