Does replacing an open wood fireplace with an insert improve the air in my house?
Yes — and in Swannanoa, where storm recovery has homes being rebuilt and renovated, this upgrade is worth building in now. The Grovemont-area 1940s-60s houses still carry original masonry fireplaces that leak fine smoke particulate indoors. Retiring an open box for a sealed insert during the rebuild gives you cleaner air and, in gas, heat that survives the next outage.
Build it in during the rebuild
A lot of Swannanoa is under renovation after the storm, which is the ideal moment to retire a leaky original firebox instead of restoring it and reopening walls later. Those Grovemont-era open masonry hearths spill particulate on every downdraft, and the river valley's fog, cold-air pooling, and damp air are all hard on masonry chimneys — so an old flue only drafts worse as the years go on. Sealing the burn behind an insert while the walls are already open is cheaper and cleaner than coming back to it, and it's a rare chance to fix the air-quality problem right down at the studs.
Clean air plus outage-proof heat
Swannanoa sits on the natural-gas mains, so a direct-vent gas insert seals combustion away completely and — with millivolt or battery-backup ignition — keeps throwing heat when the grid goes down, the exact gap a lot of families felt during the storm. A Kozy Heat Chaska 25L handles our cold with a blower standard. If you'd rather burn wood, an EPA-certified Regency insert stays fully grid-independent and burns far cleaner than the open box. We run the licensed gas line and permit it with Buncombe County.
See it before you close the walls
Because timing is everything on a rebuild, come see the units at our Asheville showroom — 15 minutes west — or have us out early, while the framing is still open and the vent path is easy to run. Deciding now beats retrofitting a finished room later, and it lets us permit the gas work with Buncombe County on your build's schedule. Free assessment at (828) 545-0525.
Fireplace help in Swannanoa
We install and service fireplaces throughout Swannanoa and the rest of Buncombe County — just 15 minutes east from our Asheville-area showroom.
Related questions
- Do wood-burning fireplaces pollute the air inside your house?
- Will converting my wood fireplace to gas improve my indoor air quality?
- Does a wood-burning insert pollute less than an open fireplace?
- Will a gas insert seal off the drafts and old smoke odors coming from my open fireplace chimney?
- Does closing the glass doors on a wood-burning fireplace keep smoke out of the room?