How do I keep birds and animals from nesting in my fireplace vent or chimney?
Arden's 1980s and '90s homes in Royal Pines and Skyland were built with open masonry fireplaces, and a lot of them still are — which means an uncapped or poorly capped flue that squirrels, swifts, and raccoons can walk right into. A mesh-sided stainless cap sized to the flue is the direct fix, even though the town itself runs on natural gas.
Open masonry flues, wide open to wildlife
A traditional open masonry fireplace, like the ones throughout Skyland and Royal Pines, has a warm smoke shelf and a wide flue that a nesting animal treats as ideal shelter. Without a proper cap there's nothing between the crown and your firebox but air, and every spring brings a fresh round of swifts looking for exactly that.
The right cap is stainless with mesh sides, fitted to the flue so it blocks animals and sparks while still shedding rain and letting smoke clear. It's a small piece of hardware that closes the single biggest opening in an older Arden chimney.
Convert to a sealed insert and the problem goes away
Many Arden owners are tired of these drafty fireboxes pulling heat out of the room, and a sealed gas insert with a new liner fixes both the draft and the nesting risk — it swaps the open flue for a screened termination nothing can den in. That insert and gas connection are licensed work, permitted through Buncombe County.
Keep the open hearth or convert it, spring nesting still calls for a late-summer inspection. And don't burn a nest out — smoke backs up and swifts are protected. We're fifteen minutes south. Call (828) 545-0525.
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.
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