How do I make a 1970s floor-to-ceiling stone fireplace look modern?

Ranch-house fireplaces, refreshed

Clyde's housing skews toward 1960s-80s ranch-style builds, and their fireplaces are prime for a modern reset: the scale is right for a clean floor-to-ceiling reface, and swapping the dated firebox for a sealed insert warms a long single-level footprint evenly. Large-format porcelain or a current stacked stone over the old surround changes the whole room.

If you like the existing masonry's texture, a limewash is the lighter, faster route to muting the dated color — a couple of days of work rather than a full demolition.

Watch the moisture, pull the permit

Clyde shares the cold-air drainage of the Canton and Waynesville valleys, and the river humidity rusts dampers and degrades masonry chimneys, so we look at the damper and flue before committing to a finish — no point dressing up a wall over a failing flue. It's mixed-fuel country, so the conversion is set for natural gas or propane as your home runs.

We pull the Haywood County permit, pressure-test the line, and meet the inspector — the licensed step a mason cannot do. Twenty-five minutes from our Asheville showroom.

Keep it running with annual service

Whatever goes behind the new stone, plan on a yearly tune-up, ideally in late summer before you need it — in this damp river valley, moisture and off-season dust are hard on burners, pilots, and dampers alike. We service all major hearth brands, so a single call keeps the whole system healthy and the manufacturer's warranty intact. Catching a marginal damper or a clogging pilot in September beats discovering it on the first cold Haywood County night, when everyone's calling at once. Call (828) 545-0525.