How should I shut down and protect a fireplace in a second home that sits vacant for months?
In Arden, the 1980s and '90s homes in Royal Pines and Skyland typically have open masonry fireplaces that pull heat out of a room — and in a vacant house that same draft runs cold air in and lets critters up the flue. Seal it hard: block the damper, add a chimney balloon, and cap the top before you leave.
Draft cuts both ways
The open masonry fireboxes common in Arden's Royal Pines and Skyland neighborhoods are already tired heat-losers when the house is occupied; leave them for months and that open flue becomes a two-way problem — cold air pouring down into the rooms and wildlife nesting up top. A blocked, sealed damper and a chimney balloon close the throat, and a capped, screened crown closes off the top against the birds and squirrels that move into idle flues. Clean the ash out first so it doesn't hold damp and rust the damper over an empty season.
Natural gas keeps the fuel side easy
Arden is on the gas mains, so if your second home has a gas log set or insert instead of an open hearth, the shutdown is just the pilot and the batteries — no tank to coordinate. Many Arden owners eventually convert that drafty open fireplace to a sealed gas insert, which turns a heat-loser into a real, closable heater and makes every future close-up trivial — but that's a reopening project, handled with a Buncombe County permit for the gas line, not part of buttoning the house up for the season.
Fifteen minutes south
We're 15 minutes south of the showroom, glad to seal an Arden hearth in spring and check the vent, damper, and cap each fall. Have the flue looked at before the first fire after a long empty stretch — an open masonry chimney that sat all summer is a prime nesting spot, and vacant-then-used is when that turns into a smoke-back. 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.
Related questions
- Does a fireplace I never use still need to be inspected?
- Should I turn off the pilot light on my gas fireplace in the summer?
- How do I keep birds and animals from nesting in my fireplace vent or chimney?
- How do I keep dust and debris out of my fireplace during the months it is not used?
- Should I use a chimney balloon or flue plug to seal the chimney during the off-season?