Is a bird's nest or animal in the chimney a fire or carbon monoxide hazard?
In Fairview, wood heat and heavily wooded lots make this a fire question first. Creosote buildup is already the top chimney-fire cause out here, and a bird nest or animal den near the flue top adds a second layer of tinder right in the ember path. On the propane appliances that heat many rural homes, the same blockage chokes the draft and can back carbon monoxide into the house.
Wooded lots supply both the wildlife and the fuel
Fairview's large wooded lots around Cane Creek, Garren Creek, and the Charlotte Highway corridor make wood heat a natural choice — and they surround your chimney with the squirrels, raccoons, and birds that will claim an uncapped flue as a den. Those same trees drop leaves onto the crown all fall. So a Fairview flue can end the off-season holding a nest, a den's worth of bedding, and a layer of leaf-fall, all of it dry and all of it parked where your first fire's sparks will travel.
Creosote and a nest are a bad pair
The reason we push fall sweeps so hard here is creosote — the tarry residue a wood fire leaves on the flue walls, and the leading cause of chimney fires in Fairview. Now stack a nest on top of it. A stray ember lights the dry nesting material near the flue top, that fire finds the creosote below, and a small problem becomes a full chimney fire in a hurry. Clearing the nest without also sweeping the creosote only addresses half of what's flammable up there.
One fall visit covers all of it
An annual sweep and inspection — late summer or early fall, before you're leaning on the fire — clears the creosote and any nest in the same trip, and we finish with a cap and animal screen so wildlife stays out and embers stay in. On the propane side we check the appliance and connection as a licensed gas contractor, permitted with Buncombe County, and CO detectors on every level are a must. Fairview's fifteen minutes east. Call (828) 545-0525.
Fireplace help in Fairview
We install and service fireplaces throughout Fairview and the rest of Buncombe County — just 15 minutes east from our Asheville-area showroom.