Is a standing dead or storm-downed tree already seasoned and ready to burn?
No — and in Arden, where so many 1980s and 90s homes in Royal Pines and Skyland have tired, drafty open fireplaces, unseasoned wood is doubly punishing. A standing-dead or storm-downed tree still holds water. Feed a drafty firebox wet wood and you get smoke, little heat, and fast creosote. Split it and stack it for months.
Drafty open fireboxes waste wet wood twice
The open masonry fireplaces in a lot of Arden's Royal Pines and Skyland homes already pull heat out of the room and send most of it up the chimney — that's just how an old open hearth works. Feed one wood that isn't seasoned and it's the worst of both worlds: a smoldering, smoky, low-heat fire and a flue lining up with creosote. A tree that died standing or came down in a storm looks dry but isn't; the bark seals moisture in and the heartwood stays wet for a long time.
Seasoning is the whole job
Firewood becomes burnable only after it's cut to length, split so the wet inner faces meet the air, and stacked off the ground to breathe through a summer. A downed trunk left lying can even wick water back up out of the soil. Stack on pallets, keep rows single for airflow, cover only the top, and burn last year's wood while this year's dries. Read a fresh split face before it goes in — light, gray-brown, cracked at the ends, and about 20 percent or under on a meter.
A sealed insert ends the draft problem
Plenty of Arden owners solve the tired-fireplace problem for good with a sealed wood or gas insert and a correctly sized liner, which turns a heat-losing open firebox into a real heater and keeps the creosote in check. It also means dry wood or a clean gas flame instead of a smoky struggle. That's our work — permitted with Buncombe County, inspected, and just fifteen minutes south of our Asheville showroom. Have the chimney checked before heating season either way. 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 seasoned firewood go bad or rot if it's stored for several years?
- Should firewood be split before it's stacked to season, or can whole rounds dry out?
- Is it cheaper to buy green firewood in spring and season it myself?
- Is it safe to burn rhododendron or mountain laurel cleared from my property?
- Will a wood-burning insert cut down on how much firewood I go through compared to my open fireplace?