Is it OK to burn storm-fall or dead trees from my own property?
In Candler, how clean you burn matters more than in most places. Hominy Valley sits in a natural bowl that traps smoke on still, cold nights, so a smoldering pile of green storm-fall becomes a neighborhood air-quality problem. Burn your own wood by all means — but burn it bone-dry, in a clean-burning appliance.
The valley holds your smoke
Cold air and woodsmoke settle into the Hominy Valley bowl and linger there, so what comes out of your chimney doesn't just disappear — it hangs over the whole cove on a calm winter night. Wet, green wood smokes heavily and drifts across everyone's yards, while properly seasoned wood in an EPA-certified stove or insert burns hot and clean with very little visible smoke. In a valley that traps air the way this one does, dry wood and a clean-burning box are simply the neighborly way to heat with your own storm-fall.
Dry wood, clean burn
Split your downed trees and stack them up off the ground with the top covered and the sides open to the air. Give green oak six to twelve months, and let a moisture meter under 20 percent be the difference between a clean fire and a smoky one. Standing-dead wood may be closer to ready, but in a bowl that holds smoke, it's worth measuring rather than assuming.
The right box for clean heat
Candler's fast-growing subdivisions often came with basic, decorative builder-grade fireboxes meant more for looks than heat. For real, clean wood heat, an EPA appliance with a correctly sized liner is the tool — it burns cleaner and warms better, and Buncombe County permits it. Call (828) 545-0525 for a free assessment.
Fireplace help in Candler
We install and service fireplaces throughout Candler and the rest of Buncombe County — just 15 minutes west from our Asheville-area showroom.