Is it OK to burn storm-fall or dead trees from my own property?
In Flat Rock, those grand old fireplaces are the whole question. The village's historic homes, some dating to the 1800s, have oversized open masonry fireboxes and aging clay flue liners — beautiful, but drafty and often past their prime. Your own storm-fall is fine wood; whether that old firebox can safely burn a season of it is what to check first.
Old fireboxes, aging liners
An oversized open masonry hearth draws a lot of room air up the chimney and returns very little heat, so on a cold night it can actually pull warmth out of the room. Worse, century-old clay tile liners crack and gap as they age, and cracks plus creosote are exactly how chimney fires start. Before you feed one of these fireboxes a full winter of home-cut oak, have the liner and crown inspected. A sealed EPA insert with a stainless liner solves the draftiness and captures the heat while preserving the character of the original hearth — and Henderson County permits the work, with our crew meeting the inspector.
Season it for our mountain humidity
Freshly downed wood is wet inside even when the bark looks weathered and dead. Split it, stack it up off the ground with the top covered and the sides open, and give green oak six to twelve months in our damp air. A cheap moisture meter reading under 20 percent is the reliable tell — an old open firebox will let you burn wet wood, but you'll pay for it in smoke, lost heat, and creosote.
Untreated wood only
Burn natural, untreated wood exclusively — nothing painted, stained, pressure-treated, or salvaged from a deck or fence. Keep softwood for kindling since it creosotes on a steady burn. And keep the annual sweep on the calendar. Call (828) 545-0525.
Fireplace help in Flat Rock
We install and service fireplaces throughout Flat Rock and the rest of Henderson County — just 30 minutes south from our Asheville-area showroom.