My fireplace or chimney was flooded during Hurricane Helene — is it safe to use?
No — hold off on lighting a flood-hit Brevard fireplace until it's inspected. Transylvania County already takes 80-plus inches of rain a year, so local chimneys fight moisture constantly; a Helene flood pushes that damage from slow to serious, rotting gas controls and saturating flue liners. Get it looked at first. Call (828) 545-0525.
A wet county's fireplaces flood differently
Brevard sits in one of the rainiest corners of the mountains, and local chimney chases and crawl spaces are already prone to moisture — cracked crowns, spalled brick, rusted dampers. When floodwater adds to that baseline, a chimney can look like its usual weathered self while the liner is saturated straight through and the mortar has let go at the base. We inspect the full structure, not just what shows from the hearth, so a season of hidden damage doesn't disappear behind Brevard's ordinary wear.
Downtown gas or cabin propane — both need eyes
Brevard runs both ways: natural-gas service near downtown and propane out at the cabins toward Connestee Falls, Sherwood Forest, and Pisgah Forest. Either way, a submerged gas valve or electronic board gets replaced, not dried. On a propane setup, the regulator and appliance connection that went underwater have to be evaluated too — we handle the appliance and gas-piping side while your propane supplier coordinates the tank. Reconnecting any of it is licensed gas work, which is our lane and no one else's.
Permit with Transylvania County
If parts or the whole unit need replacing, we pull the Transylvania County permit and meet the inspector; permitted work keeps your insurance and future home sale clean. Our written inspection report also documents the loss for your claim. We're about 40 minutes southwest of the Asheville showroom — call (828) 545-0525.
Fireplace help in Brevard
We install and service fireplaces throughout Brevard and the rest of Transylvania County — just 40 minutes southwest from our Asheville-area showroom.
Related questions
- A storm or falling tree damaged my chimney — what needs to be checked before I use the fireplace?
- Does homeowners insurance cover replacing a flood- or storm-damaged fireplace?
- After Hurricane Helene, what's the best fireplace setup so my family is never without heat again?
- Should I have the fireplace and chimney inspected before using them in a WNC home I just bought?
- Can a gas fireplace heat my house through a multi-day outage like the one after Hurricane Helene?