Should I stock up on firewood before winter, and how early should I order it?
Yes — order firewood in spring, and in Black Mountain pay attention to where you stack it. Swannanoa Valley inversions leave mornings 10 to 15 degrees colder than Asheville, and Montreat's heavily wooded lots stay shaded and damp. Both mean wood dries more slowly here, so give it the full summer and the sunniest spot you've got.
Cold mornings and shaded woodpiles
Black Mountain's setting works against fast seasoning in two ways. Valley inversions pool cold, damp air on the valley floor overnight, and the tall canopy over Montreat and the Swannanoa Valley keeps a lot of yards in shade. Firewood dries on sun and moving air, so a pile tucked in the trees can still be wet by fall. Hunt down your sunniest, breeziest patch of ground and order green wood early enough — spring — that a full mountain summer can work on it.
How much you'll go through
Those colder mornings and a long high-elevation season add up to more fires than a lower town needs. Plan by the cord — a stacked pile about four by four by eight feet — and buy on the generous side based on how hard you actually burn. Keep it off the ground, split faces to the light, top covered and sides open. Wet, badly stored wood is behind more mid-winter service calls than almost anything else.
Grid-down heat that actually works
Black Mountain sits on the natural-gas mains, but plenty of homes here keep a wood stove or fireplace as backup — and after a long outage, that's the heat that stays on. It only works if the wood is dry: cold, green wood is no comfort with the power out. Have your chimney and flue checked before burning season starts. Call (828) 545-0525.
Fireplace help in Black Mountain
We install and service fireplaces throughout Black Mountain and the rest of Buncombe County — just 15 minutes east from our Asheville-area showroom.