What's the best fireplace for a vacation home or second home that sits empty part of the year?
A propane direct-vent unit, chosen with moisture in mind — Brevard's 80-plus inches of annual rain is the quiet enemy of any house that sits, and an open masonry chimney nobody checks from March to June is where the damage starts. Kozy Heat's Springfield 36 is the right call for propane-country cabins like these.
Eighty inches of rain vs. an unattended chimney
Transylvania County's rainfall cracks chimney crowns, spalls brick, and rusts dampers — and the wet season peaks March through June, exactly when a lot of second homes here sit closed. Crawl spaces and chimney chases around Brevard are especially prone to moisture damage, so the smartest hearth for an absentee owner is one with no open flue to collect water at all: a sealed direct-vent fireplace vents through a coaxial pipe and never exchanges air — or rain — with the house. If the place already has masonry, an annual inspection catches a failing crown or cap before water gets inside the structure. Book that visit for late summer; you want the verdict before the season you'll use it, and tune-ups run from $189.
Propane, from tank to flame, on one license
Brevard is propane country once you're past downtown, and Connestee Falls, Sherwood Forest, and the cabins toward Pisgah Forest mostly run on tanks. We handle the whole gas side — regulator, piping, appliance connection — and coordinate the tank itself with your propane supplier, then pull the permit with Transylvania County and meet the inspector. The Springfield 36 is our workhorse for cabins like these; Mendota's FullView FV41 is the hand-built choice when the fireplace is the centerpiece of the room. A millivolt or battery-backup igniter is worth specifying too — outages up these roads outlast the ones in town. Either way it lights instantly after weeks idle, which is the whole assignment for a second home. We're about 40 minutes northeast at 629 Emma Rd in Asheville — call (828) 545-0525 for a free in-home assessment.
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.