In Arden the classic case is a tired 1980s-90s open masonry fireplace in Royal Pines or Skyland — big, drafty, and slow-drawing, so it takes little wind to reverse it. The Hendersonville Road corridor also funnels cold air down on winter nights, chilling the flue and thinning the draft. A sealed insert or a wind-directional cap ends the smoke; on the gas mains, a direct-vent conversion ends it permanently.
A drafty open firebox is a wind magnet
The open masonry fireplaces built into Arden's 1980s and '90s homes pull room air up the chimney even when they're cold — homeowners here know the draftiness well. That same weak, wide-open draw is what makes them smoke in wind: there's no strong upward flow to resist a downdraft, so a gust reverses it easily. The draftiness and the wind smoke are two symptoms of the same thing — a firebox and flue moving air too slowly.
The corridor's cold-air funnel
The Hendersonville Road corridor through Skyland and Royal Pines funnels cold valley air downhill at night, and a colder flue is a weaker flue. On those still-then-gusty winter evenings, an already-sluggish open fireplace has nothing in reserve when the wind picks up. Priming the flue before lighting helps at the margins, but the underlying slow draw is the real issue.
Two ways to fix it for good
Because Arden is on natural-gas mains, the tidiest fix is a sealed direct-vent gas insert dropped into that open firebox — it cures the draftiness, the wind smoke, and turns a heat-loser into a heater all at once. Prefer wood? A tight sealed insert and a wind cap do the same for draft. We permit the gas work with Buncombe County and we're fifteen minutes south. Call (828) 545-0525.
Fireplace help in Arden
We install and service fireplaces throughout Arden and the rest of Buncombe County — just 15 minutes south from our Asheville-area showroom.
Related questions
- Why does my fireplace smoke only when I first light it?
- Why does my chimney howl or moan when it's windy?
- Why does my fireplace backdraft when the furnace or a bathroom fan is running?
- Why does smoke come into the room when I use my wood-burning fireplace?
- How do I stop cold air from coming down my chimney?