Will a gas insert seal off the drafts and old smoke odors coming from my open fireplace chimney?
Yes, and in Arden that's exactly the transformation homeowners are after. The tired, drafty open fireplaces in Royal Pines and Skyland pull heat straight out of the room — a gas insert seals that firebox behind a stainless liner and surround panel, caps the draft, clears the old smoke smell, and turns a heat leak into a real heater.
From heat leak to heat source
Arden's 1980s and '90s homes came with open masonry fireplaces that, decades on, are doing the opposite of their job: an open flue siphons warmed air out of the house all winter and, on damp days, breathes stale creosote odor back down into the living room. That's the tired, drafty fireplace so many Royal Pines and Skyland owners describe. Sealing it is what flips it from a hole in the wall into a source of heat.
What the seal does
A [gas insert](/services/gas-insert-installation) fits into the existing firebox, runs a stainless liner up the full chimney to cap the old draft, and seals the face with a surround panel — the draft stops, the smell clears, and only the unit's sealed, direct-vented exhaust moves through the flue. Where the open fireplace ran a net heat loss, the insert commonly runs 70% efficient or better and actually warms the room, with battery-backup or millivolt ignition to keep it going in an outage.
On the mains, permitted, minutes away
Arden sits on the natural-gas mains, so the fuel's usually right there — but connecting or extending it is licensed work a showroom or mason can't legally finish. We run and pressure-test the line, pull the Buncombe County permit, and meet the inspector, then [inspect the flue and size the liner](/services/fireplace-inspection). We're just 15 minutes south of our Emma Road showroom. 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
- Does replacing an open wood fireplace with an insert improve the air in my house?
- Can an unused fireplace or chimney cause moisture and mold problems in the house?
- Why do I smell smoke in my house when the fireplace isn't even burning?
- Does a direct vent gas fireplace use the air in my room for combustion?
- Do gas fireplace inserts burn cleaner than gas log sets?