There Is Nothing Worse

This will also happen if a house is retrofitted with new tighter windows and doors.There is nothing worse than coming in after a hard day and when you finally get a decent fire going, all you get is smoke coming back into the room. This is because the central air furnace is so strong that even if the air intake vent for the central heating system is not in the same room as the fireplace, it will suck the outside air down the chimney and will cause the fireplace to smoke when the fire is going.2) Closed Damper- Before starting a fire, always check to make sure that the damper is completely open. One more thing, if the chimney does not have adequate height, you may need to extend the height of the chimney to improve the draw. The air is pushed down the chimney into the room. It should be kept dry and protected from the rain. Then you can light the fire and ideally should have a good draw. Also, a dirty chimney cap will prevent smoke from freely exiting the chimney. Sometimes it's necessary to raise the grate with bricks to help. Also, some types of prefabricated "paper wrapped" logs can be prone to smoking. Keep those trees trimmed! With the 2nd story problem, the solution will likely be to raise the chimney height, but in some cases the wind cap might help instead.6) Cold Weather- If the weather outside the house is either colder and/or raining, the air inside the chimney flue will be cold and heavy and block the smoke from venting out. The solution could be adding a metal smoke guard to the top of the fireplace opening, since it shrinks the size of the opening.Many of the common smoking problems deal with the fact that a fire needs to be supplied with a large amount of make up air as one of its three primary elements, as well as needing to have an adequate opening through the chimney to the outside in order to exhaust out the smoke and gases so that they don't come back into the room. To minimize the smoking problem, crack open a window or door (preferably at the same level as the fireplace) in the room. Also, many two-sided fireplaces have inherent smoking problems due to their sensitivity to air drafts in the house.10) Tall Trees and Buildings- A tall tree or added-on second story (yours or your neighbor's) close to the chimney may change the wind currents and cause down drafts to go down through the chimney and not only cause a smoking problem but possibly an odor problem as well. In this case you might think about installing glass doors. It burns the eyes and lungs, and you wind up having to open windows and doors to let the cold air in to air the room out. This gets more air under the grate for better circulation and it also raises the height of the fire. This can give smoke a choice of going up the chimney or coming into the room.These at least hit the highlights of what could be the problem when dealing with that annoying smoking problem.1) Dirty or Obstructed Chimney- Have the chimney inspected and swept by a Certified Chimney Sweep so that the chimney can be checked for any obstructions such as a bird's nest or tree branches, or your kid's missing volley ball.3) Fuel- Cut firewood must be aged a minimum of one year.5) Chimney Not Built To Proper Dimensions-Many times the fireplace opening is too large or too tall, especially in relation.