Smoke Entering my Home
Smoke is not something that you want to have in your house, regardless of whether you are making cookies, burning candles, or sitting calmly by the fire in your fireplace. If smoke is being drawn into your home instead of being expelled, you have a problem on your hands with your fireplace. Most of the time, one of these two items is to blame when smoke is brought inside the house.
Because of inadequate ventilation or poor construction of the chimney, air is being forced to enter the wrong room. Alternately, there may be anything in your chimney that is preventing smoke from properly venting to the outside. The question now is, how can you determine what the problem is and, more significantly, what the solution is?
Checking the damper should always be the first thing you do in any situation. It may seem like a little point to bring up, but more often than you may think, individuals forget to open the damper on their fireplace. Everyone has made the mistake of trying to turn on a lamp only to find out that it was not plugged in. This is in the same vein as what was said before. The good news is that this is not a situation that requires you to call in a sweep, and the bad news is that it is not a straightforward cure. Therefore, before you get too deep into troubleshooting your smoke-filled fireplace, take a moment to check and see whether the damper is open.
Is There A Problem With Your Chimney?
The following item that you need to look at is determining whether or not there is something blocking your chimney. Because it might be difficult to identify these issues, the assistance of specialists is recommended. There are instances when undesirable inhabitants of the animal kingdom will choose to make chimneys their home. Who could hold that against them? Because it will be warm and dry within a decent chimney, this will be a great place to pitch up camp. You have a responsibility to evict any animals, such as a raccoon, a bird, or a squirrel, that have made themselves at home in your property and have made it their home. Because it is crucial that you do not damage the animal, that you do not hurt your chimney, and that you do not hurt yourself, this is a job that should be done by a professional rather than you doing it yourself.
Creosote accumulation is another impediment that you need to look out for and investigate. Creosote is a byproduct that is produced when wood is burned, and it has a high propensity to catch fire. It accumulates over time by adhering to the walls of the chimney, and if it is not removed on a regular basis, it can accumulate to the point where it restricts the passage of air through the chimney.
Is There a Problem with the Airflow?
Have you checked to make sure that your chimney is clear of any obstructions? After that, it is time to investigate what could be causing air to flow into your home through the chimney rather than out of it, since this should be the opposite. The following is what we propose:
Check that the firebox you use has the appropriate dimensions for your chimney.
If the exhaust flue that connects to your firebox is too small for the firebox itself, then there may simply not be enough space for smoke to leave your home quickly enough through the chimney. You may fix this problem by adding a smoke guard or by having a professional resize your firebox. Both of these options are available.
There’s also the possibility that your chimney’s exhaust flue is too large for your fireplace, which would be the opposite problem. This issue allows for an excessive amount of airflow into your firebox, which in turn creates a downward draft that forces smoke into the house. Rebuilding your flue or relining your chimney are two different approaches that can be taken to achieve the same goal of reducing the opening and increasing the airflow upward.
Better to be safe than sorry. Let the experts handle your chimney troubles like Chimney Cleaning Firebaugh and repairing. Call Local Chimney Sweep Cleaning today.