Smoke in Your Eyes? Check the Fireplace and Airflow

Does your fireplace fill your home with smoke? Do you have a lingering smoky smell days after you enjoy a fire in the fireplace? Here are some reasons why your fireplace could have emitted too much smoke in the house.

Your Damper May Have Problems

When you start a fire in your fireplace, you must open the damper all the way to allow hot air to flow up the chimney. If the damper is closed, the smoke from your fire has nowhere to go, so the smoke pours out of the fireplace into your home.

Once the fire is burning well, close the damper several notches to reduce the airflow rising up the chimney and keep more of the heat in your room. However, wet, green logs and some species of wood are smokier than well-seasoned firewood. If logs start to smoke up the room after you've closed up the damper, open the damper all the way again until the smoke clears.

If your damper refuses to open all the way or won't open at all, the damper could have damage. Rainwater may have entered the chimney and corroded the damper. Soot, birds’ nests, and other debris may have forced the damper shut. Your fireplace repair professional can replace or repair a faulty damper.

You May Have Too Little Interior Airflow

In order for the smoke from your fireplace to exit up and out of the chimney, airflow must be consistent inside your home. Once a fire is blazing, cool air should enter the fireplace from inside your home to feed the fire and provide airflow up the chimney.

If your home is too insulated, it may not have enough fresh airflow to feed the fire and keep the fireplace smoke traveling upward. Add some air to the room by cracking a window on the windward side of the home.

Bathroom and kitchen exhaust fans should not run when you have a fire in your fireplace since the fans suck some of the available air out of your home. Return air grills for your furnace can also affect fireplace airflow when the furnace kicks on, especially if the grill is located close to your fireplace.

Your Home May Be Too Drafty

Drafty homes can also become smoky homes from fireplace airflow issues. Drafts from leaky windows and doors can overpower the fireplace and blow smoke into your home.

Drafts can flow down the chimney when winds are strong and cold. Cold chimney drafts fall down the chimney column and battle with the rising hot air from the fire. Sometimes the downward draft is stronger than the upward flow of hot air, and this causes the smoke from the fire to blow into your home instead of out the chimney.

Cold air issues affect chimneys that are:

• Located outside of the home
  
• Damaged by cracks and lost mortar
  
• Covered by large limbs
  

Mature tree limbs over the chimney can redirect the flow of air over the chimney cap. Have your tree service remove all limbs that are closer than 10 feet from your chimney.

Your Fire May Be Too Short

If you build your fire directly on the floor of your fireplace, the flames may not be close enough to your fireplace flue, and smoke can't rise up the chimney properly. Competing air from the room or from the chimney may direct the smoke to fill your room before it can escape upwards.

Your fireplace repair professional can add fire bricks to the floor of your fireplace to raise the level of future fires. The raised logs are closer to the flue, so the smoke heads upward and out of the chimney the way the smoke should. You can also purchase a raised fireplace grate to lift the logs higher.

Another solution to the too-tall fireplace problem is attaching a metal deflector hood at the top of the fireplace opening. Or, have your fireplace repair professional install folding glass doors to keep the flames in sight and the smoke out of your rooms.

Your Chimney May Need Attention

Creosote coats the inside of your chimney with every fire you burn. Over time, creosote can be so thick, it starts burning from a random spark or smoking from the heat of your fire. The only cure for this smoke issue is a thorough chimney cleaning once a year by a qualified chimney cleaning service.

If your chimney is too short, smoke may be an issue when you have a fire in the fireplace. A chimney cap solves this problem by increasing the height of the chimney and changing the airflow into the fireplace. Your chimney height , including the cap, should be at least three feet above your roof if it's flat and two feet higher than the roof if it's a sloped roof.

If your fireplace is too smoky, schedule a fireplace inspection by contacting Comfort Solutions today . We repair, maintain, and install stoves, fireplaces, and inserts for home and business owners in Salt Lake City, Ogden, Sandy, and Layton, Utah.