In ,
Arkadiy typed:
Hi all,

I have a fireplace located on the outside wall of my house (the
chimney is brick). Whenever I use it, it it drafts beautifully, and
doesn't smell at all.

However, once the fire stops, and the fireplace cools down, I get an
awfull backdraft, and my house smells nasty for many days after that.

I have a top-seal damper and glass doors (although not too tight
ones). I have them open when the fire is on, and close both when the
fireplace cools down).

I browsed the web, and found out how awfull outside chimneys are, and
how they by design prone to problems similar to mine due to the stack
effect, etc. However I didn't find a lot of advice on how to correct
the issue. This kind of surprises me, since I see lots of houses with
outside chimneys (much more than with inside ones). Do all that
people have the same problem?

Should I forget about it and just stop using the fireplace?

Thanks in advance,
Arkadiy

If you're getting a "backdraft" coming INTO your house from the chimney,
that would indicate you have a negative air pressure in the house, not
positive. Normally positive air pressure is needed in house to insure that
furnaces, fireplaces, etc., have a good starting draft. Once there's heat,
the draft will reverse and go up the chimney, so that explains why when you
have a fire it's OK.
I'll bet you have a little trouble and extra smoke problems coming into
the house though, as you're starting the fire, right?

The "cause" is improper sealing somewhere in the house; the net effect is
that more air is being pulled out of the house than can enter it under
equilibrium. Rather than create even worse issues by trying to point out
precisely what to do, I'd recommend you do some research at fireplace web
sites, maybe wikipedia.com, and possible talk to a contractor about it and
see what they think. I think you'll find their assesment about the same as
mine if you explain it the same way you did here.

Here are a few links that'll help you figure things out; they're right up
you alley for the most part. I do NOT recommend or endorse any of the
following links and have NO interest in them in any way. I do NOT recommend
spending money at any of them unless/until you have done your own research
on them.

http://www.woodheat.org/planning/suc...lfireplace.htm

http://en.allexperts.com/q/Chimney-F...-backdraft.htm

http://www.extremehowto.com/xh/artic...ticle_id=60584

http://www.fireplaceessentials.com/C...blems-c33.html

http://oikos.com/library/airsealing/fireplaces.html

Twayne
--
We've already reached
tomorrow's yesterday
but we're still far away from
yesterday's tomorrow.