Java Man (Espressopithecus) wrote in message able.net...
In article , tigerpaw40
@aol.com says...
Have a wood burning fireplace in family room of a house recently purchased.
After burning Duraflame or Northland logs the next morning the house smells
like a campfire doused with water. THe odor last 2-3 days. I have tried leaving
the flue open till the next morning and closing it an hour or so after logs are
burned up. Any ideas what could be causing this?


There are many good possibilties in the above explantions. My
fireplace also
had lingering wood fire odors, but the reason was a little different.
The brick facade on our fireplace had, over time, become detached from
the main block of chimney masonary. The only thing holding it up was
the mantle. There was enough of a separation that hot gas/flames from
the fire leaked between the rows of brick and was scorching the back
of the paneling and the furing strips the the paneling was nailed to.
I discovered this when we were painting the family room and I decided
to take the mantle down and replace it with a different style.
I always thought that the smell was the result of chimney downdraft
issues.
I have re-mortared the bricks and am in the process of replacing the
paneling with drywall.
You should check and see that there are no leaks of hot gas anywhere
around your masonry that could be scorching/burning any
framing,paneling or anything that will burn.
Hope this helps
John