Hello everyone,

I recently bought a 6 year old custom house with a masonry chimney and
fireplace. The previous owner never used the fireplace and decided to
paint the inside of the firebox (the white fire brick) to a nice shade
of black so that his decorative wood would be plainly visible.

I'm a fireplace guy and I like wood fires so when I recently "fired up"
the fireplace, all was well...until the next morning. I burned
seasoned, dry, oak wood and the fireplace had a solid draft and worked
well. By bedtime, the fire was nothing but ash with no trace of unburnt
wood or smokey smell. There were no problems with the function of the
fireplace but the next morning, the acrid smell of of something
recently burned filled the living room.

I removed all of the ash immediately and noticed that the paint in the
firebox was peeling and when I pulled some off and smelled it up close,
it appears that it is the source of the awful odor. Even after a week
(with no ashes or wood in the fireplace), the paint still gave off a
strong odor. I've tried brushing the brick with a wire brush and
cleaning it the best I can but each subsequent fire produces the same
problem but with less intensity than the original one. Removing the
paint on the floor of the firebox with a wire brush really releases the
smell.

Has anyone run into this before? Any suggestions beyond a wire brush
and elbow grease?

Thanks.....Neal