Fireplace not drawing properly
 

We have a two sided fireplace in our house. The house is 18 years old and
the fireplace is original to the house. We purchased the house about a year
ago. We tried several times last winter to have a fire and most of the time
smoke backed up in the house. We have tried having a window partially/fully
open and warming the chimney prior to lighting the logs, with no luck.

I measured the chimney height tonight and it is taller than it needs to be.
I was told it needs to be 2' taller than the point where it is 10' away from
the roof. There is a large rooftop A/C unit 7' feet away from the chimney
that is 2' taller than the chimney. Should I raise the chimney above the A/C
unit? What else should I look for?

Thanks,

cm

Fireplace not drawing properly
 

cm wrote:
We have a two sided fireplace in our house. The house is 18 years old and
the fireplace is original to the house. We purchased the house about a year
ago. We tried several times last winter to have a fire and most of the time
smoke backed up in the house. We have tried having a window partially/fully
open and warming the chimney prior to lighting the logs, with no luck.

I measured the chimney height tonight and it is taller than it needs to be.
I was told it needs to be 2' taller than the point where it is 10' away from
the roof. There is a large rooftop A/C unit 7' feet away from the chimney
that is 2' taller than the chimney. Should I raise the chimney above the A/C
unit? What else should I look for?

Thanks,

cm


Hi,
I wonder if you have a damper to open?

Fireplace not drawing properly
 

Tony,

Thanks. The damper is wide open when I light the fire. With a flashlight I
can see all the way to the top of the chimney.

cm


"Tony Hwang" wrote in message
...
cm wrote:
We have a two sided fireplace in our house. The house is 18 years old and
the fireplace is original to the house. We purchased the house about a
year ago. We tried several times last winter to have a fire and most of
the time smoke backed up in the house. We have tried having a window
partially/fully open and warming the chimney prior to lighting the logs,
with no luck.

I measured the chimney height tonight and it is taller than it needs to
be. I was told it needs to be 2' taller than the point where it is 10'
away from the roof. There is a large rooftop A/C unit 7' feet away from
the chimney that is 2' taller than the chimney. Should I raise the
chimney above the A/C unit? What else should I look for?

Thanks,

cm
Hi,
I wonder if you have a damper to open?

Fireplace not drawing properly
 

On Oct 14, 8:58*pm, "cm" wrote:
We have a two sided fireplace in our house. The house is 18 years old and
the fireplace is original to the house. We purchased the house about a year
ago. We tried several times last winter to have a fire and most of the time
smoke backed up in the house. We have tried having a window partially/fully
open and warming the chimney prior to lighting the logs, with no luck.

I measured the chimney height tonight and it is taller than it needs to be.
I was told it needs to be 2' taller than the point where it is 10' away from
the roof. There is a large rooftop A/C unit 7' feet away from the chimney
that is 2' taller than the chimney. Should I raise the chimney above the A/C
unit? What else should I look for?

Thanks,

cm

Once I get fire started, I have glass doors to keep out smoke let
enough air in to support combustion.
My fireplace in family room was problem because when furnace came on
nearby it created negative pressure in room drawing smoke out of
fireplace. Part of solution was keeping doors open to room from other
parts of house. You would do well to sweep chimney yourself or have
it done, just to check out your system and make sure there is no
creosote build up.

Fireplace not drawing properly
 

"Frank" wrote

You would do well to sweep chimney yourself or have
it done, just to check out your system and make sure there is no
creosote build up.

Definately, but I advise having it done professionally, at least this time.
There may be damage and it can be assessed at the same time.

Generally I tend to not adviase folks to do this themselves as they ofen
don't really know what to do and end up leaving big areas uncleaned (unaware
they are missing a center section with a too short cleaning wand etc).

Fireplace not drawing properly
 

"cm" wrote
"Tony Hwang" wrote
cm wrote:

year ago. We tried several times last winter to have a fire and most of
the time smoke backed up in the house. We have tried having a window
partially/fully open and warming the chimney prior to lighting the logs,
with no luck.

2 sided? Can you define what you mean there? Is it one that is open to 2
roms at the same time (back and front) as like a center of the house chimney
may be?

If so, more often than not, the grate is too low in that configuration
causing smoke to go out the sides into one or both rooms. It's also
possible a fan or some other air source in one room is pushing the smoke
across into the other.

I measured the chimney height tonight and it is taller than it needs to
be. I was told it needs to be 2' taller than the point where it is 10'
away from the roof. There is a large rooftop A/C unit 7' feet away from
the chimney that is 2' taller than the chimney. Should I raise the
chimney above the A/C unit? What else should I look for?

Not bad, but doesnt sound likely just now that the AC unit is at fault.
There are other things to check first.

Hi,
I wonder if you have a damper to open?

Thanks. The damper is wide open when I light the fire. With a flashlight I
can see all the way to the top of the chimney.

Ok, you may actually have it too far open. Some fireplaces dont draw as
well with it all the way open. It sounds illogical, but it can be true.
Mine operates best at the 2/3 position for example. Open it too far, and
the wind makes the flow reverse into the house.

Here's a list of things to rule out.

- Is the grate too low or are you building the fire right on the base? The
fireplace design has to be made for that and most are not. Too much 'top
room' before the lintel can cause the smoke to redirect wrong.

- if with a grate, are you trying to build the fire more towards the center
or front? (assuming here your '2 sided' isnt the above where it's basically
an open hole between 2 rooms). Most fires will smoke and not draw right
unless the grate is pushed more towards the back (not flush to the wall, but
much nearer to it than the center).

- If a grate, is it too large? Many people get one too large for the
fireplace because visually 'it fits' but then the fire is too much for the
draw to handle. At a rough guess there should be at least 6 inches on each
side clear from the brick work.

- What kind of wood are you burning? Is it really properly cured? If it's
any type of pine, or you get lots of 'popping' then it's smoky green wood
(which can also be a fire hazard as it makes more creosote which can catch
fire in the chimney). If you arent familiar with burning wood, it's real
easy to not know the difference. If you have an experienced neighbor with a
fireplace, ask if you can have a bit of well cured wood for 1 fire to check
out, or perhaps they can come over and see what yours is doing and be able
to tell you.

- Is the wood damp? Wood that is damp or literally frozen, tends to be
smoky for a bit (and hard to light obviously!).

- Do you have a chimney cap? Such affects the flow of air but is needed,
but it may not be positioned right for your needs. It may for example be
too low. Such are normally sold for 'standard single sided fireplaces' and
if you have something special, may have to be adjusted for it. I have seen
ones that are higher and have a sort of 'chicken wire' down to the base of
the chimney to keep birds and squirrels etc out, on specialty (larger than
average) fireplaces.

- Have you had the chimney professionally cleaned (which comes with a basic
inspection as well and the cleaners normally know a fair amount about draft
issues and what can affect them, though may not know exact 'how many inches'
details for caps and such (hit or miss, some do, some don't).

The only thing there that is a little expensive, is the cleaning and
inspection. You dont need the fiber-optic cable inspection level (thats for
follow-up on a damaged one) but the basic one (normally about 100-120$ and
often you get 1/3 of that back from your house insurance company if you call
then bring the recipt in).

Please bear with me if you have a reply with questions and do not get an
answer from me. COX cable in my area is having problems with the newsgroup
servers the past 6 days and most days, all the messages 'go away'. My email
however is not grunged so if you want to also send me a copy of any replies
that way if you get no answer in a day or so, I am happy to help.

Fireplace not drawing properly
 

My parents house, the chimney is on exterior wall. We have to take a piece
of news paper, and fold it in a "fan" shape. Light the paper about half way
up, and then hold it up into the chimney. When your hand gets warm, take the
flaming news paper, and stick it under the wood holder grate. It takes some
practice.

--
Christopher A. Young
Learn more about Jesus
www.lds.org
..


"cm" wrote in message
...
We have a two sided fireplace in our house. The house is 18 years old and
the fireplace is original to the house. We purchased the house about a year
ago. We tried several times last winter to have a fire and most of the time
smoke backed up in the house. We have tried having a window partially/fully
open and warming the chimney prior to lighting the logs, with no luck.

I measured the chimney height tonight and it is taller than it needs to be.
I was told it needs to be 2' taller than the point where it is 10' away from
the roof. There is a large rooftop A/C unit 7' feet away from the chimney
that is 2' taller than the chimney. Should I raise the chimney above the A/C
unit? What else should I look for?

Thanks,

cm

Fireplace not drawing properly
 

"cm" wrote in message
...
We have a two sided fireplace in our house. The house is 18 years old and
the fireplace is original to the house. We purchased the house about a
year ago. We tried several times last winter to have a fire and most of
the time smoke backed up in the house. We have tried having a window
partially/fully open and warming the chimney prior to lighting the logs,
with no luck.

I measured the chimney height tonight and it is taller than it needs to
be. I was told it needs to be 2' taller than the point where it is 10'
away from the roof. There is a large rooftop A/C unit 7' feet away from
the chimney that is 2' taller than the chimney. Should I raise the chimney
above the A/C unit? What else should I look for?

Thanks,

cm

I built a house with a two sided fireplace. I never got it to quit smoking
in the house. It was better when I put a glass door on one side of it, and
sealed it all around, but there still were small places where air could get
through. It's the nature of a double sided fireplace.

Think about it. All there needs to be for smoke to come out one side is a
little air going in the other side. About the only thing that helped, and
only a little was putting a couple of rows of bricks under the fire grate,
and putting the grate on bricks itself. Lucky I had enough height in the
hearth to do that. But it still smoked.

Fireplace not drawing properly
 

On Oct 14, 8:58*pm, "cm" wrote:
We have a two sided fireplace in our house. The house is 18 years old and
the fireplace is original to the house. We purchased the house about a year
ago. We tried several times last winter to have a fire and most of the time
smoke backed up in the house. We have tried having a window partially/fully
open and warming the chimney prior to lighting the logs, with no luck.

I measured the chimney height tonight and it is taller than it needs to be.
I was told it needs to be 2' taller than the point where it is 10' away from
the roof. There is a large rooftop A/C unit 7' feet away from the chimney
that is 2' taller than the chimney. Should I raise the chimney above the A/C
unit? What else should I look for?

Thanks,

cm

I have to open a nearly window to get no smoke, some newer houses with
tyvek and windows that seal tight can have issues. Raise chimney with
stove pipe to see if it helps. Maybe its a poor design and a lip is
needed to lower hood, raise fire or close down doors.

Fireplace not drawing properly
 

Claude Hopper wrote:
....
Fireplaces never vent well. ...

That's simply not so...some draw very well.

A lot of difficulties w/ newer houses is they're sealed so tight there's
an inadequate air source for them to draw. This can be tested by
opening a window nearby slightly.

--

Fireplace not drawing properly
 

"ransley" wrote in message
...
On Oct 14, 8:58 pm, "cm" wrote:
We have a two sided fireplace in our house. The house is 18 years old and
the fireplace is original to the house. We purchased the house about a
year
ago. We tried several times last winter to have a fire and most of the
time
smoke backed up in the house. We have tried having a window
partially/fully
open and warming the chimney prior to lighting the logs, with no luck.

I measured the chimney height tonight and it is taller than it needs to
be.
I was told it needs to be 2' taller than the point where it is 10' away
from
the roof. There is a large rooftop A/C unit 7' feet away from the chimney
that is 2' taller than the chimney. Should I raise the chimney above the
A/C
unit? What else should I look for?

Thanks,

cm

If this is the same kind of 2 sided fireplace that I had in my previous
house, there were two dampers and both of them had to be open in order to
start a fire and a window had to be cracked open. A rather hot and
relatively smokeless fire had to be started (paper) and kept going several
seconds before adding dry kindling and finally wood to the fire.

We had glass doors on both sides and they had to be open when starting and
then closed when the fire got started properly. Even taking all precautions
to start a fire without getting smoke into the living area, it was a
difficult task to accomplish. Once started though, it seemed to work well.

Good luck

Fireplace not drawing properly
 

Thanks for all the advice. With temps heading back into the 90s I will have
to wait another week or so to try a few of your suggestions.
I will update my findings then.

Thanks again,

cm
"dpb" wrote in message ...
Claude Hopper wrote:
...
Fireplaces never vent well. ...

That's simply not so...some draw very well.

A lot of difficulties w/ newer houses is they're sealed so tight there's
an inadequate air source for them to draw. This can be tested by opening
a window nearby slightly.

--

Fireplace not drawing properly
 

On Oct 15, 2:58 am, "cm" wrote:
We have a two sided fireplace in our house. The house is 18 years old and
the fireplace is original to the house. We purchased the house about a year
ago. We tried several times last winter to have a fire and most of the time
smoke backed up in the house. We have tried having a window partially/fully
open and warming the chimney prior to lighting the logs, with no luck.

I measured the chimney height tonight and it is taller than it needs to be.
I was told it needs to be 2' taller than the point where it is 10' away from
the roof. There is a large rooftop A/C unit 7' feet away from the chimney
that is 2' taller than the chimney. Should I raise the chimney above the A/C
unit? What else should I look for?

Thanks,

cm

The design of a good working fireplace and chimney is an art form.

When you design a chimney, the first thing is to consider the size of
fire that will be used.
Next is to design the chimney of the right size to fit the fire, so
that as much of it as possible is inside the insulated exterior of
your property. A warm chimney will work well.
Ensure it has enough fresh air to burn, without the air being pulled
through badly fitting doors and windows.

Your set up would appear to be badly designed, or perhaps someone has
changed the original setup?

When you light a fire, the first thing that needs to happen is that
the kindling produces enough heat to lift the plug of cold air that is
inside the chimney, lift it out of the top and push it to one side.
If the fire struggles to find fresh air to burn, the process will
stall, and smoke will billow into the room.
The fire needs a direct supply of fresh air from somewhere.
The best solution is a pipe direct from the outside, this will avoid
the struggle for air and eliminate drafts in the home.
The next thing is for a fire to burn well, it needs to have a warm
insulated chimney, the inside needs to warm up quickly to get rid of
the smoke. A well insulated chimney is essential, especially when you
want it to burn slowly. Having more than the minimum chimney poking
through the roof is bad. A cap on the top to stop the rain from
entering and cooling the rising air will help.