Expert: Bart Ogden - 10/6/2008

Question
Hi Bart, I have a question about a smoking fireplace. I have received a million solutions from various people, but none have worked as of yet. maybe your insight might be the answer.
I have a fireplace which was built in 1972 when my father built an addition on the house (fireplace in addition). We used it quite regularly when I was young, but eventually stopped using it in the eighties except for holidays.
Since fuel is getting outrageous we decided to open things back up and use it full time. I get the wood for free so why not.
Now I will describe the situation. The fireplace was built with a cement slab on top to keep out the weather and water still got in and ended up rotting away the throat damper so it has been stuck in the wide open position. We would just stuff insulation up it. the flu size is 13x13, the fireplace opening is 42x28. I have glass doors which shrink that size abit. The firebox is metal not brick. I recently knocked of the slab atop and put on a lyemance damper since the throat damper was not working.
We tried burning and have great draft with the doors open, but the room gets too hot(13x24 feet). So we tried burning with the doors closed and it seems to work fine until you open the doors to stoke. Smoke rolls out right under the top of the doors. I've tried smoke guards, raising the grate more, opening a window right by the fireplace, removing the lyemance damper, etc. I'm at a loss because nothing is working, but to leave the doors open and I don't want to burn like that due to room getting too hot. and we had never had this problem before.Anything you can come up with would be great.

Answer
Hi Walt,

There are a list of things that could be going on with this.

If the room is too hot, simply don't put as much wood in the fireplace.  Smaller, hotter fires are better.

You might also get rid of the grate and try a "top-down fire".   

http://www.woodheat.org/tips/topdown.htm

I recommend you contact a local CSIA Certified Chimney Sweep to do some on-site diagnosis of your problem.

You can find a CSIA Certified Chimney Sweep at www.csia.org.

Thanks for using AllExperts.Com and good luck with your project.

Sincerely,
A . Bart Ogden, President
Home Safe Hearth & Chimney, Inc.
Wichita, KS
Voice  316-265-9828
Fax  316-265-9890
www.HomeSafeKS.com

CSIA Certified Chimney Sweep #2653
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