Expert: James Ball - 12/13/2008

Question
I recently purchased a house with a fireplace.  When I have a fire in it smoke will roll out of the top of the fireplace opening into the house.  My neighbor has made several suggestions:  use only dry wood, keep the fire burning hot.  It doesn't matter what I do, the smoke from the fire swirls into the corners of the chimney and then rolls out into the house.  I have checked the chimney and it is not obstructed in any way.  The design of the chimney is that there is an angled piece of steel it forcing the smoke upwards.  My last fireplace was a straight up chimney, this one does have an angle, and the smoke goes to the corners and rolls out instead of up.  Would glass doors fix the problem?  Should I have  a piece of steel permanently attache to the top of the opening so that the smoke can't roll out?  I just don't know what to do!

Answer
Hello Suezie, I would have a local Certified Chimney Sweep (www.csia.org, there you can look up by zip code to find one near you) take a first hand look at what you have. You may have a negative pressure issue (try opening a door full open when this happens if it works then you have this problem the certified sweep can help.
James