Expert: James Ball - 12/22/2008

Question
Hello, my husband recently installed a wood stove in our new home - first we thought we were having an issue with the draft, as every morning he needs to reheat the piping to the wood stove to encourage it to draft the right way.  Tonight we returned home and when he tried to start the stove, smoke started pouring out of the seams in the stove pipe (inside) and out of the fire box - the smoke eventually put our fire out.  Please help us!!

Answer
Hello Katie, is the stove installed correctly? Is it lined all the way to the top and insulated? is the chimney clean? Is he using the stove correctly? do you have a negative pressure issue?
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.
James