Expert: James Ball - 11/15/2009

Question
I have two fireplaces in my house, one on the first floor and one in my basement.  It appears that when I have a fire burning on the first floor, the basement fills with smoke.  When this happened the first time, I opened the top damper to the fireplace in the basement and things improved a bit but there was still smoke entering the basement.  What do you suggest?

Answer
Hellol Keith, what is happening is you are getting Negative Pressure in your home (house stack effect) that is hot air rising in your home, in your case it is going up the upstairs fireplace and your house needs make up air, and is getting it and smoke from the down stairs fireplace, very common perhaps a top mount damper maybe a fix for it.
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