Expert: James Ball - 12/26/2009

Question
Hi James, we have a wood fireplace on the main floor of our home , plus a gas fireplace in the basement. Last week we lit the wood fireplace and noticed that our basement was full of smoke.  you could smell the fireplace fumes as well it was cloudy.  Can you provide some advise? I have the fireplace cleaned almost every year. clearly repairs will be need not sure who i would be calling.  thanks Penny

Answer
Hello Penny, What is happening is you are getting Negative Pressure in your home if 10 gallons of air is going up the one fireplace chimney per minute then it needs 10 gallons of air per minute to feed it and it will pull the air from the path of least resistance from your home and in most cases it will pull that air down an other fireplace flue and with it smoke/odor the house needs make up air. maybe leaving a window open in the room with the down stairs fireplace? closing off that room with a tight sealing door and opening a window else where in the  home.
Use incense and Trail and error until you get this fireplace to work for you, maybe
James