Expert: James Ball - 2/1/2009

Question
James,
We have a woodburning fireplace upstairs and one in the basement. When we light a fire the house gets smokey.  I believe it may be the negative pressure you talk about.  Another contributing factor may be  that the hot water tank vents adjacent to the two flus in the chimney.  In other words there are 3 seperate flus in the chimney stack on the roof.
The furnace is also in the room with the hot water tank but that vents out the side of the house.  I beleive the smoke is coming down the hot water tank vent in that room and the furnace is sending the smoke all over the house.  When I run hot water in the house and then light a fire we don't get smoke in the house.  I was considering buying a direct vent hot water tank and venting it out the side of the house. Then cap the flu. Am I on the right track?

Joe

Answer
Hello Joe, it does sound like negative pressure and the smoke maybe coming down the other fireplace, the hot water heater or both. I do not think the changing of the hot water heater will help. 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 they should be able to help.
James