Expert: James Ball - 5/11/2009

Question
I live in a 2-story house, with fireplaces on both floors. The one on the top floor has a chimney that is about 12' high, which means it extends about 3' above a 2-pitch rubber roof. It draws very well, in fact too well, even damped way down so that I am concerned about hot embers dropping on the roof. What can I do about that?

Answer
Hello Fred, 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 might need a cleaning), is the damper closed on the down stairs fireplace? keeping less air from entering the house might help the air drafting up so fast. if you have embers on your roof I hope you have a spark arrester cap?
keep me posted
James