Brenda from Port Hardy, B.C. says that her wood burning insert smells of soot when it is not in use.The problem is obviously one of air coming down the chimney. Either the exhaust fans in the house are drawing air when there is no fire to maintain an upward draft, or the wind is twisted around on...
John in Thunder Bay has moved his gas burning fireplace from the centre of the house and he is moving it to the side of the basement and wants to run it up the outside of the house. He was asking if there could be any problem with downdrafting by doing this. The answer is that this is the worst...
Daniel in Ottawa has a lot of trouble getting the fire started without smoke in the house.Chimneys on the outside of the house always have more problems than chimneys that run up inside the warm part of the house. There may not be enough air available for the draft to start, which can be demo...
Free standing gas fireplaces, gas fireplace inserts and in this segment from my TV show, a cross breed between the two put a very inefficient fireplace back into operation. Yes you need a chimney liner when you do something like this - that is the duct sticking out of the fireplace in the photo....
Chimneys : The Six CommandmentsChimney does not belong to the house, but to its appliance.More carefully sized to the heating appliance.Be insulated.Be tightly constructed.Be located within the heating envelope of the house.Terminate at or near the highest point of the building.The best resource...
When the contractor installed a new furnace, he put in a great big air duct from outdoors right into the furnace room. This tends to freeze the basement floor. Can I close it off?Response:This duct is necessary in most modern homes and even in well sealed renovations to assure adequate air f...
A prefabricated chimney always has insulation in the chimney itself. Yet, when it is on the outside of the house, and when there is no fire burning, it gets as cold as outdoors. That?s when all that cold air wants to drop into the basement, giving you that downdraft every time you try to st...
Although most people, even contractors, may have a hard time defining the new building code term 'spillage susceptible', it is a term that is critically important for the everyone's health.An appliance, be it gas, oil, propane or wood, is spillage susceptible if it is possible for negative pre...
A viewer from Quebec starts the ball rolling on a discussion of maximizing the efficiency of your chimney's draw.
Starting with a small hot fire is always an aid. We need to warm up the chimney before it can draw properly. Chimneys built totally inside the heated part of the house always work be...
From top to bottom:
1- Check the spark arrestor or rain cover, whichever you have on your chimney. Its most important function may in fact be to keep animals and birds out of your chimney.
2- The liner needs to be in good shape. Check the part that is visible from above, and occasionally have a...
