fireplace questions & answers

Picture this: you’re home on a cold winter night and you decide to build a roaring fire to keep you and your family warm.  After preparing your wood and fostering a strong flame, the house begins to fill with smoke.  Panicked, you have the family stay outside while you see to the issue, only to realize that no smoke is coming through your chimney.  This is most likely due to a faulty chimney damper.  You can think of a chimney damper like a lid for your fireplace.  It is located in the flue (the air shaft through which smoke and air can travel in and out of your chimney) above the firebox (where the fire is made) and is in use both when fireplace is active and inactive.  We commonly think of chimneys as avenues for smoke to escape from your home, but they are also a way for air to come in.  Knowing exactly what your chimney damper is, what it does, and how to control it will ensure better, safer, and more enjoyable fireside chats.

An Inactive Fireplace

Like we said before, when your fireplace isn’t in use, your chimney damper still has a job to do.  An open chimney damper will allow air into your home, so if it’s a cold night and you just can’t seem to warm up, make sure that your chimney damper is closed.  A closed chimney damper will prevent unwanted air of any temperature from making its way into your home.

An Active Fireplace

When starting a fire in your fireplace, making sure that your ch

When you’re attempting to fix any problem, it helps to know a little bit about how the system you’re troubleshooting works. In terms of fixing a chimney, there are several confusing terms, some more technical than others. However, if there’s one thing you need to know about chimneys, it’s that even the simplest chimney draft problems can create an unhealthy and unforgiving living environment.

Everyone loves to curl up next to a warm and cozy fire during the winter, but the fire isn’t warm and cozy if you haven’t properly maintained your fireplace. A safe and clean fireplace is a warm and cozy fireplace, bottom line. So, how do you keep up on your fireplace maintenance? Lucky for you, we’ve compiled a list of tips and tricks for making sure you keep your fireplace and chimney liner in good shape so that when winter hits, you’re all set to throw in some fresh firewood and light it up.<

After winter, when the temperatures begin to rise, you’ll notice you do not have to light as many fires as you did, so there’s really no need to keep your chimney open. While you don’t need to clean your fireplace as soon as that last bit of snow melts, it’s a good idea to add it to your spring cleaning list that you’ve been working on.

Chimneys always seem like a relatively easy concept, right? You put the wood in, make sure the flue is open, and then light the fire. Well, there’s actually a lot more that’s going on that makes it a far more complex concept that deals with the oxidation of carbon, water, draft induced by the change in temperature, and vaporization. All of these elements, if not properly managed, can start a chimney fire.

Whether you have a wood burning stove, furnace, or fireplace, there's no way it can function without a chimney. Your chimney is essentially the engine that drives your wood heating system, the heat being the fuel. The more fuel you give the engine, the more powerful it becomes and when you compare that to how fireplaces work, the more heat, the greater the draft.

While a majority of homes today have gas fireplaces, some still require the old fashioned chimney liner kit. For those homeowners who have a legitimate wood burning fireplace, keeping it clean is crucial for prevent fires or any toxic fumes from entering the home. When you look at the construction of a chimney, the liner may not seem like an important aspect, but it's one of the most important.