Fireplace Smoking Up House

[TheHammer]

Heat the chimney first. Get a piece of kindlin and set it up in chimney on something where it stays. Crack a window and let the draft heat the chimney up first, then your fire will draft out.

Make sure your air flow intake is open also or it can’t draft, unless yours is just a cutout fireplace.

[tps7742]

How old is your house? Is it a traditional, real brick fireplace or insert? The reason I am asking in our last two new built homes we had the fireplace inserts and they connected an air intake natural draft line. Also as mentioned your chimney may not be high enough from your roofline to get a good natural draft.

[JES]

Taller chimney are crack a window. JMO

This, take a look at your chimney and make sure it’s above the ridge line of your roof.

[TMC50]

I do not have this problem when we have a fire going as I light the propane first to heat everything up. My chimney is right even with my peak of my roof and it drafts great. We get a smoke smell when I leave coals in the bottom for a week. I just close the chimney and it stops the down draft. Just have to make sure you open it before the next fire.

[rtp]

One other thing, when you are first starting a fire with the flue open make sure the house heat hasnt kicked on. Especially if the return air is in the same room or nearby it will be trying to pull fresh air down the chimney vent into the room.

[TxDispatcher]

I keep a propane torch close at hand for this reason. I just stick it up in the flue and heat it up, and no problems drawing. It’s a little aggravating, but just a few seconds is all it takes to fix the issue. To me it is better than dealing with newspaper. YMMV

[cashcropper]

Our last house had a fireplace that didn't cold start well. If the central heat was running it would pull into the house when the kindling was lit. The newspaper works for priming the chimney but your old ladys blowdryer works really really well,just saying.