Fireplace damper out of alignment

[mondomarcus]

I have a wood burning fireplace and had someone out today to inspect/sweep the chimney so I could safely use it this winter. Before they arrived, I noticed that the damper seemed to be more difficult to open than usual but thought that they would figure it out while they were doing the sweep. They were here for about 10 minutes before telling me that everything looked good and that it didn't need a cleaning.

This evening, I started a fire and immediately my house filled up with smoke. After putting the fire out, I looked up with a flashlight and noticed that the damper won't open at all even when the handle is pushed in all the way. To me, it seems like the damper is out of alignment with the flue so that the bottom edge catches on the rim of the flue. Considering this, I have no idea how they could have possible inspected the chimney since the flue is physically un-openable.

Is this something I can repair on my own? I tried messing with it a little bit but I'm not sure how to go about getting the damper re-aligned. I have never had this problem in past seasons and I'm not sure how it could have gotten kicked out of alignment sitting over the summer.

 

[gthomas785]

Got any pics of the damper?
And I hope you didn't pay much for that "inspection", sounds like they did absolutely nothing

 

[mondomarcus]

Got any pics of the damper?
And I hope you didn't pay much for that "inspection", sounds like they did absolutely nothing

Luckily it wasn't too expensive although I'm hoping I can talk to them and get my money back since its pretty clear they didn't do much.

Ive attached a picture. The area I marked in red is the area that catches on the rim of the flue.

 

[gthomas785]

Well I'm not too familiar with that kind of damper but I'm sure someone on this forum will be along who knows more about it. Can you wiggle the damper at all or does it feel like it's jammed? If you've never had this issue before it could be that the sweep took it apart to clean and just didn't put it back right.

 

[paulnlee]

Stop payment on the check or credit card and let them know you did it. Then call someone else.

 

[mondomarcus]

Well I'm not too familiar with that kind of damper but I'm sure someone on this forum will be along who knows more about it. Can you wiggle the damper at all or does it feel like it's jammed? If you've never had this issue before it could be that the sweep took it apart to clean and just didn't put it back right.

It wiggles a little bit but not much. I talked to them and they refunded me but admitted that they probably weren't able to look past the damper. Seemed really eager to just give me the refund. Told me they can't do repairs anyways so I should just call someone else.