This is my first post although I have been lurking here since November! A little intro -My wife and I purchased a new house (built in 1971) last year in November and as a result I am back into the wood burning game. I grew up with wood fireplaces but for the past 11 years I have lived in a townhouse that did not have a FP.
I rushed to pick up some wood last year for the winter and picked up about 1 cord of "seasoned" wood that was not as seasoned as I would have thought. It got me through the winter but I did run into a few issues that I hope you guys can assist with. We had the chimneys inspected prior to purchase and the company said that they should be cleaned. They said that the upstairs damper was not closing all the way and was not sitting flush and should be addressed along with some missing mortar in the firebox. Ok to burn but should be addressed. I am looking into ways to address these items.
The house is approximately 2900 sq ft and has a large fireplace (we did not use it) in the basement that is mostly finished, very dated but finished. I also have a fireplace in the family-room that we used a lot last year. A few times when burning upstairs we would have a little smoke come in through the basement fireplace. Just enough to smell and if you came down the stairs, eye level with the drop in ceiling you could see a light haze around the recessed lighting. After a lot of looking around I have determined this to be caused by negative pressure causing the smoke to exit the upstairs flu and get pulled down the basement flu.
Aside from opening a door in the same room, I think the easiest way to fix this is to extend the living room chimney above the basement one? I was on the roof last weekend and it looks like the clay flu liner is taller by about 4 inches or so but the chimney caps are the exact same height. I will try to get a picture but can I just replace one of the caps to address this?
I rushed to pick up some wood last year for the winter and picked up about 1 cord of "seasoned" wood that was not as seasoned as I would have thought. It got me through the winter but I did run into a few issues that I hope you guys can assist with. We had the chimneys inspected prior to purchase and the company said that they should be cleaned. They said that the upstairs damper was not closing all the way and was not sitting flush and should be addressed along with some missing mortar in the firebox. Ok to burn but should be addressed. I am looking into ways to address these items.
The house is approximately 2900 sq ft and has a large fireplace (we did not use it) in the basement that is mostly finished, very dated but finished. I also have a fireplace in the family-room that we used a lot last year. A few times when burning upstairs we would have a little smoke come in through the basement fireplace. Just enough to smell and if you came down the stairs, eye level with the drop in ceiling you could see a light haze around the recessed lighting. After a lot of looking around I have determined this to be caused by negative pressure causing the smoke to exit the upstairs flu and get pulled down the basement flu.
Aside from opening a door in the same room, I think the easiest way to fix this is to extend the living room chimney above the basement one? I was on the roof last weekend and it looks like the clay flu liner is taller by about 4 inches or so but the chimney caps are the exact same height. I will try to get a picture but can I just replace one of the caps to address this?
