Having trouble with smoke coming into your house from your fireplace? Contact Advanced Chimney Sweeps for a chimney inspection. We can identify the source of your smoke problems and make recommendations for a chimney sweep or other maintenance services.

What Causes Chimney Smoke Problems

Many different factors can lead to smoke not going up the chimney properly. Poor draft boils down to the physics in the house and within the chimney. Many factors lead to poor draft:

• Height of the chimney. Sometimes we can extend the chimney and allow for a better draft. There are other techniques that may help this problem if making the chimney taller isn’t practical.
• Buildup has clogged the flue or chimney cap. Solution is to have a chimney sweep inspect and sweep the chimney. During the sweeping process a chimney sweep will make sure the flue and cap are free from nests, creosote or blockage of any kind.
• The temperature outside versus inside. During hotter days, many fireplaces will have a down draft that leads to smoke in the house.
• Windy day. If the wind is blowing hard outside it can cause a down draft in the house. Wind can go up one side of the roof and down the chimney. There are special chimney caps to help solve this problem. One thing that helps is to install a smoke guard. Smoke guards are installed on the top of the entrance to the firebox. This will allow smoke more time to go up the chimney.