You Don’t Have To Live With A Smelly Fireplace!

That “fireplace smell” is charming for some and very bothersome for others. Whether you love the smell or loathe it, your fireplace really shouldn’t have your home smelling like an old cabin in the middle of the woods. In fact, your fireplace shouldn’t have much of an odor at all. A smelly fireplace—usually described as having a musty, campfire-like smell—indicates that there are some problems within your chimney that need to be addressed sooner rather than later. Most often there are drafting issues at the root, meaning that your chimney is pulling outside air into your home. This is called “back puffing.” When air is being sucked down into your home through the chimney, there comes with it the smell of creosote that’s built up inside of your chimney. Creosote is a byproduct of combustion that’s created by the distillation of tar. It’s highly flammable, and the smell of it is not something you want inside your living space. Cleaning can help with this, as it will remove the creosote and improve efficiency, but it’s also important that you have the back-drafting problem fixed to eliminate bothersome odors in the future.

We especially hear complaints about fireplaces smelling during the spring and summer months. There are several possible causes of increased odor in warmer months:

• High humidity
• Rain
• Downdraft

There are a few possible solutions for a smelly fireplace. You may need to:

• Has your chimney cleaned by a CSIA-certified professional? Not all chimney sweeps are created equal. Make sure that your sweep can prove that he is CSIA-certified and can show you what the inside of your chimney looks like—before and after cleaning—with a closed-circuit camera.
• Have a chimney cap professionally installed. You want to keep rainwater and snow out of your chimney at all costs. Not only will it soak into your chimney liner and create an odor, but water will dramatically shorten the life of your chimney and may cause structural damage to your home.
• Install an outside air kit. Also sometimes known as a “fresh air intake device,” an outside air kit can prevent backdrafts that are caused by the negative air pressure in your home.
• Equip your chimney with a top-mounted damper to keep cold air from coming in through your chimney during the winter and to keep air-conditioned air from escaping out during the summer.
• Have a ventilation fan or chimney draft fan installed. A ventilation fan, positioned atop your chimney, will ensure a negative pressure in your chimney.

Whatever the cause of your smelly fireplace, Davis Chimney can help! If you live in the greater Beaumont Texas area give us a call us, or use our appointment request form.

Our troubleshooting expertise includes finding and fixing the cause of a smoky fireplace. Wouldn’t you like your environment to be smoke-free? Davis Chimney can make it happen!