I smell smoke in my basement when running my fireplace upstairs.?

Question

I have a fireplace in the living room and a wood stove in my basement. They both use there own flue and are right next to each othe and are bricked together as on. On the outside I have only 1 access door for the soot after sweeping which is on the side of the wood stove. I recently bought the house and at the home inspection he said everything looked good and was clean. When I run the fireplace upstairs I smell smoke in the basement but do not see smoke. I have the damper closed. Its not strong but its there. I was wondering since there is only one access hole outside maybe both chimneys share it and there is alittle cross over for the soot to get over to the access hole and when I run the fireplace the smells is lingering down stairs.

Answer 1

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker

This is called smoke crossover and is very common and easy to fix. Your house is exhaling air when you use the fireplace upstairs. When it exhales it is also outputting the smoke and fumes from the flame.

On the other end your basement fireplace is breathing in to equalize the air pressure in your home (This is called the stack effect). Since metal dampers do not seal very tight, the path of least resistance for air to get into your home is usually through a fireplace damper. And that chimney flue in inhaling right next to the other chimney flue that is outputting smoke for the upstairs fireplace.

To fix this just put a chimney balloon into the basement flue just above the fireplace damper. This will seal it tight enough so the house will find another location to take in air. http//:www.chimneyballoon.us

You are lucky you just get a little smell in the basement. In my chimney sweep days I had seen some homes that the basement really fills up with smoke pretty bad.

Source(s):

I've been working in the Hearth Industry for years.

Asker's Rating:

Asker's Comment:

Thanks alot. You were of so much help. PM me on this question. What if I were using both the fireplace and the wood stove?