Smoke smells

[Lizfjr]

My house smells of burning. It comes from the 30 year old wood burner in the kitchen. I am planning on replacing it with a more up to date model. In the meantime, can anyone advise me on how to eliminate the smell? Is there anything that neutralises it?

[Gyn_Paul]

[quote user="Lizfjr"]My house smells of burning. It comes from the 30 year old wood burner in the kitchen. I am planning on replacing it with a more up to date model. In the meantime, can anyone advise me on how to eliminate the smell? Is there anything that neutralises it?[/quote]

Do you mean it smells of hot/charred timber, on the point of catching fire, or just smells of smoke? If the former, I'd get someone in pretty damned quickly. If the latter you could start with having the chimney swept. Also, many fires tend to smoke when the chimney/flue is cold, but the problem disappears when when it gets hot. this problem is exacerbated by the French tendancy to leave chimney stacks open at the top thus allowing the interior brickwork to get soaked every time it rains.

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[Just Katie]

Call me odd if you want but I love the smell that indicates a log burner is present.  Most french houses smell of this and garlic, like as if it is engrained to the walls.

[John A]

If it's a resinous smell that gets in your throat and wakes you at 2 am when the wood burner's on low, you may have a similar problem to mine - I have a thread running alongside yours on this subject. If you see black treacly stuff anywhere on top of the stove I'm afraid you've got my problem - hope you haven't!

[mint]

Katie

You have just said what I was thinking.  I LOVE the smell of woodsmoke.  When we first had our stove on, the very air around our house smelt of warmth and, somehow, of security and something primitive (in a nice way) and unchanging about life.  I mean people have been making fires since I don't know when!

[Just Katie]

Hi Sweet, yes even when the stove is off you can smell the logs, lovely.  However, I think what is being discussed on this thread is something very different.

[Lizfjr]

Thanks, all.

No, it doesn't smell as if it's going up in flames, in fact it smells even when cold. I've swept the chimney then burnt a chemical block too. There's nothing suspicious coming out of it, though yes, it does smoke when cold, but I know that's a cold flue.

I love the smell of woodsmoke generally. I have a new poele at the other side of the house and that's great. This one just seems to have permeated the fabric of the house in a not nice way. I did think it would get better as we did our own thing with the house, but after nearly 4 years, it's still there. Maybe the whole stove needs cleaning out.

[Gyn_Paul]

From what you describe, it sounds like what I have, which is a tar smell from the deposits in the flue and the chimney which is present in the house when the fire is not lit because the open windows upstairs and/or the velux tend to pull air upwards through the building, and since there is little in the way of ventilation on the ground floor, the replacement air tends to come down the chimney and through the fire when it's not lit.

Is it worse when you light the other poele?

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