Internal smoke from wood fire

[Mike1958]

We have a open fire in our living room which when used results in smoke seeping into a third floor bedroom. My assumption is that having had the chimney swept something has broken away allowing smoke to creep through the wall and into the room.

Our thoughts are that we will have to have some form of liner, has anyone else had this experience and if so what was done to cure the problem.

Regards,

Mike

www.peak-times.com

 

[Sbesley]

Mike,

If you have not already done so, I would strongly recommend you stop using the fireplace!

Many years ago I was lucky to escape from a house-fire caused by hot sparks from a ground floor open fire, finding their way through a gap in the mortar in the chimney stack and setting the roof timbers alight. I appreciate a third floor bedroom is quite a long way from the fire, but better to be safe than sorry...

You could consider going down the woodburning stove route. Models like the Villager can be operated with the doors either closed or opened for the open fire feel. Combined with a register plate and a flexible liner, this would definitely provide a better heat than an open fire and would probably be cheaper than fitting a solid liner to the length of the chimney.

Stephen.

[Alcazar]

I'd agree with the above, EXCEPT:

1.  AFAIK, insurance will require you to use a chimney liner with a woodburning stove, and,

2.  Choose your woodburner VERY carefully. We bought a well known English make, and it's a pain: every time you open the doors to replenish it, loads of red hot embers fall out onto the floor!

Alcazar

[Iceni]

2.  Choose your woodburner VERY carefully. We bought a well known English make, and it's a pain: every time you open the doors to replenish it, loads of red hot embers fall out onto the floor!

Hmm, I find this very confusing. I have had various wood burners and one Villager multi-fuel. Now the coal burning grate on the multi-fuel could have caused this problem if used with wood. My current and last Villager have high grate bars at the front of the fire so when you open the doors, all the ash etc is held in. Only if you don't reduce the ash every few days do you run the risk of it falling out and as for hot embers, never. I can see the flames of some nice big oak logs in there at the moment burning well but if I opened the doors, nothing but a little ash can fall out even when I prod it with the poker as the grate bars stop it - are yours missing???????????