smoking fire

Eve1

The fire in the sitting room always smokes when the extracter fan in the kitchen is turned on, and when I mean smoking, I mean you need to evacuate the entire house it is so bad. This is a fairly new problem and has only begun to occur since new windows were installed, however that may be a coincidence as the draft on the fire is also broken. Anybody any suggestions as to what the problem may be or even who should I contact to get help in fixing it ?

Eve

rooferPete

Hi Eve,

The new windows may have sealed off a lot of the ventilation that was feeding the fire with oxygen and balanced air pressure, when the kitchen fan is switched on it provides just enough extraction to draw the smoke back down the chimney.

There are rules regarding the height of chimneys over the ridge to ensure a proper draw, yours may have always been borderline, another common cause is if a small section breaks away from the chimney pot causing wind to force the smoke back down the flue.

There are so many different possible causes to the original problem it may need an on site inspection, try leaving a small window open first to counter the draw from the extractor fan.

.

towbar

Is there a wall vent in the room - if not does the new window have a vent or did the old ones have one?

Eve1

Thanks for the replies, there is no vents in any part of the house or in the windows. THe old windows had no vent either. Roofer Pete, who should I get to come and inspect it?

Eve

rooferPete

Hi Eve,

I would begin at the obvious, as Towbar brought up the point the room should have a vent, that would most likely eliminate a lot of the problems.

If you can take a couple of photos of the chimney and post them here or send them to roofconsult@eircom.net I will take a look for any obvious signs of the many problems I have come across down the years.

You can look up the Golden Pages under chimneys and there may be someone local who you can call out and do an onsite survey for you.

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