This bit of professional maintenance helps keep your chimney clean and free of obstructions or structural damage. Think back to our sink analogy — adding a smoke guard is just like turning the knob on the sink to reduce the flow of water.

offers chimney sweep and maintenance services that can help keep your chimney clean and free from obstructions.RELATED: 15 Things You Should Never Burn in the Fireplace If the indoor-outdoor temperature differential is too low, light your fires when it’s colder outside.

For example, if you often experience downdrafts in your chimney, it can help redirect the airflow and prevent smoke from entering your living space.Long story short, we ended up putting a stainless steel cylinder liner down our chimney to prevent further damage to the crumbling brick liner the chimney had. I'm sure that has something to do with my issue; when the fire is lower, the smoke doesn't get sent up the chimney right away. can help you determine the correct size of smoke guard for your chimney and ensure a proper installation.

The warm air inside the house travels into the fireplace, and as it rises through your flue, it comes into contact with (and pushes through) colder air from the outside. The frame usually covers a couple of inches of the fireplace opening, so fireplace doors act something like a smoke guard, lowering the effective opening of the fireplace. I got a new-to-me house and the inspection said that our flue liner was undersized which was leading to smoke entering the room if a fire was lit.RELATED: The Best Firewood Racks of 2022 If your chimney or fireplace has a design flaw, have a smoke guard installed. We will contact you if we experience such difficulties and you may wish to provide another credit card. This is the first possibility to explore if you have a tightly-insulated house, an air exchange system, or exhaust fans in operation.

I moved into a house last year with a beautiful fireplace in the living room (built from a converted garage).A fireplace that kicks up smoke is a classic sign of a weak draft, which can result in a fire that quickly dies out or fire by-products “back-puffing”—getting backed up in the firebox or flue and issuing into the room as smoke and harmful vapors, including carbon monoxide. Fireplaces will often smoke because the fireplace opening is too large in relation to the chimney flue. Fireplaces tend to produce more smoke when the fireplace grate is placed too close to the front of the firebox.