Chimney Issue

padzer

At home we have 2 sitting rooms, 1 front and 1 back, each has an open fireplace. Before christmas we had the chimneys cleaned and lit the fire in the back room with coal and logs with no problems.

We recently got new neighbours next door and one of the nights last week my front sitting room was full of what smelled like smoke from a turf fire, had to open the windows even though we had no fire going. The next day i made enquiries with the neighbours and they did indeed have a turf fire the night before. I put it down to maybe the wind blowing their smoke down my chimney.

But then again last night the same thing happened, smoke out in my front room even though I had no fire lit. Could there be a crack in the chimney or something like that? Who would i even call to investigate?

Thanks for any help.

mike_2009

Two fireplaces?! Wow!
Could well be a draught down the front chimney - there is a big hole at the top?! What's creating the negative pressure though. You could try to seal the door into the front room or see if there's a draught under it and trace that through the house? It's possible it could be a crack in the chimney itself but I think you can get a device like an upside down umbrella for the chimney to close it off when you're not using it? Might help, I'd imagine you've to remove it before you light a fire though! Might keep the smells out though....

con1982

When was the house built? A crack/gap may have developed in the chimney structure. I've seen this happen a few times in Georgian period houses

the_pen_turner

Have you a vent in the rooms

Calahonda52

Whats not clear from the post is if the chimney flues for both houses are in the same stack

padzer

Calahonda52 wrote: »

Whats not clear from the post is if the chimney flues for both houses are in the same stack

I think so, as in there are 2 chimney stacks, 1 at the front and 1 at the back and we both have fires in each room and they would be back to back.....as in their fires are behind mine.

padzer

the_pen_turner wrote: »

Have you a vent in the rooms

No vents in the rooms.

padzer

con1982 wrote: »

When was the house built? A crack/gap may have developed in the chimney structure. I've seen this happen a few times in Georgian period houses

Some time in the 70's.

padzer

mike_2009 wrote: »

Two fireplaces?! Wow!
Could well be a draught down the front chimney - there is a big hole at the top?! What's creating the negative pressure though. You could try to seal the door into the front room or see if there's a draught under it and trace that through the house? It's possible it could be a crack in the chimney itself but I think you can get a device like an upside down umbrella for the chimney to close it off when you're not using it? Might help, I'd imagine you've to remove it before you light a fire though! Might keep the smells out though....

Yeah I was looking at these chimney balloon things that can be got online, originally I was thinking just to block up any draught but now there is this smoke issue it could be doubly useful.

the_pen_turner

padzer wrote: »

No vents in the rooms.

this could be causing the down draught in the other room

install a vent asap.

Were you using an extractor fan? downstairs toilet?, kitchen? This sometimes sucks air back down our chimney

We only use one fireplace during the winter as we close down the west wing of the house :-)