Why does smoke come into the room when I use my wood-burning fireplace?
In Marshall, the terrain itself fights your draft. Homes cling to steep hillsides in the French Broad gorge, where chimneys often run short against the slope and the gorge walls shove gusty wind straight back down the flue — pushing smoke into the room on the very days you most want a fire.
Short chimneys, steep ground
A chimney needs to clear the roof and any higher ground beside it to draft cleanly, and Marshall's steep mountainside lots make that hard. Many hillside homes have chimneys that finish low relative to the slope rising behind them, so wind spilling off the ridge presses down the flue instead of pulling across it. Those same tight lots complicate the chimney's routing in the first place. On a gusty gorge day, the result is a downdraft that puts smoke in your face.
Downtown's tall, narrow buildings
Marshall's revitalized downtown is built in narrow multi-story buildings set against the mountainside, where the stack effect between floors can steal air from a fireplace and reverse a weak chimney. Cool, damp gorge evenings mean the flue starts cold too, so the draft has to fight both wind and temperature.
Correcting the draft
We inspect the height, cap, sizing, and draft, and the fix is often a chimney-height correction, a wind-directional cap, or a sealed insert with a matched liner that overcomes terrain downdrafts. Marshall is 25 minutes north of our Asheville showroom. Call (828) 545-0525.
Fireplace help in Marshall
We install and service fireplaces throughout Marshall and the rest of Madison County — just 25 minutes north from our Asheville-area showroom.
Related questions
- Why does my fireplace smoke only when I first light it?
- Why does my fireplace smoke only on windy days?
- Why does my fireplace backdraft when the furnace or a bathroom fan is running?
- Why does my wood stove puff smoke into the room when I open the door?
- Why doesn't my wood-burning insert draft as well as it used to?