Your home is the place you go to unwind after a long work day or a busy day of running errands. You get home, put everything away, change into comfortable clothes, and start a fire in the fireplace. Hold on. Something isn’t right and now you’re left asking yourself, “What is that smell coming from my fireplace?”
While unpleasant odors emanating from your fireplace and chimney are more likely to happen in the off-season, it’s still possible for them to occur over the winter as well. Here are some reasons why this may be occurring and some tips to avoid having them rear their ugly head down the road.
Indoor barbecue A fireplace is warm, inviting, and picture-perfect. But sometimes, the odor coming from it is not the smoky vibe you’d expect. In this case, it smells more like you have fired up your grill indoors or even worse, asphalt.
This means you have an excess buildup of creosote lining your chimney. Most often, creosote builds up because you’ve consistently burned unseasoned firewood or gone too long without an inspection or cleaning.
Creosote is thick, sticky, and tar-like. The longer it is left to accumulate on the walls of your fireplace, the harder it will be to remove and the more dangerous it will be. Creosote is flammable and in a location such as this, can spell disaster for your home if not taken care of.
A buildup of soot that has not been removed can also lead to these odors. Yearly inspections and cleanings by a technician from National Chimney Cleaners can help to mitigate this with the removal of leftover debris from your firebox once the fire is are done burning and your fireplace has completely cooled.
If you begin to notice your chimney smells the same as your compost pile, you may have a blockage of leaves in your flue. A broken or missing chimney cap is the perfect way for those blowing leaves to find their way in during the fall. Once they collect and start to decompose, you’ll notice this stale odor. This blockage can also seal off your flue and redirect smoke and dangerous gasses back into your home, yet another horrific smell.
Critters want to be warm tooAnimals looking for a warm space protected from the elements see your chimney as the ideal place to make their nest or hide out from the storm.
This can have unfortunate consequences. Once they get in, they often cannot get back out. The unpleasant odor you smell could be coming from animal droppings left behind, an animal’s nest, or worse. This can be avoided by ensuring you have a chimney cap and that it is not damaged in any way, allowing access to your chimney.
Unexpected and less-than-desirable odors are bound to happen to even the most proactive homeowner. The best way to stay on top of these and other issues is to schedule a yearly chimney inspection and cleaning.
Call National Chimney Cleaners at 800-631-6177 or visit the website to get your home on our calendar today.
