Smoky room with fireplace

[cmjb13]

We have a traditional fireplace in our bedroom with the old school glass doors (one side slides left, the other slides right)

I was originally doing a top down fire with approximately 9 logs. After about 30-40 minutes, the room started to smell like smoke, but you couldn't see it. My wife insisted the cause of the smoke

We had a chimney tech over a few days ago for an unrelated issue. He stated that 9 logs was way too much for the size of the firebox. So a few days afterwards, I started a top down fire with about 4 logs. Same thing happened where after 40 minutes, it smelled heavily of smoke. The bedroom fireplace shares the same chimeny as downstairs (wood insert), but has its own liner. The wood grate is also pushed back as far as it can go to line up best with the flue.

A local fireplace shop recommended to crack a window which to me negates using the fireplace to begin with.

 

[begreen]

Do the two flues from the fireplaces terminate at the same height? If so, one chimney may be siphoning smoke into the other. If that is the case one solution would be to raise the flue height of the upstair's flue by 12-18" with a flue extender.
http://www.extendaflue.com/products/extend/extend-a-cap.html

 

[webby3650]

Next time you use it, turn out the lights and shine a flashlight right above the opening. I'll bet you see some smoke spilling on occasion. Sometimes it just a little here and there, even opening and closing a door in the house can pull smoke out.

 

[cmjb13]

Do the two flues from the fireplaces terminate at the same height? If so, one chimney may be siphoning smoke into the other. If that is the case one solution would be to raise the flue height of the upstair's flue by 12-18" with a flue extender.
http://www.extendaflue.com/products/extend/extend-a-cap.html

I do not believe they terminate at the same height, but the upstairs bedroom never fills with smoke when the downstairs fireplace is running.

 

[cmjb13]

Next time you use it, turn out the lights and shine a flashlight right above the opening. I'll bet you see some smoke spilling on occasion. Sometimes it just a little here and there, even opening and closing a door in the house can pull smoke out.

When we do have the fireplace running in the bedroom, the bedroom door is always closed since we are using it primarily to heat up the room (even though the fireplace shop stated it's for aesthetics only)

 

[webby3650]

When we do have the fireplace running in the bedroom, the bedroom door is always closed since we are using it primarily to heat up the room (even though the fireplace shop stated it's for aesthetics only)

Ok. Even still, someone coming in the front door could change the pressure in the house. I'm guessing that its starving for air because the bedroom door is shut. To operate properly it needs something like 200 cubic feet of air a minute.. this air needs to be supplied from somewhere.

 

[cmjb13]

Ok. Even still, someone coming in the front door could change the pressure in the house. I'm guessing that its starving for air because the bedroom door is shut. To operate properly it needs something like 200 cubic feet of air a minute.. this air needs to be supplied from somewhere.

So would leaving the bedroom door open alleviate this?

 

[webby3650]

So would leaving the bedroom door open alleviate this?

Definitely give it a shot.

 

[cmjb13]

Definitely give it a shot.

If that does not work, open window would be the only solution?

 

[begreen]

Definitely keep a CO detector in this bedroom.

 

[jhjove]

Is it possible there is a break in the masonry that is allowing the flue gases to escape elsewhere into the house? My sweep fixed some gaps in my chimney (a few years back) where the clay thimble enters the flue. He told me about an issue where a customer was have smoke come out of cabinet/closet in another room of the customer's house. The flue gas/smoke worked it's way out of a fault in the flue and found it's way into another room.