Yesterday we got our chimney/fireplace checked out, and decided to start a fire. We got some firewood (from Home Depot). It took us forever to get it lit, then it would burn a bit and revert to smoldering, sending an enourmous amount of smoke wafting up. We couldn’t get the damn wood to burn anymore, but we couldn’t get it to go out, and there was so much smoke we had to open all the windows. Eventually, in desperation, I dumped a bucket of water on it-- even more smoke, but it did go out at least. The house still stinks.
So am I just incompetent? Was it the wood? Was a doing something wrong? How does one properly build, maintain, and extinguish a fireplace fire?
My guess is you didn’t use enough (or any) kindling. Underneath the big logs, you need to have a lot of wood shavings and smaller sticks and other pieces of wood to get the log hot enough to burn. Use newspaper to set the kindling on fire.
Anyway, get a firelog at the store they are about $2.00. Chop it up into say 3" pieces. Get three logs make a small teepee laying the pieces down not up & put that piece inside it & light it, works for me. No paper needed.
Part of your problem may be that when you open up your flue, cold air rushes in down the chimney. Pushing the smoke back in.
umm… you did open the flue, right?
First. Get your fire ready with kindling and newspaper. Shouldn’t take much of either if you are buying wood.
Kindling about 1" to 2" diameter. Two or three pieces of each size. Tightly roll 2 pieces of newspaper and lay in with the kindling. The wood you by at Home Depot is probably so dry that you should not even need kindling. Substitute tightly rolled up newspaper if you don’t have and ax.
Lay 2-4 logs on top (don’t know what you are dealing with here log size, user your best judgment). Now, ball up 3-4 sheets of news paper under your fire grate.
Now, open the flue, wait 5 minutes and then take 3 or 4 sheets of lightly rolled up newspaper and put them ON TOP of the wood. Start the newspaper to push air UP the chimney. Once it starts drawing air out, immediately start the paper beneath the wood.
Start small and work to big. I have the best luck building the a small fire using small kindling, then slightly larger stuff (1-2" diameter) under the fireplace grate then placing the big stuff on top of the grate. I also find that two or three large pieces of wood burn better than one alone. One piece slightly to the rear of the fire, one about 2" in front and the third laying across. The fire then tends to feed off itself and you will have a roaring fire in no time.
Nobody has asked: Was the wood properly seasoned, or was it still “green” (fresh). You CAN burn green wood, but only by adding it to an already hot fire.
When my dad first tried to start a fire in our rural Georgia home years ago, he couldn’t figure out why there was so little flame and so much smoke. The locals figured out he must have been trying to light a whole log of “lighter wood” - sap filled stump wood that they used only as chips to start larger fires.
Remember the grade-school “fire triangle” – you need fuel, air, and enough heat for ignition (once the fire is going, it provides said heat).
Fuel: Dry wood works much better than green or wet wood. It helps to have logs and sticks of various sizes (diameters).
Air: The logs need to be arranged so that they’re close enough to ignite each other and reflect and maintain some of the heat generated. Given that, it’s critical to have spacing in the arrangement that lets air flow through – spaces below to let air in, and spaces at the top to “let the flame out.” In a fireplace, of course, the flue must be open (for two reasons – to keep smoke out of the house, and to let hot air go up the chimney, which draws fire-feeding air in from the house).
Ignition: With a burning match, you can light a toothpick, but not a 6" log. With several burning toothpicks, you can light a 1/8" stick; with several of those you can light a 1/2" stick, etc. Use tinder and kindling to provide a “one size lights the next larger size” arrangement to get the fire going. Some of the suggestions above and what’s in here http://www.worldwise.com/worldwise/howtobuilhig.html#starting might be helpful.
Okay, I’m going to give it another try this week. Thanks for the answers. Much of what I did was as you all are describing. I’m wondering if the wood was wet or not seasoned. The wood was sold in bundles labeled ‘softwood’ and ‘hardwood’. We got one of each because we couldn’t tell the difference. Also, none of the pieces were split, they were small logs (maybe a few inches in diameter. It was raining like a devil last night, also.
The flue is open. . .but someone asked about bottom vents? I don’t have any, that I can see. The fireplace (like the house) is about 100 years old, I don’t know if that makes a difference in the design/configuration.
I live in Maine and I’ve been heating with wood the past five years. I have a woodstove and use firestarters (compressed sawdust in 6X3" bricks) that I buy at wal-mart in boxes of 24 for about $7.00. You just put two logs next to each other, then lay the firestarter in the crack and light the end. Then you add some smaller wood on top. Make sure the starter can get plenty of air. Once you have a hot fire you can add bigger logs on top. It might help to put the wood on a grate so air can circulate under it. When you said you had the chimney checked did they make sure it isn’t blocked or that there isn’t any cresote buildup? If not, make sure you have it cleaned before you make another fire so you don’t risk a chimney fire. Also, be sure to use a firescreen. Before you go to bed, let it die down and spread the ashes around; make sure the firescreen covers the front to prevent any popping embers. I love a fire; it’s so cozy when the snow and wind are howling outside. You’ll get it; just takes a little practice.
You don’t have to have a bottom vent. The “vents” most people refer to are actually ash dumps, so you can shovel the cool ashes out of the way and clean them up later. These should not be open when you burn since the ash containers are not designed to contain an actual fire, which can happen if embers fall down there.
In new, tight houses some fireplaces will contain vents to outside air to insure the fire can “draw” (pull air to burn, and sufficient extra to make sure the smoke goes up the flue)… A tight house may not leak enough to permit this, but a house of 100 years old will have no problem. Even a 15 year old house is usually fine.
Most modular fireplaces will include a vent of some kind since they assume glass doors.
Vent, or lack of it, is certainly not the problem in your old fireplace, but you do have to make certain the damper (the iron door leading up the flue) is open You will probably need a flashlight to check this. This would not prevent the file from burning, but would cause LOTS of smoke in the house. Doesn’t sound like this is your problem.
You can “prime” the chimney by burning a loose wad of a couple of sheets of newspaper on top of the wood as you light the fire. The hot air from the paper gets the draft going.
NEVER USE GASOLINE or ANY flammable liquid in your fireplace!!! DreadCthulhu was joking, but I want to make sure you know this. Fumes alone can cause an explosion that will blow out windows a block away.
You want hardwood for burning, and you want it split, not in logs. Logs added to a fire already going will burn for a long time, but split is much easier to start.
Pine cones (only the dry, open ones) under the pile of wood make great kindling. Put them on the floor of the fireplace, under the grate. Almost forgot the grate… if you don’t have one, get one. In general, cast iron lasts longer than steel, though heavy steel (1/2 inch thick bars) is OK. Thin steel (rebar thickness or so) will sag in a hot fire. The fire will start fine without a grate, but the fire will soon ( a couple of hours) be sitting in a bed of ash. The ashes slow the fire down, though you still get heat. This is not a bad thing if the fire is mostly for heat, but it degrades the visual effect. Covering the coals completely with ashes will slow the fire so much that you will (if done right) still have coals in the morning; this is called “banking” the fire. This works MUCH better with hardwoods like oak, and poorly with pine. Most resin-filled woods like pine will make lots of soot and clog your flue faster also.
“You CAN burn green wood, but only by adding it to an already hot fire.”
Except if its ash, you can use ash if its green., haven’t tried it myself.
Smoke can also be caused if the top of the chimney is blocked or because there is a lot of wind outside & it comes down your chimney.
I wonder if it can be caused by a dirty chimney too?
One additional tip I would recommend is take the newspaper and after you have rolled up, tie it into an overhand knot. This was a trick that I (an old time Eagle Scout) actually learned from my wife.
Get 3 of these “Fire knots” and place them over some crumpled up newspaper, then add your kindling and a few large logs. After you get your chi9mney drawing correctly, start the fire from the bottom so that the flames will catch fire to the kindling above, etc.
Another good tip is to make sure you light your fire in many different spots so that if one starting spot goes out, you have others to keep it going.
I’m a big fan of suezeekay’s firestarter bricks. Especially for the beginner, they take a lot of the hassle out of starting the fire. I’d lay one on the floor beneath the grate, put some sizeable kindling pieces and logs on the grate. Light the brick and watch the fire go.