Good advice thus far. I will add:
big logs on bottom, smaller logs crossways on top, kindling underneath
dryer lint stuffed in half an egg carton makes an excellent firestarter
open flue before you burn and, if you are like me, close it several months later when you come home and the dog and both cats have taken a keen interest in the fireplace and the bird that has taken up residence there.
your option on the last obviously.
All of the shit I have received in the past is referenced as if incorporated herein
So I have a bunch of wood and a couple of dura flame logs from the fire pit experiment of 2020 laying around and three fireplaces. So… figure maybe I would use one.
Thinking I should get the chimney inspected and swept even though we have never used the fireplaces.
Obviously will use the dura flame first.
Flue I open
Put log in
Light
Close glass things
Let burn
When do I close the flue?
When do I know the house won’t burn down
How would I use the maple oak and birch I have
I would add the following in your lighting procedure after opening the flue and having the fire ready to start:
Heating the chimney starts the airflow up the chimney and will help to prevent smoke into the room.
The other option is to open the flue after the smoke has filled your living room.
Thanks guy. It was cleaned and inspected before we bought the house.
For whatever it’s worth, some friends bought a house and had it inspected before they closed. It turned out that the inspector had missed an issue with the fireplace and/or chimney that was important enough that once it was found (post closing) the experts said it could’ve resulted in a house fire. The entire fireplace and chimney had to be torn out and rebuilt (and if I recall correctly it was all on the home inspector’s insurance).
Moral: I’d suggest you just get it inspected to be sure. Ounce of prevention versus pound of cure.
i don’t know why you would close the flue. my house is mostly heated using a woodburning stove. i go thru about 4 cords a year. there’s a whole science to this. if i was building a house from the ground up, of my own design, which is a possible old age project i’m still contemplating, i would start with the heating system, and build the house around it.
Chicago is fucking cold dude and I have two furnaces
yeah. this is the reason i don’t use the fireplace. i use a woodstove. the chimney - which is really a 6" chimney pipe - is closed off to the inside of the house, unless i have the door to the woodstove open (which i don’t unless i’m taking ash out or putting wood in).
you never close the flue, obviously, with the fireplace in use. but the way to get around this is a fireplace insert, which is essentially a woodburning stove that sits inside the fireplace. then the flue is always open, but you’re not letting cold air into the house. but a good one is pricey. $2,000 or $3,000.
Good advice thus far. I will add:
big logs on bottom, smaller logs crossways on top, kindling underneath
dryer lint stuffed in half an egg carton makes an excellent firestarter
open flue before you burn and, if you are like me, close it several months later when you come home and the dog and both cats have taken a keen interest in the fireplace and the bird that has taken up residence there.
your option on the last obviously.
You had to mention the birds didn’t you?
We have an open fireplace with a brick chimney, and a cast iron grate.
First, as others have said, make sure the chimney the chimney is swept. You don’t want to be the guy standing in front of a pile of burnt house muttering “but it was cleaned before we moved in”. Sweeping it removes any built up accumulations of flammable residues. A chimney fire is not a good thing.
Secondly, I get ours going using (a) a base of three firelighters (waxy paraffin blocks) well spaced on the base of the grate; (b) pine kindling on top; (c) smokeless coal brickets on top of that.
Thirdly: wood needs a hot fire to burn, unless it is really well dried out (think: kiln dried). If you put wood on a fire that’s not hot enough, you get smoke, and an accumulation of residue in your chimney (see point 1 above). So I let the coals get up to a nice even glowing orange, then add a log or two. A softwood log will burn quite fast on a hot coal base. Hardwood is better.
A good fire will get sufficiently hot to make it uncomfortable to get close enough to add a log.
Gas: meh. You might as well watch a Bunsen burner. Plus they produce bugger all heat, comparatively.
Glass door, flue: can’t help. They sound unnecessarily complicating.
Thanks guy. It was cleaned and inspected before we bought the house.
For whatever it’s worth, some friends bought a house and had it inspected before they closed. It turned out that the inspector had missed an issue with the fireplace and/or chimney that was important enough that once it was found (post closing) the experts said it could’ve resulted in a house fire. The entire fireplace and chimney had to be torn out and rebuilt (and if I recall correctly it was all on the home inspector’s insurance).
Moral: I’d suggest you just get it inspected to be sure. Ounce of prevention versus pound of cure.
Okay I have a new inspection planned already so just no fires til then
i don’t know why you would close the flue. my house is mostly heated using a woodburning stove. i go thru about 4 cords a year. there’s a whole science to this. if i was building a house from the ground up, of my own design, which is a possible old age project i’m still contemplating, i would start with the heating system, and build the house around it.
Chicago is fucking cold dude and I have two furnaces
yeah. this is the reason i don’t use the fireplace. i use a woodstove. the chimney - which is really a 6" chimney pipe - is closed off to the inside of the house, unless i have the door to the woodstove open (which i don’t unless i’m taking ash out or putting wood in).
you never close the flue, obviously, with the fireplace in use. but the way to get around this is a fireplace insert, which is essentially a woodburning stove that sits inside the fireplace. then the flue is always open, but you’re not letting cold air into the house. but a good one is pricey. $2,000 or $3,000.
Putting a wood stove in the fireplace would wreck the decor of the room. Like I said I just want a fire to be basically decorative since I have central heat.
i don’t know why you would close the flue. my house is mostly heated using a woodburning stove. i go thru about 4 cords a year. there’s a whole science to this. if i was building a house from the ground up, of my own design, which is a possible old age project i’m still contemplating, i would start with the heating system, and build the house around it.
Chicago is fucking cold dude and I have two furnaces
yeah. this is the reason i don’t use the fireplace. i use a woodstove. the chimney - which is really a 6" chimney pipe - is closed off to the inside of the house, unless i have the door to the woodstove open (which i don’t unless i’m taking ash out or putting wood in).
you never close the flue, obviously, with the fireplace in use. but the way to get around this is a fireplace insert, which is essentially a woodburning stove that sits inside the fireplace. then the flue is always open, but you’re not letting cold air into the house. but a good one is pricey. $2,000 or $3,000.
We went that route (fireplace insert), both because of the closing-off issue as well as the peace of mind of not having to worry about live embers setting the whole place on fire when left unattended. It’s nice for the optics, and does nicely warm you when you sit directly in front of the fireplace, but the heating efficiency is orders of magnitude worse than a woodstove.
I have had, fire place with glass doors, fire place with wire mesh curtain and finally and my favourite a glass front wood burning stove. I would never go back to a plain fire place after having a nice glass front high efficiency wood stove. That thing paid for itself in 1 year in our 100 year old home with central air heating.
i don’t know why you would close the flue. my house is mostly heated using a woodburning stove. i go thru about 4 cords a year. there’s a whole science to this. if i was building a house from the ground up, of my own design, which is a possible old age project i’m still contemplating, i would start with the heating system, and build the house around it.
Chicago is fucking cold dude and I have two furnaces
yeah. this is the reason i don’t use the fireplace. i use a woodstove. the chimney - which is really a 6" chimney pipe - is closed off to the inside of the house, unless i have the door to the woodstove open (which i don’t unless i’m taking ash out or putting wood in).
you never close the flue, obviously, with the fireplace in use. but the way to get around this is a fireplace insert, which is essentially a woodburning stove that sits inside the fireplace. then the flue is always open, but you’re not letting cold air into the house. but a good one is pricey. $2,000 or $3,000.
We went that route (fireplace insert), both because of the closing-off issue as well as the peace of mind of not having to worry about live embers setting the whole place on fire when left unattended. It’s nice for the optics, and does nicely warm you when you sit directly in front of the fireplace, but the heating efficiency is orders of magnitude worse than a woodstove.
I’ve had wood and gas - the big difference is the wood fireplace gets used a few times a month in the winter cause it’s a PITA.
The cleaning of ashes isn’t even mentioned here.
Whereas the gas gets used a lot. One dog will go stare at the switch when she wants it on. So it gets used many nights a week.
If you plan on using the fireplace a lot, and want heat and ambience, consider a wood burning insert. They kick out a lot of heat, are incredibly efficient and burn cleaner then a standard fireplace, and you get the ambience of wood fire as well. We have an old house and when it gets cold here you feel the drafts and cold spots in the house. Fire up the wood insert and we are walking around in t shirts and shorts.
ETA looks like this was covered already
One thing to consider is how new your house is.
My old house was built in 2001. We had such an air tight house we had a negative flow when the flue was open so all of the smoke went into the house. If I wanted a fire, I had to take a hair drier and push hot air up the chimney for a few minutes to create a positive air flow so the smoke would go up not down.
i don’t know why you would close the flue. my house is mostly heated using a woodburning stove. i go thru about 4 cords a year. there’s a whole science to this. if i was building a house from the ground up, of my own design, which is a possible old age project i’m still contemplating, i would start with the heating system, and build the house around it.
Chicago is fucking cold dude and I have two furnaces
yeah. this is the reason i don’t use the fireplace. i use a woodstove. the chimney - which is really a 6" chimney pipe - is closed off to the inside of the house, unless i have the door to the woodstove open (which i don’t unless i’m taking ash out or putting wood in).
you never close the flue, obviously, with the fireplace in use. but the way to get around this is a fireplace insert, which is essentially a woodburning stove that sits inside the fireplace. then the flue is always open, but you’re not letting cold air into the house. but a good one is pricey. $2,000 or $3,000.
We went that route (fireplace insert), both because of the closing-off issue as well as the peace of mind of not having to worry about live embers setting the whole place on fire when left unattended. It’s nice for the optics, and does nicely warm you when you sit directly in front of the fireplace, ** but the heating efficiency is orders of magnitude worse than a woodstove.**
Interesting. Our wood insert absolutely pumps heat, so much so that we rarely turn the blower fan on. We keep it on at first to warm the room up but if we don’t turn it off it just gets way too hot.
Wood stoves have all that extra surface area that heats up but most modern inserts work pretty darn well.
If you plan on using the fireplace a lot, and want heat and ambience, consider a wood burning insert. They kick out a lot of heat, are incredibly efficient and burn cleaner then a standard fireplace, and you get the ambience of wood fire as well. We have an old house and when it gets cold here you feel the drafts and cold spots in the house. Fire up the wood insert and we are walking around in t shirts and shorts.
ETA looks like this was covered already
I plan to use it maybe once or twice a year
I just came in from splitting wood and I’ve been heating this house with wood for over 25 years, so I do know about this stuff. I have metal chimneys on a pellet stove and an airtight fireplace and I clean them every spring.
Depending on a few things, whether the chimneys are masonary or metal and how long you’ve been in your house, I’d get the chimneys checked out before you burn. If they are metal you can stick you head in the fireplace with a flashlight and look up to see if the pipe is clean. If it masonary someone should check for cracks or other problems. If you’re new in the house and they were checked at the time of the sale, you’re probably OK, but if you don’t know anything about it, maybe get things checked out anyway.
As Dan said, you don’t closed the chimney flue unless you are 100% positive that there are no smoldering embers in the fireplace. Meaning that you don’t have a fire in the evening and then close it the next day. Keep the doors closed and don’t close the flue until you clean out the fireplace. Put the ashes in a metal can away from anything flammable.
You don’t need fire logs. I’ve found that the best thing for starting the fire are brown paper super-market bags. Leave some ashes in the fireplace, especially if the have coals. Rip open the bag and roll it up loosely like a log. Put some twigs on top then some bigger kindling on top of that. Get it going then add some small split wood. Then bigger stuff.
I burn the fireplace all day and then the pellet stove comes on for the night. I don’t think you want to get in to it like this but it always pays to be safe.
So, stay safe and stay warm. Happy Burning!
+1, if we keep ours fed, it’s shorts and t-shirts on cold winter days.
As Dan said, you don’t closed the chimney flue unless you are 100% positive that there are no smoldering embers in the fireplace. Meaning that you don’t have a fire in the evening and then close it the next day. Keep the doors closed and don’t close the flue until you clean out the fireplace. Put the ashes in a metal can away from anything flammable.
!
So when do you close it?
Good advice thus far. I will add:
big logs on bottom, smaller logs crossways on top, kindling underneath
dryer lint stuffed in half an egg carton makes an excellent firestarter
open flue before you burn and, if you are like me, close it several months later when you come home and the dog and both cats have taken a keen interest in the fireplace and the bird that has taken up residence there.
your option on the last obviously.
You had to mention the birds didn’t you?
It’s a cautionary tale.