According to fireplace repair professionals, chimney odors are one of the problems that you will come across as a homeowner.

Causes of chimney odor

A smelly chimney comes about due to two main reasons: moisture and soot deposits. If your chimney is leaking, the water from the rain gets inside the house. As you know, bacteria and other microbes love moist environments. As the bacteria grow, bleed, and excrete on the moist environments, they release the bad odor.

If you have stayed for a long time without cleaning the chimney, you are bound to have a bad smell emaciating from the fireplace. As you burn wood to keep you warm, soot tends to get deposited on the fireplace. Large deposits of the soot cause the chimney to smell.

How to fix the smelly chimney

The cool thing is that there are many ways of fixing the smelly chimney—it all depends on the source of the problem.

If you are having the unpleasant chimney smell, the first thing you should do is to hire a chimney contractor to inspect the fireplace and identify the cause of the smell. If it’s as a result of creosote deposition, you should hire a chimney sweeping professional to clean it.

If the professional observes the cause to be moisture coming from a cracked chimney flue or chimney cap, ask a masonry contractor to fix the problem. You should note that a crack in the chimney flue not only allows moisture in the house, it also increases the risk of your chimney catching fire.

To keep the smell from getting into the house, consider buying a Lyemance damper. This is a unit that not only keeps cold air and smell from getting into the house, it also keeps your heating costs low. All you need to do is work with a contractor and find the right damper for your chimney.

Most of the modern houses have a tight construction aimed at not only making them stronger, but also energy efficient. If you open the house window and notice that the smell is going away, consider installing an air supply ventilator that will help you in solving the problem.

If you aren’t familiar with ventilators, these are small vents that allow a lot of outdoor air into a room thus reducing the concentration of smelly air.

Conclusion

This is what you need to know about the smelly chimney. To prevent the chimney from smelling in the future, work with a reputable chimney company to properly maintain the unit.