Fireplace virgins!

Ianator

With our heater kicking the bucket a week ago my mom has decided to take a stab at the fireplace. After a false start or two, she's finally managed to get a respectable fire going - only now our house is filled with smoke. The flue is definitely open, and we've opened the front door, back door and a nearby window at varying intervals but there's a cold wind outside (which ruins the entire point of lighting a fire in the first place). There's a ceiling fan on our second floor, so that's going on its "pull" direction, but then we discovered what the upstairs smoke alarm sounds like.

So. How do we not smoke up the house next time?

The Black Hunter

double check your chimney?

check for leaks?

Maybe build the fire further back

dispatch.o

It needs to be professionally cleaned. There's all manner of shit from baby raccoons to bats and bird nests that you can't really deal with yourself.

edit: Also, if there's substantial pressure on the chimney and it's not covered properly you can get a nice little downward vortex pushing into your home.

Mustang

You chimney is probably blocked. I remember my folks have a problem with birds building nests in theirs when I was a wee lad.

Sunstrand

Make sure the flute is open, the flapper that closes the chimney. Once that is open, open a window in the same room just a bit, then roll up a newspaper light it and stick it up the chimney to warm it up so you don't have a draft coming down the chimney. Once it's warm 30 seconds or so, then light the main fire.

Arrath

And keep in mind that things like fans can redirect the airflow, even with a perfectly open chimney.

For example the exhaust fan above my stove will pull the smoke out of the fireplace and into the house.

Robman

Get an insert put in if you're serious about running the fire, open fireplaces are very very rarely net-positive in heating.

Esh

I would absolutely not use that fireplace again until you get a professional out to look at/clean it.

November Fifth

Some fireplaces never draw properly. If it doesn't draw after cleaning, then it probably never will.

Ianator

The chimney is most definitely clean. We had a sweeper come by in September, and it was practically spotless then. We'd lived here for a good year before that, too. The flute is open - smoke is going out, just not all of it.

3drage

Lot can happen up there in six months. I would consider getting it checked again, carbon monoxide poisoning is nothing to sneeze at.