Our brick fireplace is rolling smoke back into the house.?
We recently bought a tri-level house built in 1973.
In the sunken family room there is a huge red brick wood fireplace that had a woodstove ducked into the chimney by way of the face.
After we removed the woodstove we built a fire.
All of the smoke rolled right out and filled the whole house. After putting the fire out I noticed that the hole to the flue was only as big as a single red brick. The bricks on the top inside appear to be 4in fire bricks…and no damper. I do not know for sure if this is typical as this is the first brick fireplace I have owned all the rest were inserts. How can I remedy this so I can enjoy this lovely fireplace in the winter without dying from Carbon Monoxide poisoning? Also the lathe on both sides of the inside are exposed inside. I don’t remember ever seeing them on any of my previous fireplaces.
Please no mean or nasty comments, the previous owners were using the woodstove as a secondary heat source a week before we moved in and had stated they just got the chimney cleaned a month prior.
