"We only get headaches on nights we light the fire"
People rarely say "carbon monoxide" when they first describe this. They say the CO alarm in the hallway keeps chirping on fire nights. They say the kids get groggy and headachy in the family room by nine o'clock. They say they feel fine again the next morning, once they are out of the house.
That pattern, symptoms that track the fire and fade away from it, is the one to take seriously. Carbon monoxide has no smell and no color, and a fireplace is one of the few places in a house that makes it on purpose and relies on the chimney to carry it away.
Right now, if the alarm is going off
Before reading further:
- - A steady alarm pattern, not a single chirp, means get everyone and the pets outside.
- Call 911 from outside. Tell them a CO alarm is sounding.
- Do not go back in to put the fire out or open windows.
- Anyone with headache, dizziness, nausea, or confusion should be checked by medical staff.
A single chirp every minute or so is often a low battery or an alarm at the end of its life. Check the label on the back, which explains the patterns for that model. If you are not sure which one you are hearing, treat it as the real thing.
Where the gas comes from
Any fire that burns without enough oxygen makes more carbon monoxide. A wood fire that is smoldering, damped down, or burning wet logs makes a lot. A gas fireplace with a dirty burner or misplaced logs makes more than it should.
On a healthy chimney none of that matters much, because warm exhaust rises up the flue and leaves. The danger starts when the exhaust stops leaving.
Two ways the exhaust ends up in the room
Spillage. The chimney is open, but the house pulls harder than the flue pushes. A kitchen hood on high, bath fans, a running dryer, and new tight windows can put the house under negative pressure. The chimney then becomes the easiest place for the house to get air back, and exhaust rolls out of the top of the fireplace opening. Visible smoke is the obvious version. With a gas fireplace, or a wood fire burned down to coals, there may be nothing to see at all.
Blockage. Something is choking the flue. Heavy creosote, a bird nest on the smoke shelf, fallen bricks or flue tile, or a cap clogged solid with debris all narrow the path. Older masonry chimneys add another risk: cracked or missing liner sections let exhaust leak into the gaps in the brick and then into walls, attics, or the room next door. In Long Beach, some chimneys on older houses in Belmont Heights and Los Cerritos are old enough to have ridden out the 1933 earthquake, and hidden liner damage from that kind of shaking is something a camera finds that a flashlight does not.
Where the alarms belong
State law in California expects a CO alarm in any house that burns gas or wood or sits beside an attached garage. Your local building department or the alarm manufacturer can tell you the exact requirements for your house. As a practical layout:
- - One outside each sleeping area, in the hallway that leads to the bedrooms
- One on every level of the house, including a basement
- One in the room with the fireplace, placed at the distance the manual calls for, not right above the hearth where normal start-up puffs set it off
Test them monthly with the button. Replace them by the date printed on the unit, because the sensors wear out even when the battery is fresh.
What a CO check and draft test involve
A visit for this problem is a measurement visit first. Looking at the chimney is part of it, but the numbers decide what happens next.
- - CO readings. A meter reads the air at the fireplace opening, in the room, and in nearby rooms, first with the fireplace off and then with it running.
- Draft test. A draft gauge, or manometer, measures how hard the flue is pulling once it warms up. We repeat it with the range hood, bath fans, and dryer on to see if the house wins the tug of war.
- Smoke test. A smoke pencil at the damper shows which way the air moves, and smoke in the flue shows where it escapes.
- Visual check of the flue. Light and camera from the firebox for blockage, heavy deposits, and damaged tile.
- Gas appliances. On a gas unit, burner and pilot condition, log placement, and the vent connection.
The fix depends on what the numbers show. A choked flue gets swept. A house that overpowers its chimney needs makeup air or a damper and opening change. A broken liner needs relining.
When a Level 2 inspection is the right call
A standard look from the firebox is enough when the problem is clearly a fan pulling air down or a dirty flue. Book a Level 2 chimney inspection when any of these is true:
- - The CO readings point to a leak, but the visible part of the flue looks fine
- The chimney is old masonry and has never had a full camera scan
- There has been a chimney fire, an earthquake, or a roof leak near the stack
- You are buying or selling the house
- Smoke or odor shows up in a room that does not have the fireplace
A Level 2 runs a camera the full height of the flue and costs $370. Any repair it calls for, such as relining or a smoke chamber repair, is quoted in writing before work.
If you are trying to decide between a basic check and a Level 2, write down what the alarm did and when, plus who felt ill and in which room, and we will reply with which visit fits. For homes in Long Beach and the South Bay, that note is often enough to skip a step.
Until someone has measured it
Keep the fireplace off. Leave the alarms where they are and do not pull the batteries to stop a chirp. If you need us out sooner than a form reply, the call button on the site goes straight to us. Say "CO alarm" in your first sentence so we start with the safety questions.
Did the tips leave the smoke where it was?
Then the cause is probably one a test at the hearth will show. Ramsey listens to how the fire behaves, runs the house as you do and names the reason. We work from San Pedro across the peninsula, Lomita, Torrance and Long Beach.
