Many Dallas homes have fireplaces, often as a focal point for a living or family room. Proper fireplace ventilation is critical for a safe home, and many of these fireplaces do their ventilation through the roof as it goes back to classic designs for kitchen fires of all sizes. In fact, your fireplace vents are one of the things Dallas roofers check during an inspection.
Why is Proper Fireplace Ventilation Important?
Proper fireplace ventilation is critical for safety. Without proper ventilation, all of the combustion byproducts stay in your house. As some of them can be harmful or deadly, particularly to infants and the elderly, a proper ventilation system is vital.
As part of your annual home maintenance, you may want to have your fireplace inspected by a professional and the venting pipework cleaned. Additionally, a Dallas roofer can inspect any parts of the ventilation that go through the roof for maximum safety.
Standard Fireplace Ventilation Design in Dallas
There are numerous types of fireplaces in Dallas, but they all come back to the same basic layout. Typically, your fireplace installer planned out the necessary airflow, and the Dallas roofer ensured the vents were appropriately placed.
Fireplaces draw air from somewhere, whether it’s a dedicated pipe to the outside or from the room itself. The air enters the combustion chamber in order to sustain the combustion process. Otherwise, your fire would sputter out.
The combustion releases byproducts, which rise with the warm air. Typically, this byproduct-laden air rises straight up through a chimney or up and out through a vent pipe in the wall unless you’re using a ventless fireplace.
Types of Fireplace Venting
Direct Fireplace Venting
There is a dedicated inflow pipe for outside air for direct ventilation fireplaces. This pipe brings air from outside the house into the combustion chamber, so nothing from the house needs to enter it. The combustion chamber is where your fire actually is, and typically it’s sealed against back drafting down the inflow pipe.
With this type of venting, it is vital to ensure the entire ventilation system remains unclogged. Make sure to ask your Dallas roofer to check around any roof vents for your fireplace and get them professionally cleaned if there are problems.
“Natural” Venting
With natural venting, the combustion chamber pulls air from inside the room. These are typically what you see in older homes, where the chamber is not sealed at all, and you could make s’mores on the fire in the living room. However, this style still uses a wall vent or chimney that a Dallas roofer should inspect.
Ventless Designs
Ventless fireplaces are a relatively new addition to the options list for fireplaces, and they are popular since they do not require holes in walls or roofs to install. Ventless fireplaces burn hotter to “burn off” the unsafe byproducts of the combustion. It’s vital to have these fireplaces inspected regularly by a specialist.
Do you need a Dallas roofer to look at the ventilation on your roof and assess the overall roof condition? Call StazOn Roofing today, your local Dallas roofer for over 40 years.
