For safety, fireplaces are designed to route smoke out of the house through the chimney. If there's a problem, however, you could end up with a smoky home.

Dear Jim: We use our wood-burning fireplace for heat. It has not been cleaned out for years and we noticed bad spots on the outdoor chimney brick. What maintenance steps can we do ourselves? -- ...

Kelly has over 10 years of experience writing about home design and improvement for many prominent publications. She also spent several years working at a tech startup for an interior design game ...