Difficulty getting wood burning in fireplace?

First check that your chimney damper is open. If there’s not enough air moving up the chimney, a fire won’t start well.

Your wood may not be properly dry(it should dry for a minimum of 6 months after cutting, more is much better), and you may need more kindling. The kindling should be maybe 1″ x 1″ or a bit larger, and very dry. Either use firestarters, or use 4 full sheets of newspaper, crumpled but not too tightly, to build a sort http://www.diy.com of base http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Do_it_yourself for the kindling. Then lay kindling on top in a row, fairly close together but not crammed, then place a second row at right angles to that one, and use about 4 layers, like building a box shape. You can then lay larger wood on top, in the same square shape, one layer.

Set a match to your paper or firestarter. As https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100009381511307 it burns, you might have to sort of prop up the pile of wood so it stays in place. If you don’t have a poker, get one, even if it’s just a long stick. When all the kindling has mostly burnt to embers and isn’t producing much flame, that’s when you add more large wood. Wood is at its hottest when it’s glowing red, not when it’s still producing flames, so that’s when it will set fire to more wood most easily.

A bellows, the accordion type thing you describe, can help, but you can get much the same effect by fanning gently with a piece of cardboard, or by blowing on the fire.

It’s important when starting a fire to have enough kindling to get hot enough to set the larger pieces on fire. If they tend to sizzle when they get hot, with bubbles of water coming out the ends, your wood is too wet.

And never use any kind of liquid on a fire in a house. It’s too hard to control, can splash around, and especially never put it on a fire after it’s going even a little. It can flash flame back towards you, so fast you won’t even know what happened until you’re burned, and the flame can set fire to a can http://www.diy.com of lighter fluid while it’s still in the can, before you’ve even finished throwing it on the fire. Use firestarter cubes if you must use anything but newspaper.



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