During construction of a home, a builder might call for placement of a hood shaped chimney cowl in the chimney pot. That is the section of the chimney that reaches up from the roof. Often, as smoke rises up through a chimney flue, it can be allowed to flow into a chimney pot cowl. In the past, the proliferation of chimney pots cowls kept smoke from coal fueled fires out of the living space in most family homes. The waning demand for coal can be linked to a waning demand for chimney pot cowls.

However, research has indicated that smoke contains cancer causing chemicals. For that reason, no family should want to inhale smoke from the fire in a fireplace. In fact, some thirty years ago, one pair of geneticists, a husband and wife, even refused to build a fire in their fireplace, even though they lived in Michigan.

That was back before introduction of the Internet. At that time, a homeowner could not go online and order one of the available chimney cowls. In fact, back then few people had access to useful information about chimney cowling. Hence, few people took the time to shop for a cowl, and builders seldom spent money on chimney cowlings.

Today, every new home buyer should take the time to study the online literature about the part of a chimney known as a cowl. Chimney facts are especially important, if a home buyer expects to move into a new home, a home with a fireplace. Still, even familiarity with both a colt chimney cowl and a stainless steel chimney cowl can not always free a homeowner from prospects for a smoke filled room.

Some forty plus years ago, one Pennsylvania family purchased a new home. When the realtor provided the family members with a “tour” of their new home, he stopped at the brick walled fireplace. As he looked at that fireplace, he said, “Well, it’s pretty hard to build a bad fireplace.”

More than six months later, as the fall temperatures started to drop, that family decided to use its new fireplace. However, once the fire got started, the home’s family room started to fill with smoke. The family put out the fire, and arranged for an inspection of their fireplace.

Now, as it turned out, not even the best chimney cowl could have prevented that unfortunate incident. An angry brick layer had placed a sheet of glass in that home’s new chimney.