This Purcellville, VA homeowner had a rough winter with a drafty family room. They spend most of their time in this room and could not make it warm. The biggest source of the drafts were coming from the pre-fabricated fireplace.
They tried everything from covering it with plastic, putting towels in front of it, and even taping it closed with cardboard. Nothing worked.
Solution
Good thing they called Comfenergy! The following pictures show how we made their pre-fabricated fireplace less drafty and more comfortable. Now they can use it this winter and not have to cover it up.
Project Summary
Evaluator: Mike Estrada
This beautiful Purcellville, VA home suffered form a drafty/cold family room due to a builder installed pre-fabricated fireplace.
Comfenergy crew member opening the fireplace from the outside. This thin "cardboard" type material does not stop drafts, and offers no thermal insulating value at all.
Once opened, you could see there was no insulation at all. We didn't remove any insulation during this project!
"Thermax" polyisocyanurate foam boards were used to create a "box" around the fireplace. These boards are fire rated and offer a great air and thermal barrier, thus stopping drafts safely.
The last step after putting the exterior sheathing and vinyl siding back on was to dense pack the bottom of the fireplace. This provides a fire safe, air and thermal barrier to stop drafts from coming up under the fire box.
