Gas fire place vs. wood fireplace.

[Biscuit]

Guys

I’m a homebuilder and have researched this extensively, I promise if your house is truly foam Encapsulated and done right (basically air tight)you will not be able
to have a real wood fireplace. Even if you provide make
Up air for it. The fire will cause a negative air pressure once it starts to consmume the oxygen inside the house. That pressure difference will not allow fireplace to draft correctly. Unless you equalize pressure
By opening a door or cracking a window.

If you have foam and have a fireplace that burns wood then I promise the foam has leaks somewhere that is allowing outside air in which in turn means the insulation is Not working properly in the summer as well

If you want to foam insulate you have 2 choices. A direct vent gas insert or a fireplace like the extrodinair(wood burning stove fireplace). Both of these run completely off there own air supply and the safest and most reliable way to go if you foam.

Check these out http://www.fireplacex.com

They are nice will heat your whole house

[bloodtrailer28]

Guys

I’m a homebuilder and have researched this extensively, I promise if your house is truly foam Encapsulated and done right (basically air tight)you will not be able
to have a real wood fireplace. Even if you provide make
Up air for it. The fire will cause a negative air pressure once it starts to consmume the oxygen inside the house. That pressure difference will not allow fireplace to draft correctly. Unless you equalize pressure
By opening a door or cracking a window.

If you have foam and have a fireplace that burns wood then I promise the foam has leaks somewhere that is allowing outside air in which in turn means the insulation is Not working properly in the summer as well

If you want to foam insulate you have 2 choices. A direct vent gas insert or a fireplace like the extrodinair(wood burning stove fireplace). Both of these run completely off there own air supply and the safest and most reliable way to go if you foam.

Lol.

Open cell 5 inches thick on the walls and at least 6-7 on the roof. Had to trim the foam between the 2x6s because they put so much foam in we couldn't get sheetrock hung.
For some reason our fireplace still drafts just fine

[Mike D]

Lol.



Open cell 5 inches thick on the walls and at least 6-7 on the roof. Had to trim the foam between the 2x6s because they put so much foam in we couldn't get sheetrock hung.

For some reason our fireplace still drafts just fine

Lol all you want. I’ve researched this a ton too. What he is saying is correct.

If your fireplace is drafting correctly as you state, air is coming in somewhere.

Fire can’t burn without air.


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[Biscuit]

Good for you

Not trying to argue the point. But I’ve foam insulted lots of homes. What you describe is the process it takes to foam and the application. IPromise if the house is truly air tight it won’t work. It doesn’t takea large area for the insulater to miss for there to be leaks and I’m speaking from experience. We catch leaks all the time.

I’m happy yours works but odds are fireplace will not function properly. Also speaking from experience, my personal house has this exact
problem. I wanted real wood So we installed and Isokern. Mine will not draft once the fire gets going with any size to it. I have to open a window to make
It work.

Anybody who wishes to do this I advise you to research it for yourself. There is a lot of good info out there, there is also a lot of uninformed opinions as well.

You will have to be the judge for yourself.

I will not install a wood burning fireplace in any house that I build that has foam insulation. Tell all my customers this on the front end before we get started.

[quarterback]

When we had our house built 20+ years ago I had a big stone fireplace put in the den. At the time we plumbed for gas but always burned real wood. Now I have a big tv on the mantle and am afraid that the heat from a wood fire would damage it so we don't build fires in it any more. I'm seriously considering converting it to gas just so we can have a nice fire from time to time without worrying about burning up the dang tv. Should've seen this coming but 20 years ago we didn't appreciate the value of a nice big THIN tv so I never considered having in on the fireplace.

[hopedale]

I have gas, but would prefer to bun wood. Just to much of a pain to pull gas logs and stuff out to burn the wood.

I will admit the gas is convient and no mess to clean up.

[bloodtrailer28]

Lol all you want. I’ve researched this a ton too. What he is saying is correct.

If your fireplace is drafting correctly as you state, air is coming in somewhere.

Fire can’t burn without air.


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I am! fireplace works great and we are loving our foamed house. Been burning for a couple days straight now. I guess all of us that have foam and fireplaces that work correctly the foam just wasn't done right. I was here when they sprayed and there isn't an inch of walls or roof that doesn't have foam....could we be getting air from somewhere windows doors vents ect I'm sure we could be. What's even funnier is my BILs house is foamed and fireplaces works great same with my in-laws. Guess just crappy foam jobs all the way around!

[Biscuit]

There is a lot building science that goes into it. Not saying it can’t work some time but the odds are it will not if it’s truly air tight. (Again key here is house is airtight it close to it) As a builder that has to warranty my work I’m not willing to take that chance.

[RiverRat1]

Guys

I’m a homebuilder and have researched this extensively, I promise if your house is truly foam Encapsulated and done right (basically air tight)you will not be able
to have a real wood fireplace. Even if you provide make
Up air for it. The fire will cause a negative air pressure once it starts to consmume the oxygen inside the house. That pressure difference will not allow fireplace to draft correctly. Unless you equalize pressure
By opening a door or cracking a window.

If you have foam and have a fireplace that burns wood then I promise the foam has leaks somewhere that is allowing outside air in which in turn means the insulation is Not working properly in the summer as well

If you want to foam insulate you have 2 choices. A direct vent gas insert or a fireplace like the extrodinair(wood burning stove fireplace). Both of these run completely off there own air supply and the safest and most reliable way to go if you foam.

Check these out http://www.fireplacex.com

They are nice will heat your whole house

Are you saying a wood burning stove would work but not a wood burning fireplace?

[Playa]

Are you saying a wood burning stove would work but not a wood burning fireplace?

No, I think he is saying that particular model or another similar model with an external air source.

Does a home’s HVAC system fan not supply enough oxygen supply to properly
draft a fireplace if the fan is running full time?

[Biscuit]

Air supply matters

Yes my experience is that you need to provide. A ducted air supply into a contained unit. Either wood burning or not. So if you have a wood burning stove it needs it’s own air supply not using air from interior of home.

This Is best option

Same thing on a gas unit you need a direct vent gas fireplace if you go gas. Will have it’s own air supply

When you foam a house you should be piping in Fresh air from outside. Most hvac guys will pump air in to the return either directly or through an ERV. Both ways work. The ventilation should have a damper on it controlled by the thermostat which opens up and allows fresh air into the system several times an hour.

My experience shows that once you get a big enough fire going you just can’t provide enough air to keep the pressure the same as outdoors. Hence the drafting of chimney being compromised.

[BigL]

I have a gas fireplace, but we had a bird next in our fresh air vent when I moved in a few months ago. I tried to get a chimney sweep out before Christmas but couldn't find one that could get here in time. Not going to light it until someone checks it out and makes sure all nest material is out. Never had a gas fireplace before, I've only had wood.

[randal]

I have never seen a gas fire place that puts out heat like a wood burning..

[Drop Tine]

We split the difference and have a wood burning insert style with log starter burner. If we decide to, we can switch it to a gas log system and close the damper most of the way.

This is what we did also.

[catslayer]

Grew up with gas... wife and i both said wood only from now on.

Wood is cheaper for us, both families have properties that ALWAYS need trees cut.


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