Hello,
I have a brick fireplace that is very drafty. The flue is shut, but
there are air leaks. So last weekend, I sealed the face of the
fireplace
with cardboard and held it to the brick fireplace with duct tape for
stucco.

Just today, I noticed the duct tape is coming off the sides and air
is leaking again.

Is there a better type of duct tape for holding cardboard to brick?

Any suggestions ?

Thanks much.

ap wrote:
Hello,
I have a brick fireplace that is very drafty. The flue is shut, but
there are air leaks. So last weekend, I sealed the face of the
fireplace
with cardboard and held it to the brick fireplace with duct tape for
stucco.

Just today, I noticed the duct tape is coming off the sides and air
is leaking again.

Is there a better type of duct tape for holding cardboard to brick?

Any suggestions ?

Thanks much.

What I'd do:

Trim that cardboard into a template of the inside of the opening,
leaving
maybe .5" gap around the outside.

Use that template to cut a piece of 1/2" plywood, put it in the
opening,
and stuff fiberglass into the gap.

J

ap wrote:
Hello,
I have a brick fireplace that is very drafty. The flue is shut, but
there are air leaks. So last weekend, I sealed the face of the
fireplace
with cardboard and held it to the brick fireplace with duct tape for
stucco.

Just today, I noticed the duct tape is coming off the sides and air
is leaking again.

Is there a better type of duct tape for holding cardboard to brick?

Any suggestions ?

Thanks much.

Get a set of glass doors. You can seal around them, to prevent all
leaks, with RTV. Will look a little more attractive than what you are
doing now

Frank

I have glass front doors myself and its still drafty...

In the summer to prevent a downdraft (and that lovely firewood
smell/stink) is
I take a black garbage bag cut it to fit the opening (just a bit
bigger) and use
a quality duct tape (3m stuff) works just fine. It covers the entire
face of
the fireplace and is black. I put the cover in front of it again and
it covers the
duct tape seam. The black bag really isnt noticable at all.

Other thing you can do is take a look at the flue and see if you can
either use towels or insulation around the outer seam. Closing it well
enough might do the trick for you and its tucked away nicely up there.


ap wrote:
Hello,
I have a brick fireplace that is very drafty. The flue is shut, but
there are air leaks. So last weekend, I sealed the face of the
fireplace
with cardboard and held it to the brick fireplace with duct tape for
stucco.

Just today, I noticed the duct tape is coming off the sides and air
is leaking again.

Is there a better type of duct tape for holding cardboard to brick?

Any suggestions ?

Thanks much.

"ap" wrote in message
oups.com...
Hello,
I have a brick fireplace that is very drafty. The flue is shut, but
there are air leaks. So last weekend, I sealed the face of the
fireplace
with cardboard and held it to the brick fireplace with duct tape for
stucco.

Just today, I noticed the duct tape is coming off the sides and air
is leaking again.

Is there a better type of duct tape for holding cardboard to brick?

Leave the tape on the brick for long, and you will never get the
adhesive off the brick.

Measure the opening at the top of the inside of the fireplace. Cut
cardboard a inch or so bigger, and a board an inch of so smaller than
that opening. Position the cardboard into the opening, back it up
with the board carefully centered, then prop them in place with
a chunk of 2x4 or 2x2 between the bottom of the fireplace and
the board.

Bob

There's some nice fuzzy 'tape insulation' you can get to put on
the board that you use to block the fireplace. I don't have a fireplace
, but it went around my pull-down steps/attic door. It seems to have
helped.

Feedscrn

Bob F wrote:
"ap" wrote in message
oups.com...

ap wrote:
Hello,
I have a brick fireplace that is very drafty. The flue is shut, but
there are air leaks. So last weekend, I sealed the face of the
fireplace
with cardboard and held it to the brick fireplace with duct tape for
stucco.

Just today, I noticed the duct tape is coming off the sides and air
is leaking again.

Is there a better type of duct tape for holding cardboard to brick?

Any suggestions ?

Thanks much.

Put a plastic bag over the chimney.

I use one of those window kits, with the double-stick tape. It works
fine, with plenty of adhesive 'stick'.

It's really interesting to see it try to 'breathe' on windy days.
Amazing how much heated air would be lost up that chimney.

ap wrote:
Hello,
I have a brick fireplace that is very drafty. The flue is shut, but
there are air leaks. So last weekend, I sealed the face of the
fireplace
with cardboard and held it to the brick fireplace with duct tape for
stucco.

Just today, I noticed the duct tape is coming off the sides and air
is leaking again.

Is there a better type of duct tape for holding cardboard to brick?

Any suggestions ?

Thanks much.

The real problem you are experiencing is a bad damper that is allowing
the cold in. there is an item called a Chimney Balloon that you blow up
in the flue to seal it off. This will insulate the damper or even serve
as a replacement for your damper and give you a tight seal that will
allow no air passage. It looks like they run for about $40-$50 online.
i use the clear variety of chimney balloon since it stores up in the
flue out of sight.

The real problem you are experiencing is a bad damper that is allowing
the cold in. there is an item called a Chimney Balloon that you blow up
in the flue to seal it off. This will insulate the damper or even serve
as a replacement for your damper and give you a tight seal that will
allow no air passage. It looks like they run for about $40-$50 online.
i use the clear variety of chimney balloon since it stores up in the
flue out of sight.

ap wrote:
Hello,
I have a brick fireplace that is very drafty. The flue is shut, but
there are air leaks. So last weekend, I sealed the face of the
fireplace
with cardboard and held it to the brick fireplace with duct tape for
stucco.

Just today, I noticed the duct tape is coming off the sides and air
is leaking again.

Is there a better type of duct tape for holding cardboard to brick?

Any suggestions ?

Thanks much.

I agree with the poster who mentioned you may leave hard-to-clean marks
on the brick with the duct tape. Also, taping to the face of the
fireplace puts you at a mechanical disadvantage, the air pressure will
always tend to lift off your cardboard.

A number of viable solutions have been mentioned. Here are a couple
more possibilities:

- take a piece of cardboard a couple inches bigger than the fireplace
opening, make little diagonal cuts in from the corners, and fold the
edges up to make a sort of very shallow tray. Wedge that into the
opening. Then you can tape around the edges, taping to the insides of
the opening rather than the face of the fireplace, it you catch my
drift. That will be stronger and more likely to stay in place, and you
avoid marring the fireplace face. The tape still may not stick too
well though.

- stick an old pillow up the flue in such a way as to wedge it in and
block the opening. Kind of like the balloon thing only cheaper. If it
were me, I would leave something dangling down from it as a reminder
that it's there, so you don't forget and light the yule log with it
still in place. Although, this can be a good way to get rid of
unwanted relatives ;-)