Hello everyone, I am new here. If this is the wrong place to ask my question, please let me know.
My husband and I have been having some condensation issues in our attic here in Western Oregon. Today we decided to tackle sealing off gaps in our attic and found our fireplace vent pipe, see attached. We have a fireplace Xtrodinair Clean Face on our top floor that is vented through a vaulted ceiling, then our attic, then out of our roof. Neither of us know anything about fireplace venting. We hired someone to install this in our new house build about 8 years ago. After reading a lot today to try to catch up, we are feeling pretty confident that this was not done correctly. I think I see the following issues in this installation, but would really appreciate someone who actually knows what they are talking about to weigh in on this.
1. The Attic insulation shield is not resting on the ceiling Firestop, so it is not preventing insulation from touching the vent pipe. I think we are lucky we have not had a fire.
2. There are no joists installed above the ceiling Firestop as we are seeing in many of the installation manuals
3. Not shown in this photo, the attic insulation shield is open at the top, there are no tabs bent down touching the vent pipe
4. There are large gaps between ply wood and ceiling Firestop.
Is there any chance of saving this? I don't think you can tell from the photo, but the ceiling is slanted where the ceiling fire stop enters the attic, so I think that is why the insulation shield is not able to rest on the fire stop. My husband filled the gaps between the plywood and Firestop in with foam, but now we are wondering if that is safe that close to the vent pipe. Is it possible for us to construct a custom insulation shield that will rest on the fire stop? If so, is there any way for us to safely fill in the gaps that were left between the plywood and the fire stop? Thank you very much for reading this far!
![[Hearth.com] Gas Fireplace Attic Firestop](https://www.hearth.com/talk/data/attachments/322/322043-fefc19b95c96a8d8749661eae21d5cb3.jpg?hash=iEmmnxjIh9 "[Hearth.com] Gas Fireplace Attic Firestop")
![[Hearth.com] Gas Fireplace Attic Firestop](https://www.hearth.com/talk/data/attachments/322/322044-0314a6e8ee8c5b3f97f9e10c5b4f4d1f.jpg?hash=WWoAQr0g6Q "[Hearth.com] Gas Fireplace Attic Firestop")
![[Hearth.com] Gas Fireplace Attic Firestop](https://www.hearth.com/talk/data/attachments/322/322045-29097039fb86e69b9fcabacaac7e9daf.jpg?hash=umNN8UPIh9 "[Hearth.com] Gas Fireplace Attic Firestop")
My husband and I have been having some condensation issues in our attic here in Western Oregon. Today we decided to tackle sealing off gaps in our attic and found our fireplace vent pipe, see attached. We have a fireplace Xtrodinair Clean Face on our top floor that is vented through a vaulted ceiling, then our attic, then out of our roof. Neither of us know anything about fireplace venting. We hired someone to install this in our new house build about 8 years ago. After reading a lot today to try to catch up, we are feeling pretty confident that this was not done correctly. I think I see the following issues in this installation, but would really appreciate someone who actually knows what they are talking about to weigh in on this.
1. The Attic insulation shield is not resting on the ceiling Firestop, so it is not preventing insulation from touching the vent pipe. I think we are lucky we have not had a fire.
2. There are no joists installed above the ceiling Firestop as we are seeing in many of the installation manuals
3. Not shown in this photo, the attic insulation shield is open at the top, there are no tabs bent down touching the vent pipe
4. There are large gaps between ply wood and ceiling Firestop.
Is there any chance of saving this? I don't think you can tell from the photo, but the ceiling is slanted where the ceiling fire stop enters the attic, so I think that is why the insulation shield is not able to rest on the fire stop. My husband filled the gaps between the plywood and Firestop in with foam, but now we are wondering if that is safe that close to the vent pipe. Is it possible for us to construct a custom insulation shield that will rest on the fire stop? If so, is there any way for us to safely fill in the gaps that were left between the plywood and the fire stop? Thank you very much for reading this far!
