I built my house about 5 years and noticed around the fireplace it can be a little drafty. I didn’t insulate around the Firebox for fear of a fire. Looking back could I use fiberglass around the exterior of the box to totally seal up the house. Lucky I used screws to apply the outside siding panels incase I wanted to switch to natural gas. How would you approach that? thanks in advance, pictures below.
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I did one at my parents and used roxul/mineral wool and covered it with durock with joints fiberglass taped and thinset to "mud" (all non-flammable). The insulation above the box is the key, it seems, including airsealing. Not sure if that is done well that it matters much for the box, but I wanted to cover the flammable wood as an extra precaution.