QA

Question: How To Cover Furnace In Basement

How can I hide my basement furnace?

If you are finishing your basement and building walls, incorporate a small area to enclose the furnace, AC, and or water heater. These louvered doors provide great ventilation. Another option is to create a set of built-in shelves in the door that don’t even look like a closet.

How do I hide the furnace and water heater in my basement?

Perhaps the simplest way to hide your furnace and water heater is to add a sliding curtain as a divider. You will need to measure the wall height to determine proper curtain length, as well as the needed width. Be sure to give a few inches of clearance so the curtain doesn’t touch your heater.

Can a furnace be enclosed?

A furnace can be installed various places in a house — in a basement, an attic, a garage, a ground-floor utility room or outside the walls. Furnaces in basements or garages often are enclosed in cabinets or closets to block noise from the unit and protect it from accidental bumps.

How can I hide my furnace?

For a fast fix, simply find curtains that complement your decor and hang them in front of or around your furnace. Voila! You just went from hideous to hidden for less than $20. For the fastest and cheapest way to hide a furnace, simply install a decorative curtain around it.

Can you wall in a furnace?

Moving the furnace can be expensive and impractical — if not impossible — so your best choice is to conceal it from view. This can be done by placing walls around the appliance and hanging a furnace room door to create a dedicated furnace room.

Can you put curtains in front of furnace?

Curtain Call A curtain track installed on the ceiling will also suffice for hanging the curtain fabric. Keep a curtain a bit farther than 2 feet away from a furnace to ensure the fabric cannot reach the furnace, or add weights to the bottom of the fabric to keep it from blowing toward the furnace.

What kind of door do I need for a furnace room?

A fully louvered door. The most common solution is to get combustion air from the rest of the house. This is done simply by putting vent openings in the furnace room to connect it to other rooms in the rest of the house and allow air to get in.

Can you put a gas furnace in a closet?

High-efficiency furnaces may be installed in basements, ground-floor utility rooms, garages or attics, in open spaces or confined closets.

Is it OK to enclose a water heater?

In most instances, a home’s water heater is placed in the basement. When the basement is finished so it can be used for another purpose, leaving the water heater in plain view can detract from the appearance of the room. You can enclose the water heater by building a wall around it and constructing a utility closet.

Does furnace room need to be vented?

When installing a new gas-fired furnace or water heater, you must add outside ventilation. There are several good reasons that a furnace room should have ventilation. Notwithstanding the local building codes, any gas-fired appliance needs a source of combustion air to burn freely and effectively.

Does a furnace need to be vented?

Yes, a furnace needs to be vented. A furnace vent allows for any gases and exhaust created by combustion to be removed from the home. If your furnace is not vented, it can lead to dangerous conditions, like carbon monoxide building up within your home.

How much ventilation does a furnace room need?

Most furnace rooms should have one vent about 12 square inches from the floor and one about 12 square inches from the ceiling, although bigger and more powerful furnaces often require larger vents.

How far should things be from a furnace?

We recommend leaving at least 3 feet of space around your furnace clear. Not only is this required for us to come in and service it, but it is a good safety tip to not have anything too close to a combustible heat source.

What should you not put in a furnace room?

Do not store any cardboard boxes, cleaning materials, or chemicals anywhere in the room. Install smoke and carbon monoxide detectors. Purchase at least one fire extinguisher and make it easy to locate. Do not block the entrance to the room or the areas surrounding the furnace.

Is it safe to sleep in the same room as a furnace?

We strongly recommend not having a furnace in your bedroom or bedroom closet. Furnaces are best kept in storage rooms or even in a basement. If a malfunction happens, it can be detected by a carbon monoxide detector, away from personal belongings and sleep coves.

Can curtains touch a heater?

You should never allow draperies/curtains to touch the heater. Short drapes or curtains need a minimum of 8 inches from bottom of fabric to top of heater.

Will curtains catch fire?

Can curtains catch fire? Definitely yes! Especially if they are placed near the fire, and the length of the curtain is long enough to be heated. Placing them near a fire source increases the risk of the curtain catching fire.

Is it safe to hang curtains over baseboard heaters?

Keep drapes and curtains at least 8-10″ above electric baseboards, and/or at least 3″ in front of them with 1″ floor clearance (to allow air to circulate). Don’t locate curtains or drapes directly over or in front of electric heaters.

Can I store things next to my furnace?

Safety first Don’t store anything near your furnace that’s combustible at low flash points – like gasoline, paint and paint thinners. Always keep the area free of dust and debris – vacuum and clean around your furnace and water heater tank to prevent dust buildup.

Do furnaces produce carbon monoxide?

Gas- and oil-burning furnaces produce carbon monoxide (CO). CO is an invisible, odorless, poison gas that kills hundreds every year and makes thousands more sick. Follow these steps to keep your family safe this winter.

Can you put things on top of a water heater?

“Is it okay to store things like brooms and mops in the water heater closet?” If it is an electric hot water heater, yes. If it is gas fired, no. The mop and broom themselves are probably not an issue, but they can pick up easily lofted flammable materials.

How much clearance do you need around a water heater?

A clearance area of 12 inches is required on all sides of a hot water heater. A certain amount of airflow is also required for proper combustion and ventilation. The building code states that proper airflow for these functions must be provided according to the manufacturer’s specifications for the unit being installed.

Do hot water heaters need ventilation?

All water heaters that burn natural gas or liquid propane (LP) gas require a venting system. The process of burning of the gas is called combustion and it creates heat, exhaust gases (including highly poisonous carbon monoxide), and moisture.