Recently moved into a new home that had just been renovated. The kitchen looks complete, but now that we are here we have started to notice things. In there it is always cold and drafty, and I know why now. The cabinets are all in and finished but in each of the corners there is a hole/opening to the empty space behind. I just found this out today when I looked under.
The openings are similar on both. One is 8" and 6" long and the other is 8" and 7" but just one picture to show the limited room. You have about 2" from the outter edge to the start of the floor piece – where you can reach in. Also, it is about 21" deep to touch the back of the drywall/gaps from the edge of the opening. It is about 8-9" to the corner parts underneath too. So not a lot of space to work with to fix the insulation/draft issues.
I am not sure why it wasn't all drywalled, but its not there and that allows to see the missing insulation. From the outside you can't see anything. The house was built in 1880 and is double layer brick, stucco and recently vinyl sided. Tearing up the cabinets and replacing the kitchen essentially to do it properly is not an option.
So, what to do? Thanks in advance.
Best Answer
Without a do-over, it seems like the best you could do is address the convective loss (the flow of heat out, or cold in, via those openings).
I'm curious how much improvement you'd have by just taking some unfaced fiberglass insulation and stuffing it into the opening, maybe enough to partially fill the area just up from the opening, but the less compressed, the better.
The gaps look too big to try closed cell spray foam, otherwise that would be my next suggestion.