Air bricks in hallway / stairs

Hi all,

As you can see from the photos attached, i have 2 rather ugly air bricks half way up my stairs and it got me thinking as to whether these are actually required and if so, what for ?

My in-laws have the same design house as ours and they have recently been told by their plasterer that they aren't required and as such, they have been removed.

House was built circa 1967 ish i am guessing

Can anyone confirm for my please as ideally, i would like to get them removed if possible.

Thanks in advance

Hi,

As you’ve had no reply I’ll give you my opinion on this.

I was actually asked to help put airbricks like this into a small hallway in a property for tenants – they reason was that they had 2 children and the amount of washing they did had no option but to dry on a maiden in front of the radiator at bottom of the stairs. The result was a high level of paint discoloration/mould and what they original thought was damp – it was in fact all caused by condensation. I helped fit 2 air bricks quite high up the wall – the thinking behind this was the warm air would rise quite high up the stair well and look to settle there – the vents would let the warm air/moisture out this way – it did help improve (we’ve mot been called back out there so presume it worked!)

I guess it comes down to preference, in essence they are not needed if your house is well ventilated in other areas and you do not have high moisture content. You’ll probably find you may need to ventilate a little more – but I’m sure if you find them unsightly you can compensate for this.

Personally i'd leave them as we hear and get so many problems caused by condensaion and lack of ventilation - but that's just personal preference.

Removal wise - its just a case of blocked the gap and filling with similar bricks - or, just taking of internal vents, filling and skinnimg and decorating over leaving the external as it is.

Somebody may be able to offer a more technical explanation (as i work alongside a family member as a handyman i have limited tecnical expertise but have worked on various small home maintenence projects), but I would say they are there for ventilation purpose only so it comes down to a personal preference on how you ventilate your property.

thanks for the reply matt

yes we have plenty of ventilation....the wife has the windows open every single day come rain or shine and my line of thinking was along the same as yours.

we dont dry clothing in the house unless we are desperate....we use the tumble dryer in the garage so there is no reason for any excessive moisture build up.

thanks again.....

anyone else want to throw in their 2 penneth also please ?

I presume this wall to be of cavity wall construction and there is a duct bridge between external and internal wall leafs. If this is the case then the air bricks would be as the last post described, limited to higher moisture content and not associated other wise to the building. Could you establish that no other houses in your vicinity are similarly air bricked?

Hi pinenot,

Thanks for the reply

Yes this wall is a cavity wall but i'm not sure if there is any ducting between the inside and outside or whether its just simply 2 vents on the outside and 2 on the inside in roughly the same location

I need to speak to more of the neighbours but yes from the outside i can see virtually all still have the outside vents in place but the small holes could be filled with mortar i am guessing.

The house opposite still has both the inside and outside vents

You really should establish why the houses were built with these vents in the first place, it could have some bearing on your proposed action...pinenot