Damaged air brick, replace or brick up

Joined
30 Dec 2018
Messages
18,804
Reaction score
3,130
Location
Up North
Country
United Kingdom
We have around six air bricks around the house, from the days when more ventilation was needed. It a semi, built 1950's, on a concrete raft, with a cavity and CWI. Then it had two coal fires and a kitchen range for heating, all of which were also replaced with CH. All were blocked up on the inner leaf, during a refurb in the mid 1980's, since when I have added more structured ventilation.

All of the vents were ceramic type, 3x course high by 1x brick wide, so square.

The kitchen air brick, at the back of the house suffered some damage or someone knocked a way through for a pipe or something (water heater flue?), before my time - which has been cemented to block the hole around 3"x 3". From memory, the gap through the cavity was filled with a timber box/ duct.

Like any good DIY'er, I have a small stock of matching bricks and roof tiles. I'm wondering whether to chop the damaged vent out completely and replace it with three bricks?
 
Sponsored Links
Sponsored Links
If you are saying the air bricks provided combustion air for the coal fires and kitchen range which are no longer there then they can be removed and the openings bricked up.
since when I have added more structured ventilation.
Don't know what you mean by structured ventilation.
 
If you are saying the air bricks provided combustion air for the coal fires and kitchen range which are no longer there then they can be removed and the openings bricked up.

Don't know what you mean by structured ventilation.

Extract fans, extracting air where moist air is produced. Thanks, I was really wondering whether there might still be a requirement to ventilate the cavity.

There were far more vents than were needed just for combustion ventilation, vents in room which didn't have any fires. Rather strangely - the only room which included both a fire and a vent, was the kitchen which had included some sort of coal fired range. I remember the draft from those vents, making the rooms they were in very cold, but as said all were fully sealed up on the inner leaf back in the 1980's during a whole house refurb.
 
I was really wondering whether there might still be a requirement to ventilate the cavity.
There is no need to ventilate the cavity in an external wall , the cavity is there to prevent the passage of moisture from the external to internal leaf of the wall . ( Please don't anybody reply about cavity fill insulation bridging the cavity ,that has been well discussed )
 

DIYnot Local

Staff member

If you need to find a tradesperson to get your job done, please try our local search below, or if you are doing it yourself you can find suppliers local to you.

Select the supplier or trade you require, enter your location to begin your search.


Are you a trade or supplier? You can create your listing free at DIYnot Local

 
Sponsored Links
Back
Top