Air brick ventilation

[Rocksy44]

Hi, can anyone advise me on how many air bricks would be sufficient for my house? I have a 1930s semi with a suspended floor. The house is north facing and there are 6 air bricks to the front and three to the side (also some at the back). The living room at the front is very cold despite double glazed windows and thick carpetting and I'm wondering if the large number of air bricks is to blame (I've seen similar houses with just 2 or 3 at the front). My house is gas centrally heated and has a living flame fire in the living room (a gas engineer told me recently that the type of fire I have requires no air brick ventilation?!). The dining room at the back is the original stripped and polished flooroboards with plenty of gaps for ventilation! Can I block some of the air bricks at the front of the house to aid insulation and if so, how many? (They are standard brick size).
Thanks for reading

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

You must not block any vents under the floor, they are there to provide ventilation to the floor joists. The way to reduce heat loss and draughts is to insulate between the joists immediately beneath the floor boards. Sometimes its possible to insulate from below rather than taking the floor boards up if the void beneath the floor is big enough to crawl around. Thick carpeting has very poor thermal resistance.

The Forum is littered with posters who have had to replace all of their floor joists as they have gone rotten directly due to a lack of ventilation.

 

[foxhole]

You need good ventilation to avoid condensation and mold.