External only air bricks

[SteUK]

Hi all,

Having moved into our first home, my partner decided she hated the nasty, badly made, 'falling to pieces' kitchen. So, we set about overhauling the whole room. After months of living like students, we have a lovely new working cooker are approaching the stage where we the extractor hood needs to be fitted.

Despite living here for months it is only with this task in hand that I have inspected the outside wall and found 2 air bricks that go nowhere! I am pretty sure that they were both for air extraction at one time or another but have been blocked over internally. From a quick inspection I think they are both not blocked up internally. Is this a concern? If so, should I go about removing them and replacing the brickwork? Or is there a way to block them up without removal? Maybe I could remove the closest one to our new cooker hood and hook up the ducting?

Thanks in advance!

Ste

Edit: Having just been outside and inspected closer (almost 1am with a mobile phone light!!), the 1 air brick is lined all the way through the cavity and mortared up internal wall side (internal wall is plastered over) - other than potential rain getting in, is this one a problem? The other one is not actually an air brick, rather a plastic vent covering what seems to be metal gauze. I think I have cavity wall insulation, could this be ventilation for this? Cheers!

 

[r896neo]

hey ste, congrats on the new kitchen! I assume the air brick that had a duct through to the inner leaf of the wall is quite high up? It would be best to remove it if so as you are esstentially bridging the cavity and could get damp as a result.

As you mentioned the best solution might be to knock it out enlarge the hole, and use the area for your new extractor vent. But unless you have been very fortunate it is probably not in the right place. If your ext hood is incorperated into a unit then run ducting along the top of the units to the hole.

This may not be possible due to many factors ie height of hole etc.

Otherwise get rid of it and replace it with a brick(s).