Air bricks

[Marmitelover55]

Hi - still trying to get to the bottom of why my new kitchen extension is cold. (Sorry pigletjohn haven't tried the thing with the plinth heater yet but will tomorrow).

We have a suspended timber floor in both the old and new parts of the house. Most of the air bricks for the new part are hidden under the deck which is the same level as our floor. However, two of the air bricks on the long outside wall of the extension are above floor level and are behind our kitchen cupboards. Is this right? Shouldn't they be below floor level, so helping to ventilate the subfloor and not bringing a very cold draught into our kitchen? Thanks.

They probably used to ventilate a pantry or food cupboard that has since been removed, to keep it cool and fresh.

Assuming the roof does not have a gas fire, open fire or stove, easiest thing is to fix Hit And Miss vents over them. Available from DIY sheds or Screwfix.

Hello.
The air bricks installed above floor level on the new extension, will most probably be there to ventilate the wall cavity to prevent damp.

Hope this helps.

But not if they go right through the wall and into the kitchen.

Hi - sorry just to clarify the air bricks are in the new extension and I think are meant to ventilate under the floor, together with the other ones which are lower. The kitchen has been fitted in front of them so its hard to see if they go right through wall but will look back at the building photos to see if I can see. I remember them being plastic and telescopic.

were they Z-shaped?

I've had a look through photos and not sure! I don't remember them being z shaped and unfortunately don't have an external pic of outside wall. Internal shot looks like they would end up under the floor...will try and post pics

Here

The one with the drain pipe shows the height of deck/floor and air brick above this level. Pigletjohn I think you must be right about the Z shape for these 3 side wall air bricks. I don't think I saw these ones before they went in the walls, just the other ones. It doesn't make sense otherwise. Thank you!

No idea where draft is coming from then...

• draught. Sorry you have to actually click on the photos to be able to see deck/floor height.

there might be draught-gaps between the floor and the walls. One of the purposes of skirting boards is to hide this gap. You could perhaps stuff it with mineral wool, as used for loft insulation. Get the brown variety, treated with Ecose (is will be on the wrapper) which does nor shed irritant dust and fibres. I will never use yellow fibreglass again.

Thank you pigletjohn - there are very small gaps under the skirting boards in some places, so I will try that

The builder came back today to have a look. Apparently they have voted us "customer of the year 2013" - not sure if this is because we looked after them well when they were here or because we are their most profitable ever client ...hoping the former...

Anyway, he is going to have a go at filling the gap between the floor and walls behind the kitchen units (no skirting boards) with expanding foam. He is then going to caulk gap between skirting board and floor in the rest of the extension. Fingers crossed for elimination of draughts.

Oops 2014 not 2013