Airbricks???? Any advice.

[flirtygirl]

Hi I currently have airbricks/vents in most rooms in new house. The cold comes in quite a lot. The old windows had no trickle vents but the new ones will all have them.

Am I correct that I can remove the airbricks as no gas fires, etc.
Any advice on removal would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks

Following. I’m paranoid that if I seal them it might create a mould situation, but equally seems unlikely with trickle vents.

I was just going to fill with standard filler and paint...

I thought air bricks were to let air into the sub floor area, so trickle vents in windows won’t do this? Our recent extension has both.

There are sub floor ones, but lots of 50s/60s/70s/80s houses also have them in the top corner of rooms

I had them in my last house & asked if we could block them up but landlord said no it could cause damp/mould. Not sure if they were just saying that to be cautious or if it really can but I didn't risk it anyway.

We had airbricks in the bedrooms of our1930s house. When we skimmed the walls we blocked them up and removed the grills. No problems with damp but we do keep the rooms aired and centrally heated.

I think you should be ok to remove airbricks in upstairs rooms, but removing or blocking the ones that vent under your downstairs floors will result in wet rot in the joists.

Thanks for your replies. I'm asking about the ones in the top corner of a 1950s house.

I think to removed the ones in a top corner of a room should be ok. If you do this and find it causes issues, I would get a PIV ( positive input ventilation) it’s a unit that draws warmer air from the loft and circulates it around the house. They need to be installed by a experienced ventilation professional and not any electrician as an assessment of the property is needed.

Do you mean they are causing draught?

You can put "hit and miss vents" over them with 4 screws. If you find ventilation is then insufficient you can easily open them again. You can also open them, say, in summer.

Cheap and easy.

Some people like to throw buckets of water at the walls, or drape wet washing on radiators which amounts to the same thing, and these people are doomed to damp. Maximising ventilation will help a bit.

OP - mine too are in the top corners of a 50s house. I have decided to tape plastic over them and seal them over the winter (when ventilation is more likely needed) and see if this causes an issue/damp, and if it doesn’t I’m going to chip off the inside protruding bits and then fill them flat.

an example of a hit and miss vent.

it slides half an inch to open or shut.

cheap, easy, neat.

Wow that is cheap, thanks Piglet John and everyone.