floor grates in bungalow?

misswilsonuk

Hi All

We're in the process of purchasing our first home and are complete DIY novices (so we're getting tradesmen in to do most of the work)

The house we're buying is a converted bungalow. The underneath of the house's solum was unsealed so we're getting a contactor in to seal the solum and replace and rotten timbers (none came up in the contractors report but just incase they find any)

The house has an open grate in the kitches and two of the bedrooms about a foot long and 8 inches or so wide. What are these for?

I'd rather not have to keep them as think they will let in the cold! Especially since one is in the room the baby will sleep in

The house has central heating installed about 9-10 years ago- were these there because they were needed before? or something to do with the solum?

Who knows....just looking for a bit of advice really as don't want to just carpet over them and pretend they are not there!

Thanks in advance

martinthebandit

Er, whats 'solum'?

And no google is not my friend on this

hethmar

Ah, blessed be wikipedia:although it doesnt help a lot Id ask your builder this question.

In Scottish law, the solum is the area of ground that lies inside the walls or foundations of a building.

jc808

How big is this Solum? Is it just a small gap? A crawl space? A full cellar you can walk about in?

The vents are probably for allowing air to circulate in the void

misswilsonuk

Sorry, should have clarified - thought I was being dumb not knowing what a solum was!

Yeah it's a very tall bungalow I think the underneath of the house is probably about 3-4 feet tall.

Do you think we would need to keep them once the solum has been sealed and now that there is central heating in?

aliasojo

Could there have been hot air blow heating installed previously? The floor grates sound very much like the grates we had with the hot air heating, there were solid hoses that went under the floor from the heater to the outlet points (the grates).

When our new heating was installed, everything else was taken away but the grates were left. We eventually laid new subfloors and got rid of them.

ormus

are they like this one?
a typical johnson & starley gas fired warm air system.

aliasojo

Ah that brings back memories ormus. Ours were identical. (Electric hot air heating though, not gas in our case.)

keystone

misswilsonuk wrote: »

The underneath of the house's solum was unsealed so we're getting a contactor in to seal the solum

Why? Its been like that since the house was built, the house was designed with it like that. Why spend your money on something that probably doesn't need doing?.

The house has an open grate in the kitches and two of the bedrooms about a foot long and 8 inches or so wide. What are these for?

I agree that they are probably left over from a warm air heating system - particularly if the property was built in the 70s.


Cheers

ormus

aliasojo wrote: »

Ah that brings back memories ormus. Ours were identical. (Electric hot air heating though, not gas in our case.)

when i first met the wife, she had her own flat with warm air heating.
the only thing it was fit for was drying clothes. it was brilliant for that.
as a means of heating a flat, it was next to useless.

aliasojo

And expensive!