Air vents

ian103

Just spent a few hours 'spring cleaning' the house, we have an issue with mould which we are trying very hard to combat - loads of ventilation, use of a dehumidifer and we have now moved the furniture a litle further away from the wall.

However I found 3-4 minor areas of mould which I treated bleach and generally cleaned up.

My question relates to the plastic grilles over the air bricks, should they now be shut? The ones we have are only 2 years old and are of a white plastic but the small vent holes are black and theres mould growing on the grille. Not really sure how the air bricks work as they are effectively a squared or round hole through the wall - no filter or baffles. I have been looking for accoustic baffles, do I also need to look for a vapour control as it appears that damp is coming through the vents?

dampdaveski

Ian,
Keep them open and vacuum the vent, the black might just be muck

I fit Ultrovent passive vents on a fairly regular basis, they have a vapour check and have a degree of acoustic 'enhancement'

Suppliers of these are as follows
http://condensationproducts.co.uk/aspbite/categories/index.asp?intCatID=88&content=ultrovent_passive_condensation_control_ventilators

http://www.dampexpert.com/products/Ultrovent.html


Triton sell them too but they don't have an online shop

There are other makes out there but I only tried them the once!

I should point out that you really shouldn't consider buying one of these if you're expecting them to do great things, they are only there to increase a bit of back ground ventilation

Hope that helps
DD

Avoriaz

dampdaveski wrote: »

...Keep them open and vacuum the vent, the black might just be muck....

If that doesn't work, it is usually easy to remove the vent, wash and dry it and replace it.

I have recently done that to ours and it took about ten minutes in total.

ian103

i tried the hoover and it improved it but not totally clean so the remove and wash is next.

my only concern is there was mould on the plastic which to me indicates cold / condensation which is why i wondered if there should be a vapour block or something similar, plus as a previous post i would also like to introduce some accoustic baffle to prevent noise transfer. dampdaveski's link shows a filter but they are very expensive at nearly £30 a go and I need 3!

it may just be easier to fit a nuaire type positive ventilation system as the air would the going from inside to out.

dampdaveski

I'm fitting between 1 & 3 drimaster units every single day at the moment.
This in my opinion is the most cost effective way to control condensation as a 'whole house solution' and far far cheaper than running a dehumidifier.

you could consider the envirovent unit, which is a good unit and most definately works just as well as the nuaire unit (no better) BUT they are so ridiculously overpriced it is offensive in my opinion.
There is the lofty unit, they have a couple of versions one is a 99 speed version with a remote control fob, the units works but I personally think it's a bit 'heath robinson'

If you need any more info just let me know
DD

victorlaszlo

Hi,

If you already have the passive vents, can you fit the filter alone in one of them?

It looks like a plastic block, in case the diameter is wrong I suppose it can be cut to the same diameter...?

Thanks V