air brick in wall with no cavity - can it be filled?

straygoat

Hello

I live in an old house that has solid walls (no cavity) and is on a busy main road. I have just had a bedroom fitted with insulated boards and acoustic boards on top, but now have a problem - there are two air bricks in the bedroom, and the internal side has been removed and covered with a closable vent. This is okay for stopping any draughts, but the noise that comes through is pretty bad and makes the sound boards pretty much redundant. The builder was reluctant to fill the bricks in, but I got the impression he wasn't too sure how to handle the problem.

Can anyone tell me if it is okay to have them filled in? We did used to get damp from condensation in the room, but this is likely to be because there is no extractor fan in the upstairs bathroom. Would it be better to get a fan fitted in the bathroom and then have the air bricks filled in (on the inside)?

Thanks

straygoat

Thanks. My gut feeling is that the air bricks were upstairs to combat the moisture from the bathroom, but that can be solved now. I'm going to see if I can get another builder in to patch up the holes and plaster them.

anotherbaldrick

Do you have trickle vents over the windows in the room, have you double glazed ?

straygoat

Yes, there is new double glazing with different thicknesses of glass to alleviate the noise issue. There are no trickle vents for the very same reason.

If I blocked up the air bricks and damp became an issue, could I just put air bricks somewhere else upstairs?

sk240

the easiest way would be to have trickle vents installed into the window, alternatively you could make sure you leave your bedroom door open as much as possible which would reduce the humidity

straygoat

Would having trickle vents installed mean the frames would have to be replaced? Or is it just a case of making a cut in the existing frame?

anotherbaldrick

I would suggest blowing the air brick full of expanding foam and covering it over, put a super silent fan in the ceiling of the bedroom (constant running 2 speed) as :- http://www.ice-cleaningexperts.co.uk/product/wall-extraction-fan/ and run the extract duct pipe in the roof space to discharge through the eaves on the back of the house. This fan is only rated at 10dbA which is quieter than a gnats f@rt will give you about 1.5 air changes /hour on low , 3 on boost.

straygoat

That sounds like an excellent idea!

straygoat

Although I have hyperacusis, so a gnat's fart to you might sound like a rhino's fart to me.

nickj_2

you could use something like this

anotherbaldrick

straygoat wrote: »

Although I have hyperacusis, so a gnat's fart to you might sound like a rhino's fart to me.

Lumee, that's Concord taking off.