Grill cover in kitchen floor, what is it for?

dharm999

We have bought a house, that has a 6 inch square grill in one corner of the kitchen floor, that looks a bit like a drain cover. The house was built around 1930, and the square grill is in front of where the fireplace (now boarded up) was in the kitchen. Has anyone any ideas as to what this is for?

Thanks

phill99

Picture?.....

dharm999

Am back there tomorrow, will upload a picture then

Owain_Moneysaver

It might be a drain cover.

It might be a vent for air for the fire.

missbiggles1

Do you have a cellar?

Plumber90

Do you have any radiators in the house as it could be warm air heating if you don't

Gordon_Hose

It's for sweeping the blood of your dead enemies down it.

missprice

Air vent for gas fire. Sub floor underneath provides the fresh air.

cyclonebri1

missprice wrote: »

Air vent for gas fire. Sub floor underneath provides the fresh air.

It's actually the sub floor void that is vented to outside that provides the fresh air, at least that's the pedantic answer:D:D

I too agree, ex mass murderers house, Fred west once live there?, :A:A:A

PasturesNew

It probably floods to a height of 3' every 4 years .... and that's how they sweep the water/muck out of it each time.

Evil_Olive

If it's not something that was put in as part of a gas installation as suggested above, it could be a feature installed for the original coal burning fire.

I installed one of these recently in front of my open coal fire.
Open fires suck air from the room and rest of the house via door/window frames to feed oxygen to the flames which can cause drafts in the room - having a grill directly in front of the open fire means that the fire sucks the air from under the floor, through the grill, directly in front of itself rather than the whole room/house. Voila! no drafts .
Also, some 1930's/40s/50s fireplaces had special sunken ash pits and under-the-floor/grate ventilation - was the height of tech at the time

It sounds like a charming feature, but if you're thinking of removing it I'd get a professional to check whether or not it's still performing an important function ventilating the blocked off chimney before you do.

If you still have a chimney breast and it's been blocked up, it needs to be ventilated - completely blocking off a fireplace/chimney with no ventilation grill can cause terrible damp problems. Usually a small grill will be let into the new bit of wall blocking the fireplace but it's possible your floor grill is doing that job if it has a shaft into the old chimney. This is more likely if you don't have some kind of a grill in the front wall of the chimney breast.

Hope this helps