Grill cover in kitchen floor, what is it for?

cyclonebri1

Evil_Olive wrote: »

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

Yes, they can also fit the vent in the outside wall if it happens to be on one, that's the best option as there are no internal air currents, (draughts)

dharm999

Thanks to all that replied. Apologies for not getting back sooner, but have been busy sorting out a ceiling that came down in the house! The vent for a fire sounds like the right answer, but I have a couple of builders coming around to give me quotes for all the other thngs that need sorting out in the house. Hopefully they will be able to confirm what the grill is