Air bricks even though walls are insulated?

Candy53

Well, an update, but not a good one.

My OH got a long screw driver, and put it in the air bricks, and there are 3, not 2. It went straight in! There wasn't any insulation, just an empty space. The front one was better, but these were at the side of the house.

The vents aren't slatted like the ones that go under the floor. They have large holes in them.

I was fuming. Then, I had an idea about asking the previous tenant, who lives in the same village, if it had been done, so OH went to see her. She said yes, it had been done, but it was a long time ago, and she couldn't remember when, but they did do it, and she said it took 2 days.

So, we know it was done, but it's of no comfort to us. It's gone! My theory is, that over the years, the damp, rain, and cold wind has gone straight in through air bricks, and disintergrated it. So we have no protection at all because the inside wall plaster has never even been skimmed since house was built, and it's in a terrible crumbly state, so cold will be coming straight through that. We don't know though if the insulation is supposed to last forever, or it needs redoing every so many years.


Candy.

DTDfanBoy

The insulation hasn't just disappeared, the air bricks may have originally had matching vents on the inside of the house which have since been removed.

My house 50's house had air vents in every room, I've removed the internal vents but the exterior air bricks are still in place, mine had a sleeve made from slate between the air brick and internal vent which prevented any insulation from entering when the walls were insulated.

GwylimT

Air bricks do not make insulation disintegrate, many houses like my last house had inner bricks butted up near air bricks so the gap inside the cavity was very small (eg 5mm), it is also common to block the vent inside but not outside, so you are most likely hitting an inner brick where the connecting vent used to be, completely normal. An EPC often assumes you have windows, unless given paperwork they cannot say yes to anything.

Furts

Candy53 wrote: »

Well, an update, but not a good one.

We don't know though if the insulation is supposed to last forever, or it needs redoing every so many years.
Candy.

In general terms the insulation can be thought of as almost ever lasting. The early foams are still in walls and the blown fibre is Rockwool, or similar is indestructible. The polystyrene beads should also last.

If one analyses this logically, CIGA issue a 25 year guarantee on all cavity wall insulation, so this is proof that the product should have a life well in excess of 25 years. If the products were failing, CIGA for all its many faults, would be rapidly out of reserves and go bust. That would benefit nobody because all the guarantees are then likely to be worthless and this could cause enormous political problems.