Is it REALLY necessary to have an airbrick when blocking up a fireplace

Slinky

We will be removing an old gas fire (disconnected) in a 1960s house and want to block up and plaster over the fireplace to have a completely flat wall. I see plenty of these on house renovation programmes where they've inserted an airbrick where the fireplace used to be, but if we can avoid it, I'd really like to do so as I don't like the way these look. If we have the chimney capped so no rain can enter, is it possible to avoid having to put in an airbrick?


In our present home we had the gas boiler removed which had a flue up a chimney through the house and out through the roof. We just plasterboarded across the bottom of where the flue went up into the internal brickwork and painted it. We've never had any issues with damp even though we haven't had the chimney capped. This was done 10 years ago. (The old chimney passes through the airing cupboard next to the hot water tank so it could be getting some benefit from that though).

DaftyDuck

Yes.
.........

Grenage

As above, you need to ventilate the space.

dickibobboy

I had this issue in my living room, to kind of get around it i used some 40mm pipe into the opening and under the subfloor into the cellar that is well ventilated. It seems to be working as i can feel the airflow when you put your ear to the pipe.

This was the easy route for me as i built a false front on the chimney breast to route tv cabling etc so it’s routed through that with a couple of 90 bends.

Relatives live a few houses down with exact same layout and just blocked up the flue from the old back boiler before plaster boarding the opening fully. Not had any issues *yet* and it’s been about 11 years.

Hoploz

I wonder whether if it's an outside wall, the ventilation could be external rather than into the room?

Slinky

Spending the afternoon reading up on this, I'm finding some reports of damp reacting with the chemicals produced when coal fires are burned that can cause an effect like acid rain within the chimney. I guess I'll have to see what state the chimney is in after it's opened up to find out whether it looks like it was originally a coal fire behind where the old gas fire is now.


Somebody else on another forum made a similar suggestion to yours dickybobboy, however ours is a concrete floor so unless we dig a ventilation trench somehow, I don't think that'll be an option.


Hoploz, it's on an internal wall unfortunately.



The really annoying thing is is that the fireplace isn't in the middle of the chimney breast, it's to one side, with an old boiler and flue in the adjoining room adding some width to the breast. So not only would we have an annoying vent, it won't even be central within the breast which is a good 8ft wide and will be providing no useful purpose anymore. I don't really like random, I'm happier with symetry.

Am now investigating decorative grills.....

EssexExile

Put something in front of it, stool, magazine rack, dog, etc.

illusionek

I was told by the surveyor when buying my Victorian house that if chimney breast is on the external wall then airbrick has to be put on the external wall never internal. I was also told that if chimney breast is on the internal wall then better not to have any vents at all rather than put internal. Apparently it has something to do with moisture in the air.

Slinky

That's interesting illusionek, ours is on internal walls.

FreeBear

Slinky wrote: »

WWe've never had any issues with damp even though we haven't had the chimney capped.

Get all the unused pots capped - Not only will it stop rain coming down, it will prevent birds falling in.

Slinky

FreeBear wrote: »

Get all the unused pots capped - Not only will it stop rain coming down, it will prevent birds falling in.

Although it's not capped, as in airtight, it's got a metal grill fitting with a metal cap over the top, the only thing likely to get in is insects.