Block up airvent or not? Advise please

James26695

Hi all, i have an airvent/airbrick in my kitchen at inside floor level which will be inaccessible from tomorrow (inside) as the new kitchen units will be in front of it. House is solid wall (no cavity) victorian brick/stone end terrace.
The vent is letting the cold in so i'm thinking of blocking it up. I have another air vent in the same room (higher level) which i'm going to replace the cover with a sliding one so can close it when its cold and ill have a new extractor fan with the new kitchen.
The air vent at floor level is not original to the house and has been put in more recent times by a previous owner.
Should i block the vent up to have a warmer kitchen? Once the heating goes off in winter it gets very cold very quick! I do get some condensation on really cold days in the kitchen (not from cooking as i've only owned it 5 months and been renovating it...So thats the dilemma....block it to keep it warmer or leave open to vent air...(even though it doesnt seem to be helping with condensation and i have another airvent /cooker extractor/big window) Any views most appreciated!

Slinky

Do you have a gas boiler in your kitchen? It needs ventilation otherwise it's burning oxygen you need to breathe!

jk0

I suspect the air vent is for the gas cooker, isn't it?


I wouldn't be blocking them up.

Fire_Fox

Air bricks and trickle vents are only one part of an effective overall ventilation strategy, ditto externally ducted extractor fans and windows. I would not be reducing ventilation when you already have condensation.

How and when you ventilate helps minimise the heat loss, maximise the water water loss, and keeps fresh air moving around your home. Warm stagnant air, damp or not/ poor indoor indoor air quality is increasingly recognised as a serious health risk.

Depending what you mean by very cold very quickly (how many degrees?) you might focus on insulating your kitchen better.

Do not underestimate the chilling effects of internal downdrafts from warm air hitting cold windows, or standing on a cold hard floor (ceramic tilles/ thinly covered concrete) in inadequate footwear.

HTH!

James26695

The gas boiler is not in the kitchen, its at the top of my cellar and vents to outside.

James26695

The vent is at floor level and nowhere near where the gas cooker was/will be when replaced. It will have its own extractor hood, and there is another air vent on the wall higher up and closer to the cooker then this vent in question.

James26695

I cant insulate the kitchen. I do know the importance of having good ventilation, it just seems like this particular vent at floor level really wont be doing much apart from letting in the freezing cold air in winter...its gonna be covered with my kitchen units so i need to decide weather to block it now or leave it. Like i say there is another larger vent on the wall (which i can open/close when needed, a new extractor for cooker, and a big window i can open whenever needed...

sevenhills

Bathrooms often have fans fitted to external walls if they have moisture issues, maybe block the vent and have another vent which is closable or a external wall fan.
I am not aware of any vents in my kitchen, but I do have closable vents in the bedrooms.

Fire_Fox

James26695 wrote: »

The vent is at floor level and nowhere near where the gas cooker was/will be when replaced. It will have its own extractor hood, and there is another air vent on the wall higher up and closer to the cooker then this vent in question.

A cooker hood has nothing to do with gas safety. :eek:

The vents were not installed on a whim, they had a purpose which may well still be relevant. Has your Gas Safe engineer cleared you to block any of them?

Fire_Fox

James26695 wrote: »

I cant insulate the kitchen. I do know the importance of having good ventilation, it just seems like this particular vent at floor level really wont be doing much apart from letting in the freezing cold air in winter...its gonna be covered with my kitchen units so i need to decide weather to block it now or leave it. Like i say there is another larger vent on the wall (which i can open/close when needed, a new extractor for cooker, and a big window i can open whenever needed...

A room that cannot be insulated would have no windows, doors, walls, floors or ceiling!

Mistral001

I put a vent in a room which had always suffered from condensation problems going back decades. It took a lot drilling and chiselling to make the hole in the wall for the vent. It solved the condensation problem completely.

If you decide to block it up, I would do it in a way that it can easily be reinstated.

Note it is a good idea to have more than just an extractor vent over the cooker in the kitchen as the air it extracts has to come from other rooms in the house, which means those rooms have to pull in air from the outside (i.e. drafts in those rooms). Having a second vent in a kitchen means that the supply air that the extractor fan pulls out comes from just the kitchen and not from other rooms.