Air vent in floor

bubbleT

Hello,

We just moved I to an old house and found the living room has a vent in the floor. We do have a gas fire place but it has been disconnected. Do we still need that vent? We're getting new laminate done and would like to cover it up, as there's a constant stream of freezing air coming out of it. Would that cause any problems?

missile

If and when you re-instate gas fire you will need a vent.

bubbleT

Thank you! We won't re-instate a gas fire we are content with the central heating and will probably remove the entire old fireplace at some point.

troffasky

Assuming it's a suspended floor, check the state of the remaining ventilation before deciding to block it up. It maybe preventing damp problems occurring [or, it may be superfluous, and just a source of cold air].

EssexExile

missile said:

If and when you re-instate gas fire you will need a vent.

It depends on the power of the gas fire. We recently had an old gas fire replaced with a modern less powerful but more efficient one and the vent was no longer needed.

macman

Where in the floor? Near the outside wall?

jefaz07

missile said:

If and when you re-instate gas fire you will need a vent.

This isn’t correct. Most inset fires are rated below 7kw so no ventilation is required. 

bubbleT

macman said:

Where in the floor? Near the outside wall?

It's right next to the fireplace, but as we live in a terraced house it's technically also next to an outside wall, because of the pathway between the houses to access the garden.

Apart from that we have trickle vents in the windows so there should be still some ventilation?

EssexExile

The only way to know if you have enough ventilation is to live in the house and see how it goes. Personally I'd cover the vent, there are plenty of other ways of getting ventilation if needed.

bubbleT

EssexExile said:

The only way to know if you have enough ventilation is to live in the house and see how it goes. Personally I'd cover the vent, there are plenty of other ways of getting ventilation if needed.

Thank you, I feel the same  

I wonder if this would need any extra work other than just putting the laminate over it? Does it need to be filled up somehow or should underlay and laminate do the job for such a small area?

rach_k

I would leave it.  If you lay the laminate around it and refit the cover, you can put something between the underfloor and the inside to stop the air flow so the room is less draughty (a piece of muslin worked for us, but you could try something more substantial), but it will be easy to remove that if you or future owners ever want to have a fire or if you find it causes ventilation issues.