www.ultimatehandyman.co.uk

Hi all, expertise needed!

In the hunt for causes of heat loss, I've just discovered something odd.

Our 2007 brick-cavity house has two 9x9" exterior air bricks which have square, terracotta ducting going through both wall 'skins' and butt up roughly to the INTERIOR plasterboard wall. Inside it's dot'n'dab but the ducting doesn't appear to vent directly into the dot'n'dab cavity apart maybe from via the rough edges of the duct - see photo. This causes two REALLY cold patches on the interior wall and surely isn't standard practice.... is it?

The house is cavity wall construction with polystyrene bead cavity insulation from new (no signs of retrofit). It has everything else you'd expect... under-floor air bricks on the other exterior walls, weep vents over cavity trays, windows with trickle vents.

So is this standard practice or a design flaw?

Since these bricks can't be providing much ventilation to anywhere, can they be safely blocked up?

Thanks
1. View from inside the airbrick of the back of the interior plasterboard


Air brick exterior

When I had double glazing and cavity wall insulation put in I had to have an air vent because I might have a gas fire or log burner installed, perhaps same provision in yours.

From other videos I have seen I suspect that the air brick was put in, and as it was a rush the plasterboard was just put over the top on the inside, no hole cut, just "well they wont notice"

It was common for houses with an open fire, gas fire, or gas flame effect fire to have an air brick. If the fire was removed, or never fitted the air brick may have been covered in by plasterboard. The test of this theory is if you have a fire breast and if there is evidence of a capped gas pipe adjacent to it.

DWD