Too many airbricks?

[ForkH4ndle]

Hi all,

We have a 1890s terraced property in the UK. It has gone through many changes over its lifetime including once being two flats.

Towards the rear of our house on a side wall we have 4 large airbricks all above each other (see attached). These cause the cavity of this section of wall to get very cold on the inside wall as the prevailing wind blows in. None of the neighbours have these airbricks, so I preume they are a later addition. Any ideas why they might have been installed? Any idea if they are still needed?

We have had the downstairs two rooms knocked through but these airbricks appear to line up with roughly where the room divide once was. Prior to us moving in the previous owners removed a Victorian chimney breast from this section as well. There was also once an upstairs and downstairs kitchen around about here when it was two flats, so there could have been two gas boilers/fires/cookers.

Any thoughts on why such large airbricks have been added would be appreciated.

 

[Leofric]

Could be combustion air bricks if the rooms had heating appliances.

 

[ForkH4ndle]

Could be combustion air bricks if the rooms had heating appliances.

I had wondered about that. There doesn't seem to be any evidence there was a hole in the inner wall too. Could the air have been pulled from a non lined up hole through the internal wall?

 

[stuart45]

Airbricks were often used on older properties to vent the cavities, but they were found to cause cold spots in the wall. Usually there was one at the bottom and one at the top.

 

[ForkH4ndle]

Airbricks were often used on older properties to vent the cavities, but they were found to cause cold spots in the wall. Usually there was one at the bottom and one at the top.

Yeah, these are more than the standard airbricks (we have those too). The Victorian ones in our house are metal grilled and so easy to differentiate.

 

[bobasd]

remove them and brick up with second hand bricks. tooth out the openings, dont have vertical mortar lines.

ther's a 9" x 3" air brick just above te DPC - follow the white cable all the way down.