Air Vent Issues

Soldato
Joined
19 Apr 2009
Posts
3,159
Evening All,

I own a Victorian apartment which has some damp issues I am working through fixing. In December we had the walls taken off the front room to resolve some moisture ingress which was down to an old vent not being covered up, this meant moisture and cold air was going down the back of the plaster boards.

This got me thinking that there is the exact same vent in my dinning room and that is suffering similar issues (condensation/cold etc).

Suspect Vent
1n9PLNa.jpg

Inside the vent (you can see the plaster board).
eZ5icGg.jpg

I know old buildings should breath but this seems a little excessive. Does anyone have any ideas how I can can cover this up temporarily to see if it makes a difference and not cause any issues?

Thanks for any help,
Matt
 
Soldato
Joined
13 Jun 2011
Posts
6,012
Evening All,

I own a Victorian apartment which has some damp issues I am working through fixing. In December we had the walls taken off the front room to resolve some moisture ingress which was down to an old vent not being covered up, this meant moisture and cold air was going down the back of the plaster boards.

This got me thinking that there is the exact same vent in my dinning room and that is suffering similar issues (condensation/cold etc).

Suspect Vent
1n9PLNa.jpg

Inside the vent (you can see the plaster board).
eZ5icGg.jpg

I know old buildings should breath but this seems a little excessive. Does anyone have any ideas how I can can cover this up temporarily to see if it makes a difference and not cause any issues?

Thanks for any help,
Matt

temp fix you could try and mastic something over the vent but would be near impossible to get a perfect seal

Fill it with expanding foam or brick it up for a perm fix.

Had to do something similar myself. Previous owner moved boiler from kitchen to loft and just put a thin metal plate over the 100mm hole in the wall inside (assume to stop spiders etc getting in) could actually feel a draught around the plate. Where it wasnt sealed properly.
 
Soldato
Joined
1 Jun 2013
Posts
9,315
What other ventilation is in that room? Old buildings like to breathe, and covering up vents can often lead to moisture and condensation. You might have to actually put a vent back in there. Maybe you could test be cracking open a window on a semi-permanent basis, and if that improves things, try re-enabling a vent there?
 
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