What's This Vent?

DampCat

DampCat

DampCat

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Joined
26 Feb 2007
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Location
Leafy Cheshire
This is a 1996 house, and theres a vent in the outside wall that appears to go.. nowhere? As far as i can tell, it goes between the floors in a spare bedroom.

It fell off in the wind today, and now im wondering why it's even there. I cant see any signs of there having been any damp issues, and this seems like a mighty big vent to deal with that?

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It's on the opposite wall to the cooker and hood but I suspect that the layout has changed where they've taken out this whole wall and put in a conservatory. Is there a way I can check where it goes using rudimentary tools? It's definitely not near any bathrooms.

Man this house is harder work than my last one. Trying to figure out why people have done things is a nightmare heh.
 
You have a very similar house to mine (same brick). Mine was built 1996 too - Wainhomes.

I had the same vent and as per above, it was the old kitchen extractor. The new vent now goes out of the side of the house. I took the old vent out and bricked it up.
 
DampCat said:
This is a 1996 house, and theres a vent in the outside wall that appears to go.. nowhere? As far as i can tell, it goes between the floors in a spare bedroom.

It fell off in the wind today, and now im wondering why it's even there. I cant see any signs of there having been any damp issues, and this seems like a mighty big vent to deal with that?

pdVD944.jpg


vp11SbL.jpg


Aar1HKp.jpg
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Is it a Barratts House? Looks very similar to my old place.

If so, it would have been the cooker hood vent, in my old place the original cooker was on the wall between the Dining and Kitchen, but I knocked out this wall and moved the cooker to side elevation wall, sounds like same has been done at yours.

My old house for ref:

 
Thanks guys. Even the old owner doesn't know what it is but confirmed it's not part of an old cooker. There's a low vent for the tumble dryer nearby so not that.

At a loss here. Got a gas engineer in tomorrow so I'll ask him and if he doesn't know then I'll stuff it with something and see what happens. If it all seems fine in a couple months i'll fill it in.
 
The fact there's a load of cobwebs maybe says it's just a basic vent out in and it's not for a cooker or boiler vent etc.
 
DampCat said:
Thanks guys. Even the old owner doesn't know what it is but confirmed it's not part of an old cooker. There's a low vent for the tumble dryer nearby so not that.

At a loss here. Got a gas engineer in tomorrow so I'll ask him and if he doesn't know then I'll stuff it with something and see what happens. If it all seems fine in a couple months i'll fill it in.
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Upstairs bathroom? Downstairs toilet? Ensuite?

That's all they're used for (generally) and obviously cooker hood extraction.
 
So you think it would come out in the ceiling/floor space between ground and first? It generally would be unlikely to do with something on the upstairs (unless it's a generic air vent like the brick vents you get). It would be more likely to be something that was vented that was downstairs as typically you vent up and out. It's possible an old kitchen vented up into the ceiling and out through ducting to this vent to extract fumes. Or an old downstairs toilet. I guess it's possible it was a tumble dryer placed upstairs that vented down and out.

Can you lift floor boards on the upstairs floor where it comes in?
 
We have a similar looking vent going in to our dining room. It's there because our oil fired boiler is in a cupboard in that room, and it's required for air flow.
 
jaybee said:
So you think it would come out in the ceiling/floor space between ground and first? It generally would be unlikely to do with something on the upstairs (unless it's a generic air vent like the brick vents you get). It would be more likely to be something that was vented that was downstairs as typically you vent up and out. It's possible an old kitchen vented up into the ceiling and out through ducting to this vent to extract fumes. Or an old downstairs toilet. I guess it's possible it was a tumble dryer placed upstairs that vented down and out.

Can you lift floor boards on the upstairs floor where it comes in?
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Merely asking really.

Tbh, I have a vent out the dude of the house (downstairs loo), one pot the back by the door (guessing hob) then a flu put the front (for that boiler).... We then have two on the roof! I assume one of the bathroom extractor, no idea what the other is :p

Edit: the one by my back door is the hob exhaust from the kitchen at the front of the house, down on the plans
 
It's definitely an outlet, not an inlet, so I would not worry about it. It's either a kitchen or bathroom fan. Nothing else it could be really. I would just stick a new vent on there, since it will be difficult to repair the old brick. Incidentally, those bricks are really hard. They will tear apart any masonry drill in seconds. Better not to drill it, just glue it.
 
It's nowhere near any bathrooms and according to the last owner the cooker has always been where it is. There's a tumble vent near the floor in that same room, and the boiler has its own vent on a different wall.

I have a heavy duty SDS drill and masonry bits that would do the job, and indeed did do the job when I replaced the tumble vent that had been glued on, so I've filled it with some packing material just to see if anything happens. I'll also check with the heating engineer also to make sure.

If nothing happens, I'll foam it up and cap it.
 
Like I say, our good extractor at the front of the house vents out the back.

Just wake up on a cold morning and vent out from one of the rooms, you'll soon know :p
 
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