Air Vents

Greystreets

Hi, I live in a 3 bed in charlesland court and when it is really windy the noise coming through the ventilation covers in the sitting room is hideous. Does anybody else have this and if so what have you done to sort it out?
(Please only submit sensible suggestions, obviously blocking it up is not safe).
thanks

Mullie

I blocked mine up. There was a gale blowing through both of them in the living room and the room was constantly cold. The dodgy seals on the front door provide adequate ventilation anyway.
If you want to reduce the flow just grab some of the excess insullation from the attic and half block the vent.

postmanpat69

I have the same problem but the sound is actually caused by the wind blowing up along the rain gutter. The sound can then be heard coming in through the vent....I invested in ear plugs as the only other solution was to block the vent which if you have gas installed in a house in a real stupid thing to do.

Hammiepeters

My Dad is a builder and he told me one time that if you block them up a house will rot.

Mullie

Hammiepeters wrote:

My Dad is a builder and he told me one time that if you block them up a house will rot.

Ooops! Better check that out. Surely leaving tne windows on the latch during the day would ventilate the house enough no?
I really couldn't leave them unblocked cause the draft was just ridiculous. I could never heat the house with the gale blowing through it.

loyatemu

there's 2 vents in our sitting room, but I'm guessing that is because the gas fire is in there (and its flueless). If you never use the fire then I'm sure you could safely block up one of the vents.

at the other extreme - in our main bedroom theres a vent on the outside wall but where it presumably should be on the inside its behind the built-in wardrobes - whats the use in that??

dubrunner

loyatemu wrote:

there's 2 vents in our sitting room, but I'm guessing that is because the gas fire is in there (and its flueless). If you never use the fire then I'm sure you could safely block up one of the vents.

at the other extreme - in our main bedroom theres a vent on the outside wall but where it presumably should be on the inside its behind the built-in wardrobes - whats the use in that??

We got vents that allow you to slide them across to block any potential hurricanes that may begin.

Can anyone explain why we all have FAKE chimney stacks?

Charlie-Bravo

Don't use slidy vents on the Living Room. The 'flueless' gas fire requires two vents to work properly...and I don't want to hear of someone in the neighbour croking it due to carbon monoxide posioning...

As for the fake chimbelies....houses look stupid with no chimney stacks! remember when you were a kid and use to draw a picture of a house. You'd always include a chimney (but with smoke coming out of it)!!!

dubrunner

astrofluff wrote:

Don't use slidy vents on the Living Room. The 'flueless' gas fire requires two vents to work properly...and I don't want to hear of someone in the neighbour croking it due to carbon monoxide posioning...

As for the fake chimbelies....houses look stupid with no chimney stacks! remember when you were a kid and use to draw a picture of a house. You'd always include a chimney (but with smoke coming out of it)!!!

In fairness we only use them in the bedrooms if the "hairdryer" is making too much noise while the nippers are going off to sleep.

I realise why they are still keeping them. I just mean that if they had built real ones, then at least we would have the option to put in a real fire. However timber frame houses could prevent this option. A sealed in brick unit could work.

Charlie-Bravo

Yes, I have considered having the slide vents in the bedrooms...but it will crack the paintwork! I've done too much painting in the last year to want to do anymore.

I think the main reason they opted for the flueless gas fires is that they don't have to build a chimneybreast at first floor level thus creating more room in the upstairs bedroom. Now for anyone who has the Living Room in the rear of the 2 Bed town houses, a chimney stack just wouldn't work...so it was a good move to give all units including duplexes/apartments the flueless type gas fire.

Mullie

dubrunner wrote:

Can anyone explain why we all have FAKE chimney stacks?

If I remember right, I think all the extractor fan pipes exit at the chimneys. Kitchen & 2 toilets.

Marcais

dubrunner wrote:

We got vents that allow you to slide them across to block any potential hurricanes that may begin.

Can anyone explain why we all have FAKE chimney stacks?

Because we have fake chimneys!

dubrunner

Marcais wrote:

Because we have fake chimneys!

Terrific explanation Marcais

Marcais

dubrunner wrote:

Terrific explanation Marcais

They are purely decorative. On a block of five houses here, there are 3 chimney stacks, so it's unlikely that anything is extracted that way.

Having said that some people have managed to make these fibreglass stacks functional by attaching satellite dishes to them, would like to be close to them in a storm.

Greystreets

dubrunner wrote:

We got vents that allow you to slide them across to block any potential hurricanes that may begin.

Can anyone explain why we all have FAKE chimney stacks?

Hi Dubrunner, can you tell me where you got the sliding vents covers from please.

By the way - classic sub thread started about the chimney stacks !