Install vent in master bedroom.

tonytiger81

Hi.

We renovated a mid terrace 2 bed council type house last year and are having serious problems with condensation in the main bedroom. There is one small vent on the large double glazing window which is next to useless. The bedroom has a fireplace which was boarded up and plastered over during the renovation last year and I am considering putting a vent into the board. The idea is that the draw of the chimney should help with the air flow. A local builder recommended placing one in the road-facing wall but this is mass concrete and could be a pig of a job.

An alternative I was thinking about was to do a ceiling vent with ducting up to and through the roof tiles (like a bathroom extractor vent).
I should also point out that the attic has fibreglass insulation but nothing below the actual roof tiles. (When I am up there I can hear birds flying by). A future plan would be to increase the attic insulation and possibly spray foam insulation below the tiles.

One final point: this house is mid terrace and one of the adjacent houses has been vacant for a number of years (derelict) so it feels like we have 2 external walls in the room.

Grateful for any advice,

T.

dathi

http://www.samhire.ie/drilling-breaking/item/62-diamond-drilling-system.html

hire one of these for weekend or get someone to do it for you

listermint

Core drilling is not alot of fun. Having drilled 14 cores on my house last year. Very doable but no crack at all.

As above you can rent the drill. If its in good nick and the clutch is working grand you can have a core done in about 10-15 mins. Then drop a cut of wavin 100-110mm pipe into the cavity and cut to size. mortar around the edges and drop in 2 grates, a closable one on the internal.

You may want to consider drylining that shared wall also

jmBuildExt

dathi wrote: »

http://www.samhire.ie/drilling-breaking/item/62-diamond-drilling-system.html

hire one of these for weekend or get someone to do it for you

Thanks for that - need to do this on an old council house i rent out.... didn't know you could get them to go through the steel re-enforced concrete.

listermint

jmBuildExt wrote: »

Thanks for that - need to do this on an old council house i rent out.... didn't know you could get them to go through the steel re-enforced concrete.

You can but it will eat the cores and those cores will of course be more expensive. (phone before hand to get a quote)

Sleeper12

listermint wrote:

Core drilling is not alot of fun. Having drilled 14 cores on my house last year. Very doable but no crack at all.

If it's a 4 inch core you'd need the patience of a Saint to do 13 holes. 30 minutes to an hour per hole if memory serves

Cantona's Collars

Don't forget to have a slight fall to the outside. So many get caught out that way and end up with moisture getting into the house due to an inward fall on the vent pipe.

tonytiger81

Thank you all for the advice. But before I go drilling the external wall is there no benefit to first attempting the easier option of a vent in the boarded up fireplace?

listermint

Sleeper12 wrote: »

If it's a 4 inch core you'd need the patience of a Saint to do 13 holes. 30 minutes to an hour per hole if memory serves

Patience, you need a long tether , and i was at the end of it a few times. I did 4 a day. couldnt handle anymore luckily mine were at bungalow height.

if you can get a RIG for the drill and fix it into the wall, i would urge you to do that. I did mine with no RIG and 2 ladders , one to steady the drill and keep it level the other for me standing on.

listermint

tonytiger81 wrote: »

Thank you all for the advice. But before I go drilling the external wall is there no benefit to first attempting the easier option of a vent in the boarded up fireplace?

No not really tbh vent should be at just below ceiling height about 300-400 mm from the ceiling.

height rises and the moisture from your breathing too. So it can condense on the ceiling area or the tops and surrounds of windows (whatever is coldest first)

Putting a vent on the floor is old school and outside of the convention of hot air rising. Just make your floor a bit draughty rather than being optimal tbh

tonytiger81

Thank you all for the advice. I'll look into the pricing for this weekend. Ideally i would like to dryline the inner aspect of the wall too but we've installed a fitted wardrobe into the corner area last year. Plan is to do the vent and if still not working we may have to dryline too.

DublinDilbert

I much prefer to use the 4x2 rectangular ducting, as a 4" waste pipe is generally far too big.

I also find it much easier/neater to cut a rectangular hole than a circle, by drilling out the corners and working my way around.

tonytiger81

Can anybody recommend a size and vent? I've read on another thread of ones with a membrane in the middle to reduce noise from outside. The room is approx. 4m x 4m with a built in wardrobe.

listermint

DublinDilbert wrote: »

I much prefer to use the 4x2 rectangular ducting, as a 4" waste pipe is generally far too big.

I also find it much easier/neater to cut a rectangular hole than a circle, by drilling out the corners and working my way around.

No chance, most good fan units are circular and the circular covers are neater.

Its not possibly easier to cut a rectangular hole than core drilling a circle.


There is a reason professionals do it this way. Your way is pretty old school tbh

DublinDilbert

listermint wrote: »

No chance, most good fan units are circular and the circular covers are neater.

Its not possibly easier to cut a rectangular hole than core drilling a circle.


There is a reason professionals do it this way. Your way is pretty old school tbh

Most rooms don't require a 4 inch pipe going through the wall, far too big. I've used core drills, they are very slow and messy. If you don't want to drill lots of holes and join with an SDS chisel, just a sabre saw blade to cut the brick/block.

Many of the round vent covers have baffles that clip inside the rectangular duct. Or just put a 3x9 vent cover on the inside.

If it's a brick finish on outside, cut the mortar around a single brick (sabre saw blade will do it in a minute ) then cement in a brick vent with coupler to the rectangular duct. You won't get quicker / neater than that.


https://www.lenehans.ie/oracstar-airbrick-flat-channel-adaptor.html
https://www.ie.screwfix.com/bosch-brick-sabre-saw-blade-240mm.html

listermint

This is a 4 inch waste pipe fitted. It's tiny.

It's roughly the same volume as cutting out a brick as you stated above. Only yours is rectangular.

It's easier to get fittings to deal with drafts and or controlled fittings when circular as they are so common.




http://i842.photobucket.com/albums/zz341/listermint/links%20to%20other%20sites/IMG_20180124_221426_zpsvdkp83wn.jpg

hooplah

I had these guys out to drill vents into my sitting room and master bedroom: http://topcap.ie/chimney_services/ventilation/air-vent-1-2/

We have mass concrete walls, the same as yourself.

I can't remember exactly how much it was but I thought it reasonable at the time.

They did the sitting room vent up towards the ceiling and the bedroom vent closer to the floor. If I was doing it again I would put the bedroom vent up to towards the ceiling too.

They were clean and tidy. They drill the hole and fit vent covers.

longgonesilver

Did you take the chimney off the roof completely?

If not it is recommended that a vent is fitted in the closed fireplace to help keep the chimney dry, unless more than one fireplace was using the flue.

Alkers

hooplah wrote:

I had these guys out to drill vents into my sitting room and master bedroom:

They quoted me 350e for two vents

_Brian

That chimney should never have been sealed up completely and itself will become a problem.

Putting a cent into it may indeed be the best course of action and kill two birds with one stone.

hooplah

Simona1986 wrote: »

They quoted me 350e for two vents

that sounds about right. Sorry, I don't have the quote or receipt to hand.

Like I said I regret that they put one of the vents close to the floor. We could have insisted we wanted it up high and if I was doing it again I would.

tonytiger81

Does anyone have experience of Glidevale moisture sensitive wall vents?. They open when a certain level of moisture is present to let more air exchange. Seems a better option on paper and they also have an acoustic reducing version which seems promising. Thanks