Ventilation in 1930s houses - wall vents upstairs
 

Just a thought about the row of 1930s houses here (and others seen in the
past).

They seem to be generally built with air vent bricks near the ceiling in
upstairs bedrooms

I assume that this was for ventilation because most rooms had coal fires.

Again I assume that most of these have been blocked up over the years.
Certainly no trace of any inside our house.
I assume previous owners blocked them up.

All this got me thinking about ventilation.
With double glazing and draught proofing round doors and blocking up (or
not installing) fireplaces modern houses seem to have minimal ventilation.
This is generally a good thing to avoid heat loss, but can be a problem if
too much moisture is generated (drying clothes, cooking) with no air
exchange.

A classic problem which pops up on here from time to time.
Mould on the walls because people refuse to open windows because of lost
heat and the cost of heating.

I noticed today that the house is quite dry indoors.
RH of about 35%.
In the winter we don't leave windows open much, we cook a bit and dry
washing indoors.
The air outside is dry (cold air can't hold much moisture) so when it
comes indoors and heats up you have warm but very dry air.
This suggests that we are getting enough outside air in (doors opening and
closing mainly) to get outside dry air in and lower the internal RH.

Which brings me back to the start.
The original air vents are blocked up.
The open fires have been taken out (along with the chimneys) or blocked up.
There is an air inlet by the wood burner but that is more or less it.
Which makes me wonder where the outside air is getting in.

We do have bathroom fans to take steam from the showers out.
We do use an extractor fan over the cooker which vents outside.
So we shouldn't be waterlogged.
Just wondering why there isn't more moisture in the house.

Oh, most of the suspended floors downstairs have been insulated
underneath, so not much air coming up through the floors I suspect.

Ramble, ramble, ramble.....

Cheers


Dave R

--
AMD FX-6300 in GA-990X-Gaming SLI-CF running Windows 7 Pro x64

--
This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software.
https://www.avast.com/antivirus

Ventilation in 1930s houses - wall vents upstairs
 

On 10/01/2021 20:16, David wrote:
Just a thought about the row of 1930s houses here (and others seen in the
past).

They seem to be generally built with air vent bricks near the ceiling in
upstairs bedrooms

I assume that this was for ventilation because most rooms had coal fires.

Again I assume that most of these have been blocked up over the years.
Certainly no trace of any inside our house.
I assume previous owners blocked them up....

My 1930s house has quite a number of air bricks around it. They
ventilate the cavity wall, rather than the rooms.

All this got me thinking about ventilation.
With double glazing and draught proofing round doors and blocking up (or
not installing) fireplaces modern houses seem to have minimal ventilation...

Which is why the building regs now require windows to have trickle vents
in new builds and extensions.


--
Colin Bignell

Ventilation in 1930s houses - wall vents upstairs
 

I live in a house from 1939.It has no cavity walls. At ground level the air
bricks are below the floor, but have had to have gauze over them to stop
wasps. Upstairs the bricks are near the ceiling of all the rooms and the
bedrooms chimneys had gas fires fitted up from the coal fires downstairs.
There is only one chimney, but its brought from two coal fires below via
alcoves eith an arch. Blocking up the chimneys downstairs meant that the
bedrooms had a howling gale from the gas fires to the air bricks. The gas
fires were removed or blocked off and a special anti resonant cowling fitted
on chimney to stop the whole lot sounding like an organ pipe.
New the problem with the air bricks was that the ceiling curved at the
edges where the eaves are, and the only flat bit was the air brick so the
normally wide slide to cover devices could not fit as the sides hit the
curved ceilings. Hence we have a number blocked and others with temp bits of
cardboard stuck over them.
Luckily the loft is insulated, as before we double glazed we used to get
icicles on the ceiling due, no doubt to an oil heater we had in the hallway
kicking out water vapour.
No sign of mould but my bathroom really needs a fan over the air vent in
the winter as a nice hot bath makes the walls run with water at the moment.
Brian

--

This newsgroup posting comes to you directly from...
The Sofa of Brian Gaff...

Blind user, so no pictures please
Note this Signature is meaningless.!
"David" wrote in message
...
Just a thought about the row of 1930s houses here (and others seen in the
past).

They seem to be generally built with air vent bricks near the ceiling in
upstairs bedrooms

I assume that this was for ventilation because most rooms had coal fires.

Again I assume that most of these have been blocked up over the years.
Certainly no trace of any inside our house.
I assume previous owners blocked them up.

All this got me thinking about ventilation.
With double glazing and draught proofing round doors and blocking up (or
not installing) fireplaces modern houses seem to have minimal ventilation.
This is generally a good thing to avoid heat loss, but can be a problem if
too much moisture is generated (drying clothes, cooking) with no air
exchange.

A classic problem which pops up on here from time to time.
Mould on the walls because people refuse to open windows because of lost
heat and the cost of heating.

I noticed today that the house is quite dry indoors.
RH of about 35%.
In the winter we don't leave windows open much, we cook a bit and dry
washing indoors.
The air outside is dry (cold air can't hold much moisture) so when it
comes indoors and heats up you have warm but very dry air.
This suggests that we are getting enough outside air in (doors opening and
closing mainly) to get outside dry air in and lower the internal RH.

Which brings me back to the start.
The original air vents are blocked up.
The open fires have been taken out (along with the chimneys) or blocked
up.
There is an air inlet by the wood burner but that is more or less it.
Which makes me wonder where the outside air is getting in.

We do have bathroom fans to take steam from the showers out.
We do use an extractor fan over the cooker which vents outside.
So we shouldn't be waterlogged.
Just wondering why there isn't more moisture in the house.

Oh, most of the suspended floors downstairs have been insulated
underneath, so not much air coming up through the floors I suspect.

Ramble, ramble, ramble.....

Cheers


Dave R

--
AMD FX-6300 in GA-990X-Gaming SLI-CF running Windows 7 Pro x64

--
This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software.
https://www.avast.com/antivirus

Ventilation in 1930s houses - wall vents upstairs
 

In message , nightjar
writes
On 10/01/2021 20:16, David wrote:
Just a thought about the row of 1930s houses here (and others seen in the
past).
They seem to be generally built with air vent bricks near the
ceiling in
upstairs bedrooms
I assume that this was for ventilation because most rooms had coal
fires.
Again I assume that most of these have been blocked up over the
years.
Certainly no trace of any inside our house.
I assume previous owners blocked them up....

My 1930s house has quite a number of air bricks around it. They
ventilate the cavity wall, rather than the rooms.

All this got me thinking about ventilation.
With double glazing and draught proofing round doors and blocking up (or
not installing) fireplaces modern houses seem to have minimal ventilation...

Which is why the building regs now require windows to have trickle
vents in new builds and extensions.
Our Victorian much modified timber frame farmhouse did not appear to
have any original air inlets for the cooking range or the fire openings
in each room. Late '30's doors/windows were never a good fit but the
bedroom fire openings had been closed off and sliding vents fitted.
(point for the O/P; chimney condensation issues).



--
Tim Lamb

Ventilation in 1930s houses - wall vents upstairs
 

On 11/01/2021 10:21, Brian Gaff (Sofa) wrote:
I live in a house from 1939.It has no cavity walls. At ground level the air
bricks are below the floor, but have had to have gauze over them to stop
wasps. Upstairs the bricks are near the ceiling of all the rooms and the
bedrooms chimneys had gas fires fitted up from the coal fires downstairs.
There is only one chimney, but its brought from two coal fires below via
alcoves eith an arch. Blocking up the chimneys downstairs meant that the
bedrooms had a howling gale from the gas fires to the air bricks. The gas
fires were removed or blocked off and a special anti resonant cowling fitted
on chimney to stop the whole lot sounding like an organ pipe.
New the problem with the air bricks was that the ceiling curved at the
edges where the eaves are, and the only flat bit was the air brick so the
normally wide slide to cover devices could not fit as the sides hit the
curved ceilings. Hence we have a number blocked and others with temp bits of
cardboard stuck over them.
Luckily the loft is insulated, as before we double glazed we used to get
icicles on the ceiling due, no doubt to an oil heater we had in the hallway
kicking out water vapour.
No sign of mould but my bathroom really needs a fan over the air vent in
the winter as a nice hot bath makes the walls run with water at the moment.
Brian


Eek. How many Kilowatts of leccy do you use every year ?.
I seem to recollect that you don't have gas, and heating a
solid-walled, ?poorly insulated property with electric must
be difficult and expensive.

Ventilation in 1930s houses - wall vents upstairs
 

On 11/01/2021 10:20, nightjar wrote:
On 10/01/2021 20:16, David wrote:
Just a thought about the row of 1930s houses here (and others seen in the
past).

They seem to be generally built with air vent bricks near the ceiling in
upstairs bedrooms

I assume that this was for ventilation because most rooms had coal fires.

Again I assume that most of these have been blocked up over the years.
Certainly no trace of any inside our house.
I assume previous owners blocked them up....

My 1930s house has quite a number of air bricks around it. They
ventilate the cavity wall, rather than the rooms.

All this got me thinking about ventilation.
With double glazing and draught proofing round doors and blocking up (or
not installing) fireplaces modern houses seem to have minimal
ventilation...

Which is why the building regs now require windows to have trickle vents
in new builds and extensions.


been like that since at least the early 70's in Scotland
anyway...adjustable 3500 mm SQ trickle vent to the outside in a window
or an airbrick in the external wall....or a permanent vent above the
door into the hall....all min 2m above floor level...Englandshire bound
to be the same....

Ventilation in 1930s houses - wall vents upstairs
 

On 11/01/2021 13:50, Jim Stewart ... wrote:
On 11/01/2021 10:20, nightjar wrote:
On 10/01/2021 20:16, David wrote:
Just a thought about the row of 1930s houses here (and others seen in
the
past).

They seem to be generally built with air vent bricks near the ceiling in
upstairs bedrooms

I assume that this was for ventilation because most rooms had coal
fires.

Again I assume that most of these have been blocked up over the years.
Certainly no trace of any inside our house.
I assume previous owners blocked them up....

My 1930s house has quite a number of air bricks around it. They
ventilate the cavity wall, rather than the rooms.

All this got me thinking about ventilation.
With double glazing and draught proofing round doors and blocking up (or
not installing) fireplaces modern houses seem to have minimal
ventilation...

Which is why the building regs now require windows to have trickle
vents in new builds and extensions.


been like that since at least the early 70's in Scotland
anyway...adjustable 3500 mm SQ trickle vent to the outside in a window
or an airbrick in the external wall....or a permanent vent above the
door into the hall....all min 2m above floor level...Englandshire bound
to be the same....

No (to the latter).

Ventilation in 1930s houses - wall vents upstairs
 

On 10/01/2021 20:16, David wrote:

All this got me thinking about ventilation.
With double glazing and draught proofing round doors and blocking up (or
not installing) fireplaces modern houses seem to have minimal ventilation.
This is generally a good thing to avoid heat loss, but can be a problem if
too much moisture is generated (drying clothes, cooking) with no air
exchange.

A classic problem which pops up on here from time to time.
Mould on the walls because people refuse to open windows because of lost
heat and the cost of heating.

I feel sorry for landlords in this respect (i'm not one).

I see tenants ****ing and moaning in the local rag/Facebook etc about
'damp'. Especially the workshy ones who are in all day. Arms folded and
compo-face scowling at a mouldy wall.

We've a dehumidifier on in the room we dry clothes in and always crack
the upstairs windows open for a few hours while we aren't using the rooms.

If we don't we get 'damp', especially where there is furniture or
similar up against the walls.

Ventilation in 1930s houses - wall vents upstairs
 

On 11/01/2021 14:56, Andrew wrote:
On 11/01/2021 13:50, Jim Stewart ... wrote:
On 11/01/2021 10:20, nightjar wrote:
On 10/01/2021 20:16, David wrote:
Just a thought about the row of 1930s houses here (and others seen
in the
past).

They seem to be generally built with air vent bricks near the
ceiling in
upstairs bedrooms

I assume that this was for ventilation because most rooms had coal
fires.

Again I assume that most of these have been blocked up over the years.
Certainly no trace of any inside our house.
I assume previous owners blocked them up....

My 1930s house has quite a number of air bricks around it. They
ventilate the cavity wall, rather than the rooms.

All this got me thinking about ventilation.
With double glazing and draught proofing round doors and blocking up
(or
not installing) fireplaces modern houses seem to have minimal
ventilation...

Which is why the building regs now require windows to have trickle
vents in new builds and extensions.


been like that since at least the early 70's in Scotland
anyway...adjustable 3500 mm SQ trickle vent to the outside in a window
or an airbrick in the external wall....or a permanent vent above the
door into the hall....all min 2m above floor level...Englandshire
bound to be the same....

No (to the latter).
strange