I have 2 air vent brick in kitchen, can I block one ?

[Feeby76]

Hi, I hope you can help me. I have a combi boiler and gas hob in kitchen. The kitchen also has 2 wall air brick, on at top of wall and one at bottom behind kitchen cupboard. they both let in so much draft, my question is do i need both ?

Can I block the one at the bottom? if you open the kitchen cupboard the draft is terrible and we get all sorts of spiders coming through that one. The house is an old house, previous owner was old lady that only had coal fire and no gas to property, we updated it and put in boiler, cooker etc, the vents are there from previous owner.

Please help.

[jenty]

ive had all mine blocked up when they put the insulation in the walls

[lslowry]

I had my airbricks blocked up when i had a new combi boiler the British Gas man said i didn't need them. I suppose it depends on the boiler. I should take advice from a central heating engineer though Feeby cheers.

[KARL]

Beware that even if only one "expert" says the central cooling installation (my concept of these absurd things) must be in place, then if nothing else your insurer might invalidate your policy if it is blocked - even if you want to claim for something else (easy way out of a claim, yes, I don't think much of insurance companies), never mind if it was something directly related to the gas installation. This is one of the unfortunate aspects of having anything gas fired in your house. That said, if the boiler is independent of air from the cooling system then you would be OK to block them. If you ever want to rent out your house then you must have a landlord's certificate for the gas installation - that would soon tell you. These things cost £30-45 to obtain from a registered gas installer.

[terence7556]

what is the size of your kitchen in cubic metres? and do you have a gas oven as well as the gas hob
also do you have any doors or windows in the room?
you do not need any purpose provided ventilation if the room is bigger than 5 cubic mts. or has an openable door or window providing changes of air for the hob
if you have an gas oven as well you need 100cm square vent for under a room of 5 cubic mts and 50 cm square for a room between 5-10 cubic metres. i am assuming the boiler is room sealed.
if you have an openable door or window then you meet building regs. requirent for ventilation purposes for a room.
if you meet those requirements i dont see why you can,t cover up one of the airholes and monitor what happens as regards any other things such as condensation increasing .

[rov1200]

Why trust to luck? For less than £20 you can buy a carbon monoxide detector from Tesco etc.

[whiskeryron]

I would suggest that you do as I did for both vents, make a small frame with picture moulding & cut hardboard to size, either screw to wall using wall plugs ( which can be removed if neccessary) or glue to wall. With either method you can paint finished job.