Newbie Q, first floor airbrick

[paulio]

Unsurprisingly I'm on a draft fixing run at the moment. In my first floor box room is an airbrick/vent that's showing as 2C where the surrounding wall is about 12C. With the back of my hand it's obviously cold.

On the outside of the house the airbrick is directly below the roof eve. What I don't understand is why there is also a vent on the internal wall. I've looked at some DIY products that have vents you can close, but given I don't know why it's there in the first place I don't want to simply close the vent off. Anyone provide, a probably obvious, answer to why it's there?

[Chris J Dixon]

There was a time when this arrangement was common (if not mandatory), to provide a certain minimum fixed ventilation.

Roughly what age is the property?

Are there any appliances taking their combustion air from within the room?

Chris

[John Rumm]

Add to that, are you in an area subject to high radon levels?

If the answer is no to all those, then sticking a hit'n'miss vent on the inside would seem like a reasonable way to reduce the ventilation when its excessive

[Dave Liquorice]

First fixing run of what? Ah draught... B-)

Ventilation, fresh air is good for you.

My bedroom in the 1930's semi I was born and dragged up in had a double air brick high up. This room had no fireplace, neither did the kitchen directly below, that also had a double airbrick. Rooms with fireplaces didn't have the air bricks.

Needless to say the one in my room had an old towel folded up and stuffed into the solid wall reveal blocking it off...

[Alexander Lamaison]

I asked a very similar question on here a few weeks ago, and the answer was that back-in-the day this was how it was done, but that it isn't considered necessary nowadays.

I still don't entirely understand what changed between back-in-the-day and now, but I've taken the advice on face value and stuck some of those cheapo plastic hit-and-miss vents over the hole. That way, if blocking the ventilation turns out to be a disaster, I can just open the vent.

Alex