Room Vents Query - no piping

Mumser

Our house is nearly 20 years old. The room vents are holes in the internal and external walls, a little under the size of the standard vent cover. There is no piping between the two vent covers.

From research on Boards, I am thinking that perhaps we should have a 4 inch pipe between the covers and this should be sealed somehow.
Can someone confirm this please? Is it likely to impact the heat lost through the vents? I know we need to look for other draught sources and check our wall and attic insulation too. I just wonder if it will be worth the effort trying to fit the piping or if there are other reasons for such piping?

Finally, the grills on some of the internal vent covers are dusty/grimy. I plan on cleaning them but I wonder if this may have impacted the release of condensation from rooms? I'm talking about normal living and bedroom vents not bathroom etc.

Thanks for any help.

jmBuildExt

Mumser wrote: »

Our house is nearly 20 years old. The room vents are holes in the internal and external walls, a little under the size of the standard vent cover. There is no piping between the two vent covers.

From research on Boards, I am thinking that perhaps we should have a 4 inch pipe between the covers and this should be sealed somehow.
Can someone confirm this please? Is it likely to impact the heat lost through the vents? I know we need to look for other draught sources and check our wall and attic insulation too. I just wonder if it will be worth the effort trying to fit the piping or if there are other reasons for such piping?

Finally, the grills on some of the internal vent covers are dusty/grimy. I plan on cleaning them but I wonder if this may have impacted the release of condensation from rooms? I'm talking about normal living and bedroom vents not bathroom etc.

Thanks for any help.

The pipe between the inside and outside wont make much difference in terms of heat loss (i.e. you will still have a hole in your wall, except it will be neater)
Lots of houses were built like that, where they basically just busted a hole in the wall and covered it with a vent.

What you may be referring to is a demand controlled vent, which opens and closes when it detects moisture going up and down. If fitting these it would be obviously wise to tidy up the hole in the wall with expanding foam/mortar/air tight tape etc.

Re the internal grills. I'd doubt the dust/grime was having a significant effect on how much air was being passed between rooms. But cleaning them would be no harm.
Are you having issues with mold?

listermint

The pipe between inside and outside is actually pretty imperative because all your doing is running draught inside the cavity. This can result in draughts and air getting in between plasterboard and down behind skirting and so on.

Ideally you have ventilation from the room to the outside uninterrupted.

In rooms without fireplaces or stoves you can have an adjustable vent for mine I have very neat circular 100mm vents with adjustable door that closes over.


Again later if you decide to add some mechanical external to internal ventilation or moisture reactive vents these can be added much easier to a 4 inch pipe layout than the classic open to cavity ventilation they used to do.

Alkers

jmBuildExt wrote: »

The pipe between the inside and outside wont make much difference in terms of heat loss (i.e. you will still have a hole in your wall, except it will be neater)

IT will make a massive difference if you have a cavity?

Mumser

Thanks for all the responses.

Yes, we have cavity walls. We do have a little bit of mold in one or two places. I am mainly researching since we have great difficulty heating our house. I know further investigation into our insulation is needed.

Calahonda52

jmBuildExt wrote: »

The pipe between the inside and outside wont make much difference in terms of heat loss (i.e. you will still have a hole in your wall, except it will be neater)

As listermint has said, this construction makes a hugh difference to heat loss.

The way I make the pipes airtight on the inside is to use airtightness tape, cut into strips and taped from the inside of the pipe to the plaster board, making sure the tape does not come past the line of the wall vent, else it will be seen.

LenWoods

Mumser wrote: »

Thanks for all the responses.

Yes, we have cavity walls. We do have a little bit of mold in one or two places. I am mainly researching since we have great difficulty heating our house. I know further investigation into our insulation is needed.

If your ever changing the windows;
You can get a letter box vent fitted in the window frame which eliminates the requirement to have a 4" vent in the wall provided there isn't a fire or stove in the room,
Any room with a stove or fire still needs the 4" vent,

We fitted triple glazing with letter box vents; I've since foamed up and plastered the redundant vents

RobbieMD

LenWoods wrote: »

If your ever changing the windows;
You can get a letter box vent fitted in the window frame which eliminates the requirement to have a 4" vent in the wall provided there isn't a fire or stove in the room,
Any room with a stove or fire still needs the 4" vent,

We fitted triple glazing with letter box vents; I've since foamed up and plastered the redundant vents

Just be mindful that window vents are fine during the day but are essentially redundant once the blinds and curtains are drawn.

LenWoods

RobbieMD wrote: »

Just be mindful that window vents are fine during the day but are essentially redundant once the blinds and curtains are drawn.

Good point I never thought of that as personally I have venition blinds

BryanF

https://www.housing.gov.ie/housing/building-standards/tgd-part-f-ventilation/technical-guidance-document-f-ventilation-2019

Mumser

Thanks for the link BryanF.
I was only yesterday searching those regulations to help with another problem but then and this morning I don't seem to be able to see the contents of the file.

Looks like I need to go get some training to keep (or get) my house in shape