I live is in a house which was built in 1880. At some point after WW2 the houses were all extended to add a kitchen downstairs and a bathroom upstairs.due to this the old exterior wall is now an interior wall and contains an air brick which blasts a nice stream of cold air into the kitchen.
Can this safely be blocked up?

They are other air bricks at the front of the house going Into the main under floor area.

Thanks

If it’s just venting into the kitchen and you don’t need the airflow for a fire of some sort, then probably yes.

Are the air bricks arranged to allow cross ventilation of the underfloor space?

They may be needed if you have a boiler in the kitchen.

They may be needed if you have a boiler in the kitchen.

Would have to be a very old (>30 yr design), everything is fan assisted balanced flue these days.

Just check you have sufficient airflow into the room, otherwise condensation could lead to damp problems.

Thanks all.

The Combi boiler is less than three years so it won’t be needed for that.
The breeze effectively enters the front of the house, goes though the under floor and then exits into the kitchen via the vent. Clearly this would have been ok prior the the extension being built as it would have been outside.

The breeze effectively enters the front of the house, goes though the under floor and then exits into the kitchen via the vent.

Sounds like you have a duff extension. This should have been buried in a duct in the kitchen floor so it exits the house in the external wall. You use an S shaped pipe so the air from the under floor goes under the lower kitchen floor, through a pipe and the exits via a new air brick in the external kitchen wall, thus preserving air flow under the original suspended floor.

If you block it, you will reduce the air flow under the suspended floor which could cause damp and possible joists rot etc longer term.

Footflaps + many 😀

It was built around 1950 so unfortunatky they didn’t have google to look up a diagram.
Still not sure what to do 🙂

Still not sure what to do

Start a thread entitled “Rate my air duct burial attempt” and then start chiseling away at your kitchen floor, keeping us posted with regular updates….

is it venting an old chimney?