Improving sub-floor ventilation

[Anonymous]

Hi Surveyor in his reposrt said that air circulation beneath timber floor is inadequateas there are not enough vents in the external walls and sub-floor ventilation need to be improved. Would that be expensive , messy job ? Who would be the best to do such a job, a local builder or specialist company ? Any advice welcome. He said it was VERY URGENT MATTER ...

 

[Anonymous]

this is what was said to our buyers in November (We moved in Dec). Basically, current building regs specify 1 wall vent for every 2meters of wall. Therefore old victorian and other properties do not meet current regs. If your walls are brick just buy however many airbricks you require (cost us about £3.50 each) and remove relevant number of ordinary bricks from wall and install. In the good old days buildings were so draughty that this was all that was required, but with fitted carpets etc more are now required.

A builder can also do this for you and it shouldn't cost much. Can also be useful to fit a floor vent (cost about £10 from diy) in the floor for extra ventilation.

 

[Anonymous]

Provided you can get access to the outside of the wall below interior floor level, it's a fairly quick, easy job. Any competent builder should be able to do it for you, at reasonable cost.

I reckon that's the first time I've ever used the words "builder" and "reasonable cost" in the same sentence!

Why did your surveyor emphasise urgency so much? Did he find evidence of rot under the floor? If not, then - while you shouldn't delay the job unreasonably - a week or two isn't going to make a whole heap of difference.