How to fill in old wall vents?

lanakiri89

Hi team, any suggestions to filling in these old vents?

My thoughts were no gap seal, then mesh tape, then multipurpose filler ?

Thanks in advance

Alana

Jason

Welcome to Bunnings Workshop. We're really pleased to have you join the community and trust you'll get loads of help and inspiration for all your projects around the house and garden.

This is a popular question and most community members in the past have recommended not to cover them as they have been installed for a reason. Check out the responses in the following posts:

How to seal these vents in my house?

How to cover wall air vents?

Can you block the air vents in an old brick house?

Please let us know if you have any follow-up questions. We look forward to reading more about your projects and plans.

Jason

AlanM52

Hello @lanakiri89,

As @Jason said this is a popular question which usually pops up during the winter months.

That is not a 'old house' and neither is the vent.

However if you wish to fill in or block off that vent you are OK to do that.

You can do the same in other rooms/areas but for any those that have wet/damp/humid conditions I would leave them as they are - don't fill in or block.

My preference unless there is a specific reason is to leave room vents as they are.

Starting a discussion about room vents will take longer than it does to read War and Peace 🙂

Cheers

R4addZ

Hi @lanakiri89

So this will probably draw a number of opinions but the two main points to consider are 1/ damp/mould, the design of the house can depend on these vents to mitigate damp which can (will) lead to mould which at it's worst can render your home uninhabitable! 2/ In a lot of circumstances, these vents were installed due to a gas bayonet being installed in the rooms for unflued heaters and without these vents they can be lethal due to carbon monoxide. If you are going to try and block these vents and there are interior gas bayonet connections, it is imperative that you have the bayonet connections removed and capped off! Failure to do so could lead to criminal covictions even if you have subsequently sold the property and something happens!