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my house is freezing and we are spending a fortune on heating. there is a gale blowing through from the airbricks under the sub floor and I'm debating either temporarily blocking them for this next freezing spell or fitting some sort of cowl type thing.
we are a corner house so get z bit of wind and have 9 what look like original air bricks (1930s place)
really stupid? sick of cold toes (through slippers!)
Don't do it, they're there to stop your joists rotting. Bigger job, but you should consider pulling the floor up and insulating between the joists. Or you could overboard the existing floor with thin ply to stop the drafts/fill the gaps - smaller job but less effective.
I think you can get some sort of internal baffle?
Keep meaning to look into this myself TBH. Good luck.
What are you floor coverings ?
We have wooden floors with large rugs in most rooms but a fair bit of exposed wood. Installing underfloor insulation between the joists as honeybadgerx describes has made a big difference. There was enough space under our floors to get down and do it - nasty job though so got a firm to do it via a grant from the Energy Saving Trust. Not sure if this scheme is still running (Scotland).
most rooms are carpeted, hall is original strip wood you can feel the gale through (big rug down) and kitchen is laminate.
insulating the floors is probably the long term answer. I was only planning on doing something temporary for this week. even if I only block half on them on the side the wind comes from.
That being the case ..just do it .
You are sending shivers just reading that with snow falling as we speak ..
Not sure blocking some vents would make that much difference. It’s probably not wind that is really the issue but convection drawing in cold air.