I have done some renovations in the basement during the winter and became interested in what I believe are settlement cracks on one wall. But it struck me that it might be something else since there is a wood-clad opening from our boiler room.
I have no idea if there used to be a fresh air vent here before or if the guy who lived here made a big hole and then created some kind of vent.
The solution looks very makeshift now that I have removed a panel that was covering it. I won't show the outside or else I'll be embarrassed...
I can see that the plaster has started to come off around the wall as well. There was a vent grill in the boiler room when we moved in, but it doesn't fit in the hole, so it must have been left over.
So the question is whether the vent is even needed here. In the adjoining room, there is a vent, and even the flue pipe from the boiler has some vent that flies open during gusts of wind outside.
Either way, I don't want it like this. I'm just waiting for the wood cladding to start rotting or something else to come into the building.
What can one actually do with this? Brick it up/cast it completely or brick in a proper vent? It's brick and possibly something else in between. I would estimate the wall to be 20-30 cm thick.
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