Is it possible to drill the ventilation duct and make changes to the design of the ventilation shaft?

Thinking about how to increase the area of ​​your housing due to the ventilation duct? But are you worried that such a decision can have negative consequences? Become an offender because of a few square centimeters do not want to. Is that right? So is it possible to intervene in the design of the ventilation shafts and how can this threaten?

We will help you find answers to all these questions - in our article we will talk in detail about whether it is possible to drill a ventilation duct or subject it to other structural modifications. We will also dwell on the main regulatory acts governing this issue.

Purpose of the ventilation duct

Ventkorob is part of a ventilation system designed to maintain comfortable and safe living conditions in housing by removing harmful substances (for example, carbon monoxide), moisture, carbon dioxide outside the building. Its performance is supported by a service organization that regularly has to conduct professional examinations and mine cleaning.

In addition, a ventilation system is necessary to maintain optimal or acceptable microclimate parameters in every residential or public building. This is stated in one of the most important specialized documents, which is GOST 30494-2011. It also lists the requirements that must be met.

At the same time, air exchange in housing and a number of premises for other purposes must be present without fail. This is stated in SP 60.13330.2016.

Inside the duct there is a common ventilation duct (indicated by the number 1) and several air ducts that are designed to remove odors, harmful substances, other sewage from neighboring apartments (indicated by the number 2)

It is forbidden to make any changes to the common ventilation system, as this leads to a decrease in security, living conditions and is therefore considered an illegal redevelopment. What the state is actively fighting, as well as regional authorities.

For example, in the capital, for this purpose, the Moscow Government Resolution, known to many violators, was published No. 508-PP. Where it is said that unauthorized redevelopment is illegal, and most importantly, dangerous, therefore they are unacceptable.

And for those who plan to find some loopholes, the city authorities have created a list of operations that cannot be performed. So, the document prohibits legitimizing procedures such as reducing the cross section of any ventilation duct.

It seems to the apartment owners that ventilation ducts take away their living space. But this is not so, because without air ducts, housing will no longer be suitable for people to live

In addition, all ventilation systems belong to common-house equipment, that is, it equally belongs to all residents of the house. This is stated in Art. 36 Housing Code.

As a result, it can be argued that it is impossible to drill a ventilation duct located in an apartment or other room.

And that's why:

• For personal use of common house property, permission should be obtained from all other co-owners. Moreover, no exceptions are provided. But at the same time, the neighbors are not entitled to give permission for redevelopment, especially illegal.
• The redevelopment should be coordinated with the local housing inspectorate, but this state body will not even accept the request for permission to change the design of the ventilation system.

At the same time, violators cannot rely on any concessions, easing legislation, or legitimizing retroactively.

What does the law on interference in the ventilation system say?

As we said, the ventilation system is key to a safe and comfortable stay. And most importantly - it is usually common to a whole group of rooms. Therefore, these engineering communications should be protected and taken care of their performance and efficiency.

But in practice, everything is different. For example, ventilation ducts often interfere with some residents. It seems to them that this design occupies their precious centimeters, of which there are not many.

Any ventilation duct is part of a single building ventilation system that provides the removal of harmful substances, moisture, at least from several apartments

As a result, many homegrown "homemade" trying to extract from ventkorobov any benefit. Why drill the ventilation shaft, without even thinking about whether this can be done and whether such actions are safe.

Such a procedure, harmful to the ventilation system, is performed not for entertainment, but with the aim of:

• place some objects (for example, paintings, other decor items, hangers, horizontal bars);
• pass wires through the channel of the ventilation system - for example, there is a place to install a washing machine, but there is a ventilation duct between it and the outlet, which you can simply bypass, but for some reason, craftsmen drill a structure into a thin plastic tube through which wires are laid with they help to connect the machine to the power grid;
• reduce the size of the ventilation duct, etc.

When performing the above illegal operations, it is not taken into account that the construction of the box is far from power. That is, it is not intended to cope with any significant loads, including vibration during the same drilling. For example, often a ventilation box is a self-supporting structure that accepts a load only from its weight and is not designed for any vertical loads.

This is the method used to create ventilation shafts in buildings built in accordance with the requirements of the P-44 project. But this is the largest series of residential panel houses.

The photo shows an apartment building, built according to the project P-44. Such buildings are well known to Muscovites, residents of other regions. Since these are the most common panel houses in Russia.And their peculiarity is that the ventilation box there is a self-supporting structure, which only walls support from falling. Therefore, violating the integrity and reducing the efficiency of the ventilation system is quite simple

Therefore, when drilling holes, the ventilation box structure is damaged, which leads to its weakening and upsetting. As a result, wires, pipes illegally laid through the boxes are often damaged. And to avoid this, experienced intruders make oval-shaped holes. And everything would be fine, but even one additional hole made may well lead to cracks and other troubles.

And given the fact that today ventilation systems are often affected by a much greater actual load than the estimated load (the use of fans, hoods affects it), then everything can turn out to be big problems. For example, holes, cracks, and even thin tubes for wires inside can lead to the formation of a zone of high pressure.

As a result, back thrust will occur, which means that:

• harmful substances (for example, carbon monoxide), moisture, unpleasant odors will not be removed from housing;
• Additionally, everything listed in the first paragraph may fall into the room from other apartments.

In addition, not only the residents of this apartment, but also the neighbors may suffer from the actions of the intruder and backdraft.

Changing the design of the ventilation duct can adversely affect the health of the intruder, his family members. And most importantly, neighbors suffer from illegal redevelopment

But the worst thing is not even that a conflict may occur with other residents, representatives of the management company or local housing inspectorate. By their actions, the violator will provoke other irresponsible citizens using the same ventilation system to do the same. What is fraught with the appearance of disassembled sections of ducts, cracks, fractures and other things.

The result is deplorable - because of the inefficiency of ventilation systems, residents of thousands of Russian high-rise buildings suffer. Moreover, because of this reason, dozens of tragedies occur annually in buildings equipped with gas appliances. Read more about ventilation requirements in rooms with gas stoves we wrote here.

Consequences of unauthorized drilling of the box

Before you start drilling a ventilation shaft, you should think about whether there is rationality, practicality and benefit in such actions.

Having started drilling a ventilation box, a person automatically becomes an offender. What are the penalties that may be imposed right at the place of the offense?

Employees of a body such as the housing inspectorate are responsible for the legality of the use of housing. Who are granted wide rights to impose sanctions on violators

So if the landlord still decides to perform these illegal manipulations, he can get the following advantages:

• Satisfy your curiosity - often people drill a mine to see what's inside. But there is nothing interesting behind the wall of the duct, since you can only find inlet ventilation ducts from several apartments, and one common duct designed to divert polluted (exhausted) air masses outside the building.
• Arrange a place to place something on the surface of the box - shelves, paintings.
• Add a few tens of square centimeters of usable area.

That is, the standard of living, its comfort will not change significantly. Although some tactical advantages from a design change are quite possible.

Before starting any manipulations with the boxes, the possible consequences should be taken into account:

• Violation can be detected and will have to pay a fine. Reason for this Art. 7.21 Administrative Code of the Russian Federation, where it is said that it will be necessary to transfer 2-2.5 thousand rubles to the budget.Employees of the local housing inspectorate are entitled to impose a fine.
• The ventilation box design will need to be restored to its original state - the consequences of redevelopment will have to be eliminated. And this is not so simple - in some cases you will have to contact the organization that made the ventsystem project, which is unprofitable.
• It will be followed by a court appeal that in case of untimely or poor-quality elimination of deficiencies, the managing company, housing inspectorate or neighbors are entitled to do so (with the aim of increasing the amount of penalties).
• If you ignore all the above requirements, a sale of housing will follow to eliminate the consequences. This is rare, but examples are known. The specified procedure is performed on the basis of Art. 87 Federal law 229-FZregulating the scope of enforcement proceedings.

As a result, the negative consequences can significantly exceed the benefits. In addition, practice shows that housing with damaged boxes costs 10-20% less than with serviceable ones.

Conclusions and useful video on the topic

The video material tells about what happens when the owner of the room violated the integrity of the design of the ventilation duct and this was revealed.

Drilling ventilation ducts is opposed by legislation, public opinion and even common sense. The reason is that this redevelopment will not give any cardinal advantage, but it will reduce, and in some cases significantly, the comfort and safety of living. Microclimate parameters will worsen, which often leads to various diseases, including asthma.

Have you encountered the issue of violating the integrity of the ventilation duct and want to supplement the above material with useful information? Or do you still have questions? You can express your opinion, share experience, ask advice from our experts and other users of the site in the block below this article.