Adding bathroom vent

[96Firebird]

How difficult is this? My master suite has a window, but I keep it closed with the curtain closed almost all the time because it is a large window and if I'm walking out of the shower you can see it all... Problem is, there is no vent fan so the moisture gets trapped. My closet it in the same area as the bathroom, so I put a hanging bag that collects moisture in there and it's filling up pretty quick.

I know I'll need to run electric to the fan and install another switch. Can the exhaust go out through a roof vent, or do I need to exhaust it out the side of the house through the siding? Any other concerns I should look into?

 

[Greenman]

I don't know if you can vent through the roof in snow country, it doesn't seem like a good idea, but I don't really know.
I'm sure there is someone here that lives in the frozen wasteland and will have a definitive answer for you.

 

[paperfist]

It's on the second floor?

I had a couple of contractors look at under construction bathroom and they suggested venting to a roof vent. I wanted to duct it to the side wall and vent it there, but the run is too long.

You know you can frost the glass so people can't see your junk?

 

[Blain]

Vent the fan Out The Roof

 

[Billb2]

Where I live (Chicago suburbs) you can only vent through the roof

 

[Greenman]

Doesn't the vent get buried under snow and stop working?

 

[nakedfrog]

The hot air being vented out usually results in a patch of my roof that's got no snow on it... the vent points downward along the slope angle of the roof.

 

[Scarpozzi]

In my one story house, I am converting a laundry to a half bath. I installed a vent fan a few weeks back. I am fortunate because I have 2x4 rafters on 24" centers. I climbed up in the attic and cleared the insulation, marked the fan box and cut the drywall with a keyhole saw....then slid the nailers in-between the rafters and attached them.....caulked the edges of the plastic case to the drywall and ran my electrical (was installing new can lights at the same time) since I was relocating my washer/dryer plumbing to the other side of the room.

I used a 4" round vent duct and ran it out the side of my house 10 feet above my new dryer vent on the gable.

 

[DrPizza]

Doesn't the vent get buried under snow and stop working?

No.

OP, you can vent through the roof, or out the gable end of the house. I think the gable end is considered ideal if it's close enough. Through the wall is okay if you don't have a vented soffit above. I'm unaware of a code in NY that says "roof only." It would seem, at least to me, that in the colder months, venting moist air upward for 2 stories in the case of a lower level bathroom is going to lead to a lot of that moisture condensing and going right back down the vent pipe to the bathroom. Code in NJ also allows the bathroom to be vented out the wall; just not under a vented soffit. Also, I believe code says you can't vent to a walkway (or crawl space, or attic, or ridge vent). AFAIK, code says you cannot vent at a vented soffit - the problem in the video linked above. So, it's not that it *has* to be through the roof, but it can't be next to the vented soffit for the obvious reason in the video. And, would think that you would want its own vent all the way out the house - that is, I don't think you can tie it into, say, the sewer vent in the attic with a wye. Code says "directly to the outside."

Also, though I didn't when I installed a vent recently, from what I understand, putting the vent on a timer is good practice. Otherwise, people tend to turn it off while it is still needed to exhaust humid air.


Here, found this: http://thehtrc.com/2013/getting-details-right-bathroom-exhaust-venting

 

[Scarpozzi]

No.

OP, you can vent through the roof, or out the gable end of the house. I think the gable end is considered ideal if it's close enough. Through the wall is okay if you don't have a vented soffit above. I'm unaware of a code in NY that says "roof only." It would seem, at least to me, that in the colder months, venting moist air upward for 2 stories in the case of a lower level bathroom is going to lead to a lot of that moisture condensing and going right back down the vent pipe to the bathroom. Code in NJ also allows the bathroom to be vented out the wall; just not under a vented soffit. Also, I believe code says you can't vent to a walkway (or crawl space, or attic, or ridge vent). AFAIK, code says you cannot vent at a vented soffit - the problem in the video linked above. So, it's not that it *has* to be through the roof, but it can't be next to the vented soffit for the obvious reason in the video. And, would think that you would want its own vent all the way out the house - that is, I don't think you can tie it into, say, the sewer vent in the attic with a wye. Code says "directly to the outside."

Also, though I didn't when I installed a vent recently, from what I understand, putting the vent on a timer is good practice. Otherwise, people tend to turn it off while it is still needed to exhaust humid air.


Here, found this: http://thehtrc.com/2013/getting-details-right-bathroom-exhaust-venting

There are often codes about how many feet (typically 3') from a window these vents can be as well, if they are coming out of a wall. This is something you may want to read up on and consider.

 

[Aikouka]

I was originally planning on doing the same thing as my master bathroom doesn't have a fan either, but I ended up replacing the one in my main bathroom instead. (The master bathroom is smaller as it is, so I mostly use the main bathroom.) The main bathroom had one in it, but it never seemed to vent well. I never saw any sort of venting in the attic for it, so I assumed it was just tossing everything into the attic, which I wasn't keen on.

I had some people replace it as I wasn't super comfortable with cutting into my roof (I don't have any soffits), and when I asked how the previous one was venting, the guy said, "it was venting into its own box." "Oh, so it was some sort of box in the attic?" "No, it was just swirling the air around inside the box." I must say... everything that gets fixed on my house always ends up filling me with such confidence in regard to how the rest of it was built/altered.

Anyway... the one thing I can say about a roof-vented vent fan is that you can hear the pinging of the rain when it hits the vent. That's really the only negative that I can think of.

 

[Scarpozzi]

Anyway... the one thing I can say about a roof-vented vent fan is that you can hear the pinging of the rain when it hits the vent. That's really the only negative that I can think of.

I always thought that kind of sound was soothing. Btw...if you want to try to dampen that sound, you could look into foam rubber aerosol sprays like this one:

http://www.target.com/p/as-seen-on-...gclid=CPSLze3Xh84CFYYjgQod-JECOQ&gclsrc=aw.ds

Climb up on the roof with some sandpaper....scuff up the surface, dust it off, and spray the metal with a heavy coat....let it dry and hit it again a little later on. That should at least dampen the sound.

 

[96Firebird]

After looking at all considerations I think my best bet would be to vent out the gable. The bathroom is on an exterior wall and it would be easy to vent out the gable, and it sounds easier to install than a roof vent. There is a half-bath right below this bathroom and it does have a vent fan, but I don't know where that goes...

Just to give an idea of my master bathroom, here is an image (red is window, blue is shower, green is closet):

And here is what the outside looks like, the window is circled and you can see the garage roof is against the wall where the bathroom is:

I think it would look the best if I put the vent at the peak of the gable, but I'd have to measure how far that is from the shower...

 

[tracerbullet]

I think I'd just run it where it is easiest. A peak my have a lot of truss work or other wood in the way. Bath vent fans are fairly low profile, I don't think it'll stick out too badly. If it's not -too- far of a run maybe have it go out the roof on the backside? I'm not sure what the limits on distances are. The longer the run and the more twists and turns there are the worse it will perform.

 

[paperfist]

After looking at all considerations I think my best bet would be to vent out the gamble. The bathroom is on an exterior wall and it would be easy to vent out the gamble, and it sounds easier to install than a roof vent. There is a half-bath right below this bathroom and it does have a vent fan, but I don't know where that goes...

Just to give an idea of my master bathroom, here is an image (red is window, blue is shower, green is closet):



And here is what the outside looks like, the window is circled and you can see the garage roof is against the wall where the bathroom is:



I think it would look the best if I put the vent at the peak of the gamble, but I'd have to measure how far that is from the shower...

Is there an attic above the bathroom?

If not to exhaust through the gable you'll have to snake the duct up the center of the room and over the joists to the gable. The roof option while not the easiest DIY project just requires going straight up through the roof.

 

[DrPizza]

There are often codes about how many feet (typically 3') from a window these vents can be as well, if they are coming out of a wall. This is something you may want to read up on and consider.

Yes, I forgot about that. Heh - we're slowly working through remodeling the house. 2 rooms done. What was formerly a sun room/mud room/laundry area became our dining room. That necessitated moving the washer and dryer. After doing all the work for plumbing, and poorly planning where I was going to vent the dryer, I realized that the dryer vent is perfectly in line with the chimney on the exterior wall. So, for the past 4 or 5 months, not only has it been within 3 feet of the window, my dryer vent IS the window. (12"xwidth of window plywood, hole cut in center for the vent to pass through.) That window is invisible to any neighbors, as it has a chimney on either side of it. It's likely to become a non-window when the remodeling gets that far through the house; and become a master bedroom walk-in closet with washer and dryer inside. Heck, moving the washer and dryer (or rather, finally installing the new washer and dryer that we had purchased a year before) required us to not only remove the door and door jam to the room it's in, but we also had to remove one of the 2x4's in the framing for the door. It fits into our master plan for the house though.

 

[96Firebird]

There is an attic above the shower, with access to it from the closet. I'll try to get a picture of that space, I don't think the run would be too long to the peak of the gable...

And I just corrected my previous post, I'm thinking autocorrect changed gable to gamble on me...

 

[lupi]

I also have a bath on 2nd floor with just a window and really should look into this. My bath ceiling is directly adjacent to the roof so distance wouldn't be a concern. Cutting through the roof and fishing power though not something I'd enjoy doing. (This house had mid 1900 style ungrounded outlets so worried about upgrades needed for code just to install a vent fan.)