Gerald Ross said:

Greg G. wrote:

Idiots built an entire subdivision and stuck ventilators in all the
bathrooms for show - but failed to vent them anywhere. After years of
use, the owners call with complaints of the sheetrock seams/tape
peeling off. Although it is obvious as to why, I'm not sure what the
best solution is. I've already found dead wall space and installed
metal pipes from the lower floors, and am now hooking up flexible pipe
to the upper floor bathrooms. The problem is the external vents. I
don't want to chop 4 holes in the roof, and getting at the eaves for 4
eave vents is problematic/impossible. (Too small w/ 6/12 pitch
W-Rafters on the inside, and 45 feet in the air on the outside.)

I'm considering running all of them together to one large roof vent,
but I'm concerned about blowback back into other bathrooms (yeah, they
do have some cheap-ass flapper), and the distance (condensation
dripping back) on some. As well, no one sells a 4 into 1 collector
for this purpose. Got any good ideas?


Might make a good intercom system as well.

Yeah, that's why I looked for a swept collector. Just like your
automotive exhaust pipe headers...

I once bought a house with a vent hood over the stove. I could see the
vent in the roof. But in the attic there was nothing going to the roof
vent. They had piped the vent hood into the boxing over the cabinets
and forgot it. The house was about 15 years old. When I cut a hole
and connected the pipe to the roof vent the vent hood worked much better.

Funny how that vent thing works out. eh?
They generally work better when hooked up.
Unfortunately, they didn't install outside vents, and retrofitting
cornice or wall vents would require ripping out the interior ceilings
for access. The ceilings have some weird-ass texture that was manually
applied with a 6-lobed sponge tool that no one sells anymore, and
blending in repairs is difficult - been there, done that. Even then,
there isn't room for a cornice vent, and the ceiling joists are only
2x4s and feed directly into the soffit. The only options are eave
vents or roof vents - and the only thing the BORGs sell are dryer-like
4" wall vents. They ran all the real builder supply stores out of
business, and you can't get anything around here anymore unless it is
a top 500 seller. Like a vent assist fan for HVAC ductwork - which
was also improperly designed and installed. I've never seen anyone
install 4" heating ducts on a 20' run to two remote bedrooms before.
Rooms which, incidentally, freeze in the winter and smolder in the
summer. Egads - I thought they had software for modeling this - I do.

The problem with the vents is that in winter the "air beaters" move
hot, moist air from the baths into the attic where it immediately
condenses the moisture onto the ceiling and insulation. Additionally,
they covered the fans, and vent connections, with blown in loose-fill
insulation, so it's a soggy, black mess.

And then there is the pile of 2x4s I picked up while installing more
6.5" roll fibreglass insulation. The attic had 2.5 - 3" of blown in
loose-fill - in places. And no existing vapor barrier, either. The
pile of 2x4s were supposed to be a nailing flange for the bathroom
ceiling around a stub wall. I counted 26 odd nails, and not one hit
anything but air. Just a pile of debris. Sheese...

I don't know what these people had in mind when they built this ****,
but I'm sure increased "return on investment" was the primary
motivating force behind this development project. 20 years old and
crumbling fast. You should see the house next door. Woodpeckers
living in the rotten parts and the guy ignores it. Damned McMansions.
My first house was built in the early 60s, was only 960 sq. ft., and
yet it was built like a tank. Hardwood floors, ductile iron sewers,
actual diagonal plank sheathing.

But that's progress...


Greg G.