On Apr 7, 8:26*am, N8N wrote:
On Apr 6, 9:51*pm, aemeijers wrote:





On 4/6/2011 10:02 AM, N8N wrote:

Was it ever acceptable by code to vent a bathroom fan to an attic? *I
was helping my cousin over the weekend with some minor renovations to
her condo - she wanted to replace the fan in one of the bathrooms, and
when I went up into the attic to unhook it I found that both it and
the one in the master bathroom were not vented to the outside, but had
a maybe 4' piece of dryer duct just tied to the trusses and venting
into the attic.

Originally I thought that this might have been a shortcut taken by the
roofers that replaced her roof just before she moved in, but either
they replaced none of the sheathing or all of it as it all looked
consistent. *Also I took a look at other similar units as I was
walking down the street and I didn't see any vent caps in the likely
locations on any of the roofs.

The way she explained it to me was that anything done to the outside
of any of the condos was taken care of by the association, not her
(e.g. roofs, siding etc.) so knowing exactly who to yell at would be
important.

Worst case, I guess, would be that this was a shortcut taken by the
original builder some 15-20 years ago, and it's not going to be
fixed...

nate

Dunno about code, but it was the common method for several decades in
upper midwest. Remember, that until post WWII, bathroom fans were rare.
Nobody had AC, and central heat was crude at best. Cracking a window was
common year round. At least OP's were hung up high- when I upgraded
attic insulation and wiring, along with the roof here, I found the ducts
just laying in the insulation. Damn roofer didn't get proper exhaust
ports that I had ordered, just tied the ducts off to standard-size vents
he added. But, it seems to work okay.

No windows in bathrooms... this condo is way newer than the houses
you're thinking of. *AFAIK code does require either a window *or* fan
in any bathroom, but I don't remember the specifics of fan
installation.

I wish I'd had a fan in the last house in which I lived because the
window wasn't enough to keep the bathroom from getting tons of
condensation after a hot shower.

nate- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

I'd take the suggestion to bring it to the attention of the condo
board.
You could also go over to the local building dept and ask them what
was or wasn't required when they were built. I'd bet that in the
referenced timeframe of 15 years ago code required that they be
vented outside. How the board reacts depends on whether they
have some smarts or not.

I've seen plenty of cases where they have been vented just by running
flex vent pipe over to the existing soffit vents and just shoving it
in the
area of the soffit. Not ideal, but I haven't seen any cases where
that
caused problems either. So, that might be a quick and easy solution.

But, since the potential problems with the existing situation could
extend to the entire condo complex, fixing the one you're involved
with won't mean much if the moisture eventually causes mold, or
sheathing rot in the rest of the place. That will still need to be
fixed
by the association, with you unit owner on the hook for her share.