On Wed, 29 Jan 2020 21:07:50 -0500, micky
wrote:

In alt.home.repair, on Wed, 29 Jan 2020 10:51:19 -0500,
wrote:

What is the function of the header over the tub in a bathroom. I mean
that drop down about a foot of the ceiling? Is it just cosmetic or
does it have a function?

I think I've seen that but I haven't got one.

Just a shower bar. Actually it's probably better with an empty foot
above the shower bar because I can throw one end of my clothes over the
bar when I'm drying laundry. If it were only two empty inches, I'd have
to stand on something and feed the clothes through the empty slot.

I heard back from a few different people and the ones who really came
up with an answer said it was all about keeping humidity in the shower
and now that we have better ventilation mandated, it is probably not
necessary. I certainly hope so because my FIL's shower has a 2 foot
square hole in the header. I was running wire to new cans and it was a
lot easier than crawling 47 feet through a 3:12 attic that was over
100f today. I still had to make one trip to get the wire down in a
wall but it was one trip and not 3 or 4. They are going to start the
demo Monday and the header is on the list to go away (along with the
tub, all the tile and some tacky wall paper).