whole house fan in new construction
 

My father wants me to haul the massive 42" whole house fan into the
attic just before drywall goes up in my home under construction.

We are dealing with a non-custom builder who isn't very flexible on
most things.

My dad says that if I hang the fan onto the roof rafters where it is
out of the way, nobody should care (it'll be out of the way of the
insulation guys) and it will save us the hassle of getting this monster
into the attic after drywall down the road.

Would anyone care to chime in on whether this should be acceptable to
the builder and is there any significant risk of theft ?

I am worried that the builder would discover this and not approve of
it, or it could potentially get stolen. I am wieghing that against the
advantage of getting into the attic when its easy to do so. I am
leaning towards not asking the builder, because the answer almost
certainly would be NO.

The fan weighs 91 lbs and I was thinking of hanging it off the rafters
in a temporary sling or something.

I believe we could install it after drywall goes up, but the different
between the opening we need to make for the shutters (47") and the unit
itself (46" square) is only ~ 1". My dad is probably thinking that the
unit is so large (46" square) that it might be difficult to move it
into that hole without damaging the drywall with the slightly sway or
jiggle.

Any comments appreciated.

If it's a non-custom builder they will throw a fit. If you take the
fan up there they'll take it out or tell you to come and get it, sling
or no. IMO the best approach would be to pay them to frame for it and
wire a outlet and switch for you.

roger, I am also in agreement with you ... in thinking that they would
throw a fit. I already know my wife would not approve either.

Thats part of the problem with a father from the old "do it yourself" /
"no nonsense" school -- is that he doesn't understand the restrictions
these new builders place on us, even if we did a quality job which
didn't cause any subs any harm -- they would still throw a fit, unless
nobody every saw it.

For that reason, I am leaning towards NOT putting in the fan till AFTER
I own the home.

I do have the builder wiring a dedicated circuit and switch up there
already and the fan mount is really non-existant, since I am going to
be using a "no cut" fan shutter mount, which just straddles a joist in
the middle and mounts flush to the drywall within the two adjacent 24"
joist openings. See the following link for the details on the fan and
the no-cut shutters:
http://www.trianglefans.com/pdf/Owne...l%20manual.pdf

So all I'm looking at doing after we move in is cut out the drywall for
the no cut shutter (which will span most of the 2 24" spans) and then
adding a couple of blocking 2x4s on the insides of the outer two joists
.... and then try to slip the fan up through the hole. I think my
fathers main concern is damaging the drywall when putting the fan up
through the hole, esp. considering the large size of the fan and small
~1" gap that we'll have to work with.

Maybe I could just temporarily pad the edges of the drywall for a
little dent proofing?

Right now I leaning more towards dealing with my Dad whining then
risking a fit from the building and the wife. Seems like the easier of
the two battles.

The main reason I didn't have the builder install the fan for me was
because: (1) they could give me an exact location of where the fan
would be located and (2) they would use an inferior (small) 28 to 30"
fan, (3) I had no control over the switch placement and (4) they wanted
like $500 for this option. So I figured could remedy all of these for
about $400 and still pay them just $100 for a dedicated circuit and
switch instead. I'm still concerned of the lack of "appropriate" NFA
venting, but as I mentioned in another post, I at least of 13 roof
vents and 13 eve vents, which is better than most homes I see being
constructed. Its probably only 6 NFA, vs. the 18 NFA the fan mfg.
reccomends, however.

Doc Savage wrote:
roger, I am also in agreement with you ... in thinking that they would
throw a fit. I already know my wife would not approve either.

Thats part of the problem with a father from the old "do it yourself" /
"no nonsense" school -- is that he doesn't understand the restrictions
these new builders place on us, even if we did a quality job which
didn't cause any subs any harm -- they would still throw a fit, unless
nobody every saw it.

For that reason, I am leaning towards NOT putting in the fan till AFTER
I own the home.

I do have the builder wiring a dedicated circuit and switch up there
already and the fan mount is really non-existant, since I am going to
be using a "no cut" fan shutter mount, which just straddles a joist in
the middle and mounts flush to the drywall within the two adjacent 24"
joist openings. See the following link for the details on the fan and
the no-cut shutters:
http://www.trianglefans.com/pdf/Owne...l%20manual.pdf

So all I'm looking at doing after we move in is cut out the drywall for
the no cut shutter (which will span most of the 2 24" spans) and then
adding a couple of blocking 2x4s on the insides of the outer two joists
... and then try to slip the fan up through the hole. I think my
fathers main concern is damaging the drywall when putting the fan up
through the hole, esp. considering the large size of the fan and small
~1" gap that we'll have to work with.

Maybe I could just temporarily pad the edges of the drywall for a
little dent proofing?

Right now I leaning more towards dealing with my Dad whining then
risking a fit from the building and the wife. Seems like the easier of
the two battles.



Also consider if you have to replace it. If you install it afterwards,
then you will have made all the provisions for future replacing.


--
Respectfully,


CL Gilbert