Hi,
I was vacuuming out my bathroom exhaust fans and got to wondering...
where do they go? There is no vent coming out of the roof for the
exhaust (nor do any of the other homes in the neighborhood). Do they
feed into the sewer vent that goes out the roof? The drier vent and
the basement exhaust exit the house thru vents near ground level.
Surely these are not shared by the bathrooms on the 2nd floor are they?
Also, they do not just vent into the attic (thankfully).

So, where do they go?

Thanks in advance.

wrote:

Hi,
I was vacuuming out my bathroom exhaust fans and got to wondering...
where do they go? There is no vent coming out of the roof for the
exhaust (nor do any of the other homes in the neighborhood).

Are you sure? Roof vents can be very low profile. Most likely, they feed to an
under gable vent and do not break the roof deck. Unless you had a really cheesy
builder in your subdivision who vented to the attic. Doesn't meet code most
places these days, but a few years ago and a few bucks to the building inspector
and who knows?

Do they feed into the sewer vent that goes out the roof?

Almost certinaly not. Least I hope not. The backdraft would be a serious issue!

The drier vent and
the basement exhaust exit the house thru vents near ground level.
Surely these are not shared by the bathrooms on the 2nd floor are they?

Tied vents are not allowed by code in most locations because of the chance of
one fan pushing air into the other room instead of outside.

Also, they do not just vent into the attic (thankfully).

How do you know? If you were in the attic to confirm this, why didn't you trace
the vent?

So, where do they go?


Most likely, if the home was built in the last 10 years by a reputable builder,
they are flex hosed to some place in the gable.

Thanks in advance.

writes:

Hi,
I was vacuuming out my bathroom exhaust fans and got to wondering...
where do they go? There is no vent coming out of the roof for the
exhaust (nor do any of the other homes in the neighborhood).

As another poster said, are you really sure? A low profile black roof
cap vent can blend pretty well. That's where these _should_ go.

Do you have an attic? Get up there and look for ducting in the area.
That's how you'll know.

Do they feed into the sewer vent that goes out the roof?

If they do, it's a big hairy code violation almost everywhere. But
that's not to say it doesn't happen!

The drier vent and the basement exhaust exit the house thru vents
near ground level. Surely these are not shared by the bathrooms on
the 2nd floor are they?

Nah. It'd be too

Also, they do not just vent into the attic (thankfully).

If you don't know where they go, I'm curious what makes you so sure
they aaren't just venting into the attic?

So, where do they go?

Get in the attic and have a look--unfortuantely it's the only way to
tell.

--
Todd H.
http://www.toddh.net/

If there is no roof vent, then there are two likely possibilities. One
is that it goes to a soffit vent. This can either be an obvious soffit
vent installed for the fan, or the less desirable method of routing it
to an existing soffit vent, like a continuous one. The other
possibility is that it's done totally wrong and it vents into the attic.

Thanks for the responses.

I've photographed the attic a while back when I was having a ridge vent
installed. I suppose the vent could go into the attic, but there is
nothing sticking out from the blown in insulation (nor is there any
water damage to the ceiling that I think would be present).

Do you have an attic? Get up there and look for ducting in the area.
That's how you'll know.


I guess I'll have to do this to confirm. I was hoping there was a way
typically used (such as using an existing vent) that everybody (but me)
knew about ;-). Now that you guys mention it, using existing vents
would NOT be a good idea!

wrote:
Thanks for the responses.

I've photographed the attic a while back when I was having a ridge vent
installed. I suppose the vent could go into the attic, but there is
nothing sticking out from the blown in insulation (nor is there any
water damage to the ceiling that I think would be present).


Do you have an attic? Get up there and look for ducting in the area.
That's how you'll know.



I guess I'll have to do this to confirm. I was hoping there was a way
typically used (such as using an existing vent) that everybody (but me)
knew about ;-). Now that you guys mention it, using existing vents
would NOT be a good idea!


If you can stand it, have someone pump cigarette smoke into the
fan intake whilst you look for the smoke (or odor).

Jim

On 27 Dec 2005 00:41:29 -0600, someone wrote:

If you don't know where they go, I'm curious what makes you so sure
they aaren't just venting into the attic?

Easy - he stuck his head up in the attic and didn't see anything
coming up thru the insulation. Its probably soffit vented with the
duct running horizontally between the ceiling joists within the
insulation depth, out to the soffit, and then vented down & out thru
the soffit. Nothing to see in the attic and not very obvious on the
outside. (I believe there are clip on transition pieces to 'properly'
direct out an exhaust vent to a continuous soffit vent, too.)


Reply to NG only - this e.mail address goes to a kill file.

wrote:

I suppose the vent could go into the attic, but there is
nothing sticking out from the blown in insulation

Which probably means a flex hose from the fan out to the soffit...

+1
I totally agree.

John Churchill
Builder/Instructor at Emory University
Author of www.renovation101.com