Adding Vent fan to bathroom

[JD]

I want to do this in an upstairs bathroom but since it is a condo i do not have the option of cutting outside walls/roof. Is it a really bad idea to just vent the moisture into the attic, or how about venting to the soffit (sp)? Thanks again for any advice, this board is a great help!

[Steve:]

we do occasionally dump the moisture and odors into the attic. Here the moisture will evap quickly and the odors will disapate with turbines and soffet vents.

It is done alot, but in your case, you have to determine if its feasible in your area.

[bc]

I don’t know if you are in alaska or hawaii, frostbite falls or key west, new york or los angeles, but you really need to assess the whole house for moisture and humidity problems.

If it is bad enough, the condo association should take action. What do they want, a moldy rotting house or a moldy rotting attic?

Best and easiest would be to vent to the roof using a standard roof vent which are easy to install in existing shingles. Use an insulated hose in the attic and seal around the vent opening to avoid moisture getting onto your ceiling and causing your ceiling (popcorn, texture, etc.) to come loose from the drywall.

If you vent to the attic and there is excess moisture and the attic is shared with others, then it may show up by dripping onto ceiling insulation and drywall and eventually ruining the drywall and then the condo association will take notice. And as Steve said, if the attic is vented properly, then in dry areas it shouldn’t be a problem except that after time the attic will be coated with a layer of dust pulled out of the house by the fan.

[aimee]

like I do, it is NOT a good idea. Even if your house currently does not have high humidity. You don’t want to dump a lot of concentrated warm air in any space–once that warm air hits a cold wall, condensation happens. I’ll defer to the answer about the southwest region. My only experience in that area was when I lived an a very rainy part of northern california.

[JD]

I live in CT (northeast). How about routing the air to the existing openings on the attic overhang (is this referred to as the soffit?) thanks

[Dodgeman]

I have built and lived in two homes in northern Wisconsin. The bath fan vents I vented into the attic space directly under non-powered roof vents near the peaks. I inspected them in cold weather conditions (minus 10 degrees F) and never found any evidence of condensation, frost build up, etc. I believe it is not a problem for a bath fan that gets intermittent use, but I wouldn’t do it with a kitchen vent. By the way, the homes also had continuous soffit vents.
Dodgeman

[JackD]

JD. Most city codes and all Mechanical codes prohibit venting into the attic. Two of the most damaging things to shingles are mositure and heat and you’re putting both into the attic. Ever drive around and see a roof with about an 8 foot circle of shingles curling up? Dryer venting into the attic, every time. Venting to the soffit, if that’s your only option, would be better than venting into the attic, in my opinion. However, the more bends that are in the piping leading to the soffit vent and the longer it is, the less efficient the fan is going to be. Having said that, I see bathroom vents in the attic in almost every house I have inspected or worked in or on. And they have had no problems with moisture. If you’re not running the fan 24/7 you won’t be putting that much heat or moisture into the attic, if the attic is properly vented. I never use our vents for moisture in the bathrooms, frankly, I’m thankful for the humidity since we have gas heat.
Was that confusing? Hope it helps anyway.

JackD.

[Steve:]

We are very dry and very hot, so again, depending on the location and the weather conditions you can sucessfully vent into the attic, and as one has stated, I would NOT do this with a kitchen vent. Here you have grease and buildup.

Again, I must quantify, you need good attic ventilation with roof turbines and un clogged soffet vents.

I would classify all the answers to this post very profound and they all fit to their region. Where you have a problem with outside venting and if you have to vent the bathroom, this is only an option.

[John 2000]

Hi”, JD, if you have a window in your bathroom, then
why dont you fit an airvent into the glass, get a glass
company to get the size of one of the panes, cut out
a hole the size of the vent, fit the vent, then fit the
pane, and away you go….simple, John 2000

[Paul D]

I had the same problem, I just took some 4″ flex and routed it over to the soffit and added a small 4″louver…works great!

[Althea]

I have a vent in my master bath but I still get mildew in tile grout in shower and have to use mildew remover about once or twice/month. I live in central Florida. I thought vents stopped mildew. What does? or do I need a new vent?

[Shirley]

Around this time of year we’ve been experiencing a small drip in one corner of the bathroom ventialtion fan. We’ve tried wrapping material around the aluminium pipe leading to the roof (didn’t work) and replaced the pipe with expandable dryer extendsion to the roof, but still to no avail. Can you recommend something else that we can do. Thanks

[Edsie]

We own a pretty old house. When we remodeled the bathroom we completely forgot about the vent/fan. Is there anything we can buy to act as a vent/fan instead of having to go into the walls again?

[Randy]

I have been experiencing the same as Shirley, unfortunately it is right above the toilet so you can get dripped on if you don’t watch out. I live in CT and do not have soffets on my house. How hard is it to install a vent in the roof near the fan? I am hesitant about cutting a hole in my roof.

[Robert Golay]

I am having a problem finding a small (3″or so) soffit vent to vent my bathroom fan. All of the home improvement centers have nothing but roof vents for this. Is there somewhere I can buy one of these vents?

[Robert Golay]

I am having a problem finding a small (3″or so) soffit vent to vent my bathroom fan. All of the home improvement centers have nothing but roof vents for this. Is there somewhere I can buy one of these vents? Oh, yes, I should tell you that I live in southeast Kansas.

[Author]

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