DH and I installed a vent in our upstairs bathroom, venting through the roof. Did it ourselves - no leaks. We have cold, snowy winters and stormy summers - no leaks. My Mom's house was built in 1977, range hood vented though the roof. This is nothing new. What does your friend's GC do, exactly? I have a vaulted ceiling, and the only issue I can see with venting the range hood is enclosing the vent line so it looks halfway decent. I've see photos of them (standard range hood, with cabinets above) cased in with drywall, bricks, and wood. Again, not rocket surgery.

Your situation regarding a vent hood mirrors exactly what we had to deal with. Load bearing wall, finished upstairs bathroom, all the plumbing for the bathroom was exactly where we thought we could run the duct work for the vent hood and 8' ceilings. What we did was run 3X10 duct work above the 36" cabinets, vented horizontally to the outside and then covered up the duct work with moldings. We did have to drop the vent hood from 30" above the stove to 27". I was worried about having the vent hood 27" above the stove, but we were in the parameters of what the installation instructions required. The only thing I would have changed was to have a 9" vent hood instead of an 18" vent hood, then I could have had the vent hood 30" above the range, but you know what, it works like a champ. My vent hood is extremely quiet on low and medium low, but does get louder on med high and high. Whatever you choose to do, good luck. I always tell my DH, if they can put a man on the moon, then something is always doable, with some thought, and a woman!!!! Here is a picture of our install. Here is a picture of the finished product.

Do you use an overhead hood, over the range microwave, or downdraft ventilation? Overhead hood What hood are you using? Wolf Pro Island Hood around 60 inches long. Captures effluent from 36-inch induction hob cooktop and nearby wok induction hob. What is the style - standard, chimney, canopy pro style or custom wood with insert? See Wolf literature Wall mount, under cabinet or Island mount? Island mount over peninsula What type of blower - internal, remote or inline? External Wolf supplied, Broan/Nutone manufactured. Works with variable control on hood. How many cfms? 1500 nominal at zero static pressure, but probably around a 1000 on max setting at -0.1 inches of house pressure with baffles in place, ducts, and silencer. House calibration has not yet begun. Ducted or Non-ducted? ducted How do the ducts go to the outside? Length, turns,size, thru attic, down into basement? Up a few feet to attic, ~80 degree bend to a Fantech silencer, then some more duct and another ~80 degrees to the roof. Length hasn't been measured, but might be around 20 feet. Do you find it too loud? No Do you have make-up air? A work in progress. MUA will have to dynamically compensate for this hood at any setting, a variable 1000 cfm nominal (probably up to 600 actual) vented filtered diffuser pair over the wall ovens, three bathroom fans, various states of window openings, fireplace, and furnace. If a renovation, then how hard was it to install ducts and how much did it cost? Too difficult to separate out from kitchen ceiling reconstruction, re-insulating the attic, etc. I may not want to know. If a new build then did builder charge you more to duct one way or another? N/A Most importantly, is it effective and work for your needs? Yes.

Any insert will have the controls on the bottom, because they are meant to be enclosed.. As far as material, it's definitely not powder coated steel, because the blog post mentions it is painted with the same color as the wall, Farrow & Ball's All White. The insert is likely wrapped in wood, and then could have drywall or stucco over the top, or just paint. The utensil canister is also linked in the blog post, and is 7" tall, so I would guess that the vent hood and shelves are somewhere between 24" and 30" from the countertop. (It looks different from different shots, so it's hard to definitively say.) Either way, it's definitely higher than the standard 18" to the traditional bottom shelf of a cabinet, so make sure you're comfortable with the reach.