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Bathroom exhaust fan not connected to vent!

10 years ago

I own a small condo built in 1978. It's on the middle floor of a three story building and construction is all concrete.

The bathroom has never had any updating and is in sore need of it. I knew the bathroom exhaust fan didn't do much actual exhausting but figured it was just because it was 36 years old. I am planning a total renovation of the bathroom but it's probably at least a year off. However, I need more lighting in there now and thought I could maybe just put in a new fan/light fixture now rather than waiting.

I removed the old plastic cover and discovered that all there was in there was the standard fan and motor unit. No vent at all. No duct. The fan still worked well and was sucking a lot of air up but the air just being forced back into the room from around the shallow box containing the unit.

I'm sure this isn't code. I am waiting to be approved for the Yahoo message board group for owners to see if any anyone else has dealt with this.

The washer/dryer is in the bathroom and the dryer vent is a few feet away from the bathroom fan location. From what I understand, you should not connect the bathroom exhaust into the dryer vent, right?

I don't know how possible it is to run a whole new duct to the exterior of the building. I don't think I can run it up the roof because I'm on the middle floor.

This is the housing after I took the fan out. It is completely closed above that round cut-out. The entire housing is only about 3" deep.

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Comments (8)

Olychick
10 years ago
What an awful thing to discover. They do make ductless bathroom fans, but apparently they are designed to remove odors and won't do a thing about the moisture. Since it's been like that since 1978, I guess there would be mold problems if there were ever going to be; are there?

Here's a discussion on This Old House that might interest you...

Here is a link that might be useful: ductless fans
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geoffrey_b
10 years ago
You would have to run a duct between the ceiling joists, and vent it out the side of the building.

Here is a link that might be useful: Fantech exterior exhaust fan
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"energy_rater, if you vent the humid air from a bathroom to the soffit, what's going to keep that moist air from going right into the attic?" back draft damper attached to bath fan housing. venting attached to back draft damper. venting exits soffit to exterior. fan being on will push air out of venting, venting to exterior of attic will keep moisture out of attic. also, if you ever take off the cover of the bath fan from inside the house..there is an oversized cut in the ceiling that is covered by the cover of the bath fan. sealing this cut is recommended to keep attic air/temps/ insulation particles out of houses. I use Hardcast brand mastic tape #1402. I also use this tape to attach back draft damper to housing of bath fan for air tight seal, and to attach venting to back draft damper. best of luck.
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The main reason is laziness and cost. What they should have done is installed an insulated 4 inch flexible duct to a capped roof vent. It needs to be insulated so the warm air does not condense in the winter and drip into the fan. Your old fan probably got rusty because there was no roof cap and the duct was not insulated.
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palimpsest
10 years ago
I was able to do so after obtaining permission from the condo association. Since this is like a code requirement in your area, now that you are *changing it, it needs to be brought up to code. This may give you some leverage with the association when it comes to getting permission.

I just found the same in my house with two vent fans. One no longer had a duct branching to it. the other was inches from the duct and not connected.
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spanky_md
Original Author
10 years ago
Thanks, guys. No mold problems, thank goodness. Palimpset, that's good to know about condo boards--I signed up to the informal Yahoo chat group for my condos and for some reason my membership request was denied! Weird...I hope it was not intentional. Hopefully I will get that straightened out and then find out how others have dealt with this, if at all.
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numbersjunkie
10 years ago
spanky, is it possible your condo layout was changed by a prior owner (maybe no permits)? And the original vent was in a different location? Seems very strange that they would have built it that wy. Doesn't really help you now, but I would then worry about what else was done wrong.
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jerzeegirl
10 years ago
Do you happen to have a window in the bathroom? I believe that certain jurisdictions you don't need an exhaust fan if you have a window.
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spanky_md
Original Author
10 years ago
Thanks all, I finally got access to the condo's message board and got some help from another resident. He said the ductwork was there and said something about a "door" in the fan unit. I poked around inside of it again and lo and behold, a small piece of sheet metal fell off the side of it and there was the duct!

The sheet metal piece had a piece of tape on it that I think may have been a hinge, of sorts--so that it would flap open when the fan was on and then fall back over the duct opening when the fan was off to keep drafts out. But a thick coating of greasy dust had kept it from working properly, and also made it hard to see that that's what its function was. The duct opening is only about 1x2", not the big 3" or 4" round opening that I was thinking it should be.

It's still not a great fan but at least it's not blowing all of the air right back into the room! And I will have to figure out how to put that flap back on once the weather gets cold, but I have a bit of time before that will be necessary.

PS-- no window in that room, unfortunately...
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jwalsh8
4 years ago
OP were you ever able to get that flap down? If so, how did you do it? I'm in a very similar position right now, except its heat and humidity that might be coming through it.
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