I never would have imagined it would be so hard to find someone who does that. HVAC would be who I would assume does that. DH installed ours and it wasn't overly difficult if you have some DIY skills and tools. Ours goes up into our kitchen ceiling then over into an enclosed porch and out the side of the house. It can be a big problem if your beams do not run the same way your ducting needs to.

my dh did ours in the last house. It wasn't hard, well, that is easy for me to say I wasn't up in the attic over the garage in the summer.

I don't understand why an hvac comany won't do it though. Do you have any stores that are specialty stores for ducting? There was a place in Wilmington DE where we had to go (it was in a very scary location) that only sold hvac supplies and plumbing stuff. I'm wondering if you can find such a place if they can recommend someone who can do the work. Maybe someone who does moonlighting and works for hvac company in the day.

beekeeperswife, I haven't found any where to buy the duct either. I'm sure there is somewhere in Dallas, and it's probably in a scary area there too. lol

I called the HVAC company who put in our a/c and added a/c ducts last year and they only do vent duct in new construction.

I called a local appliance/plumbing company and they said they would do it, but they won't call back now.

Not one HVAC company in your area will do it? Really? Sounds like you live near Dallas? That's a HUGE metropolitan area, isn't it? And no one?

Simply wackadoodle.

It's DIYable if you don't mind cutting a hole in your roof.

We haven't done it YET, but are going to in the next few weeks. Usually you can get the duct and all the transition pieces at Lowe's or Home Depot, that's where we got ours. Like others have said, it shouldn't be hard if you're handy and your joists/ rafters are going the right direction. Do you have to go through the roof, or can you go out through a wall? I ask because flashing a new penetration in an existing roof can be tricky and you don't want to end up with a leak!

We are doing ours next week, just as soon as the countertop template is done on Monday. Ours is an island VentAHood. I am a little concerned about DH hurting himself but he says it will be fine.

We are getting the guts at Vinje, which is a sheet metal place.

I STILL can't believe how much the VentAHood cost. Jeez.

I installed my vent-hood ductwork, but it was very short and simple. (Went through the side wall behind the hood.) I also have installed a bathroom fan vent through the roof and a direct-vent water-heater vent through the rim joist of my basement. I got the fittings at a big-box store and/or online.

We did. The hard part is if the vent location is near the eave line where there is little head access in the attic. And, it's not just hot. It's HOT HOT HOT. Even in October. I'd do everything you need to do in the kitchen now, including cutting the hole in the ceiling through to the attic, but I'd wait for cooler weather to crawl up in the attic and onto the roof.

The roof flashing isn't hard if you've got asphalt shingles and dealt with roofing before. It is critical to get the right size boot and to make sure everything stair steps correctly overlapping from down to up so the water is funneled around the penetration. If you've got metal roofing, unless you are the one who put it on, call a pro for the roof penetration.

You also have to make sure the pipe that exits the house is compliant with code. If you go out the side of the house, you can't be within 3' of a window. You don't have to worry about snow load on the roof in Dallas, but you do need to worry about convection currents carrying the exhausted air back in another vent, so you need to double check how high above the penetration your locale requires the vent pipe to be before it terminates in a roof cap. I'm thinking the 3' figure sounds right for that as well, but that's something to ask your local codes office about. No use in getting dinged on that on an inspection report when it's easy enough to do it right in the beginning.

Don't forget that it all has to be rigid ductwork and that it needs to be insulated well for it's run through the attic. If it's not, in cold weather the warm steam will condense on the cool metal and you'll have water running back into the fan and maybe even dripping into your pot of soup on the stove.

I feel sure that DH will do at least as good a job, probably better, than any installer. My concerns are two fold. First, the VentAHood is heavy but he has a plan to support it on top of the island while he works on it. Second, even though our roof isn't that steep, I worry about falling. A fall from a roof can be serious and even fatal. He tells me to get out my worry beads.

How big does the ductwork have to be for yours? In last house (and this one) we needed 10" wide ducting which the HD & Lowe's didn't carry. That is how we ended up in the bowels of he11, as we liked to call it.

Here is how I found a HVAC contractor on kitchen ducting:

I went to this site: Home Ventilating Institute (HVI) and read: www.hvi.org. Then went to their links site: http://www.hvi.org/publications/links.cfm

Read it and selected: SHEET METAL AND AIR CONDITIONING
CONTRACTORS� NATIONAL ASSOCIATION at link below: (http://www.smacna.org/). Entered HVAC Expertise and State and found one about 10 miles away from me. Verified him with SMACNA too.

Here's just one in Dallas, following the above directions. There should be more.

Dynamic Systems, Inc.
Dallas, TX 75220-2530

Hope this helps.

Here is a link that might be useful: HVAC Link:

Oh yeah, use mastic or metal tape to seal the joins. "Duct tape" is for holding ripped couch cushions together not real ducts.

I'm assuming this is a one story roof that he's working on?

If you're worried about falling he can wear a safety harness properly lagged into the house. Or you can use roof ladders that hang over the peak.

I have slate roofs which require roof ladders (you can't stand on slate without breaking it) so I've gotten quite comfortable scrambling around on roof ladders to makes repairs on the slate. I use a safety harness for working on the second and third story roofs, however.

When I was getting my Mother's house ready for sale after she died I fell off her one-story roofs on to her slate patio more than once. OUCH! I was working w/o roof ladders or a harness. Since then I've wised up.

I plan to install my venthood exhaust run up through the roof later this fall (when it gets cooler and the bats and the wasps aren't so threatening in the attic).

L.

It is a bungalow. It's called one and a half stories since the upstairs is much smaller than the first floor (attics all around). I've been on the roof. We de-mossed it a few years ago. I didn't like how far it was down to the alley side...

I have a friend whose husband fell off a ladder and they thought he wouldn't live. He did but lost his sense of smell. I also had a neighbor who died from a roof fall. DH is very careful. I wish he would wear a harness.

Thanks Sparkling Water! I'll check that out.

I haven't called any hvac in Dallas proper. I figured if no one within 25 miles of me did it, no one there would come out either.

Ours calls for 8" duct and HD and Lowes don't have it that big.

...it all has to be rigid ductwork and ... insulated well for it's run through the attic. If it's not, in cold weather the warm steam will condense on the cool metal and you'll have water running back into the fan and maybe even dripping into your pot of soup on the stove.
GreenDesigns, what great information! Gross!

Well, I called Dynamic Systems, and they don't do any kind of installation. They do commercial stuff. But they gave me the name of a HVAC place and I called them. No, they don't do it either. Looked in the yellow pages for vent hood duct installation and found a couple. Two were out of business but one answered the phone and their charge is between $500-600 plus parts for a one story house, pipe straight up through the roof. They said it should take an hour or two to complete. I wish I could find a job paying that much per hour.

" I wish I could find a job paying that much per hour."

Try running a business and you will quickly realize how much it costs to deliver "an hour or two" of labor.

The duct they use will not walk to your house.

The duct they use will not walk to your house.

If it walks like a duct.... ? ;-)

marti8a, who is doing your cabinets? We live in the DFW area and our cabinet maker has a guy who can do all the "guts". Also, look for some gc's around here that are hurting for work, they either have the experience and will do it for a nominal fee, or they have someone they contract out for their work that they could recommend.
We had a contractor who builds houses but not much going on right now, and he comes out and bids jobs that DH doesn't think he can do himself. He put in our 30' beam, and told us anything else we didn't want to tackle or have time to do he would bid "jobs".
DH is putting off the vent hood as long as possible because the heat is just ridiculous. He was in the attic first thing in the morning and was sick after just 10 minutes.

We are DIYers and our Lowes has 8" ducting, you might call around to the different stores and ask. Around here, they are all different, even down to hardware and lighting choices.

Good luck, if I hear of anyone I'll let you know. What area are you in? North, South, East or West?

I'm still stunned, after a long day, that no one you call does this work. Around here, every HVAC company I know does this. (I went through lots of HVAC companies trying to work out our crawl space ducting and zoning with our discovery of a rat infestation.) It's not nearly as expensive as you quoted, and it only took about an hour.

Oh, and many HVAC cos travel at least 25 miles around here for work.

My HVAC guys are installing the actual metal ducting. My husband had to change framing in our wall to appease the inspector. The electrician will install the wire. I had to buy a special vent online to actually go through the wall.
The HVAC guy takes the pipe to that. When I do the tile in the kitchen everyone else will be long gone so my DH and I will actually hang the hood. This has been one of these things NO ONE ELSE wants to do...

marti8a, I would call some places in Dallas if it is only 25 miles away and get some quotes.

We had other things we had to do in the attic to support our cabinets and everything Green Design said about being near the eves is true. Very difficult to work in the shallow part of the eaves. And temperaturewise, it's really, really a bear and we live in the supposedly "cool" Pacific NW. I think if you're in Dallas, you could pass out up there.

Our cabinet guy was a licensed GC. We paid him to install the hood at the end and my husband helped hold the hood during the install. It was heavy and stressful. I didn't want either of the guys or the hood to come crashing down on my stove or new granite. If possible, having a third guy there to trade off holding would be the ideal.

One other tip on the hood install: That morning, we hand the directions to our cabinet guy. He studies them and says, "okay, the directions here give us a RANGE of acceptable heights for your hood.Here's code, but you do have some room. What do you want?" And I hadn't thought about that detail at all. So learn from my mistakes and study up ahead of time before the install day.

We didn't install ours ourselves but we did GC the remodel so we had to do all the research. Usually HVAC guys will do it but I'm guessing that since you aren't having other work done, the job is too small (and hot!)for people to bother with.

Try a handyman or call the city and talk to whoever does permits and inspections. In our city, you have to have a permit to install any exhaust fan. When I called the guy was helpful and offered names of people who carried the brand of fan I was looking for. It seems like the inspectors respect some businesses more than others.

We ended up buying our ventilation supplies from IAQsource online. I had several questions for them too and they put a supervisor on who was very helpful. Great service from them and the one return we had went smoothly and hasslefree.

Here is a link that might be useful: IAQ Source

Thanks for your insight brickeyee. The exact charge she quoted was $50 trip charge and $550-600 for the labor.

susie, we are south of Dallas, in a sub-suburb. We are reusing our old cabinets. I'll call a few more HVAC places today, but I think we are going to be stuck with this. I was hoping to have some other a/c vents moved and an attic stair cover put on at the same time but when they said they didn't do ducts I didn't mention the rest of the work.
I'll call around with Lowes too and see if I can find the duct we need. Last Saturday dh had to be in the attic so we started about dawn to beat the heat and he said it was already over 100 up there. Buy hey, have you heard, we had a cold front come through and it's only going to be 98 today!

Thanks for the link skyedog. I'll use them if I can't find it locally.

It is is pitched correctly (so water drains to the outside) there is not going to be anything running back in.

I did. The low profile Broan Elite 36 inch vent fan that I installed can be configured to vent straight back through a 3 1/4"x14" rectangular duct or straight up through a 3 1/4"x14" duct. This rectangular duct is designed to fit completely within a 2x4 framed wall.

My ducting enters the wall, and immediately turns straight up, proceeding up until reaching a soffit between the wall and an exposed structural beam. Inside the soffit it transitions to a 8" diameter round duct, turns slightly to match the roof angle, and continues through a hole I cut in the roof, where it is covered by a black metal roof vent cap.

I found the local Lowes and even a local HVAC supply store to be unhelpful, and ended up having to order the needed ducting pieces from a couple of places on the interwebs. I don't remember where I ordered the pieces from, but in trying to find where I purchased them from I found an old Gardenweb post by me where I wrote:

"I ordered the transition and roof cap from AirShack.com. The 3 1/4 X 14 inch, 90 deg elbow was really hard to find. I ended up ordering 2 of them and a 3 foot stretch of 3 1/4 x 14 inch duct from a different online location (that I won't name because they charged $41 for shipping for those three items) "

We installed ours, and we made the rigid ductwork. We could not find what we needed anywhere in the area, and the fabricating shops wanted an amount we felt was a bit much.
Did not take long, was not difficult work. Works well!

We are working on ours today. Will post photos....

Greendesign: " If you go out the side of the house, you can't be within 3' of a window."

So what if your hood is between 2 windows?

Or my case, it's an L-shape, where my hood vent go up to the ceiling and bangs a left out the sink wall, next to my wall of 5-windows. Will that not pass code?

thanks,
Amanda

Thank bob cville, I'll check them out too. I haven't been able to find anything locally yet, but I've been concentrating on granite today.

starinasgarden, I am so impressed that you made your own duct. How did you figure out how to do that?

donaleen, I'm looking forward to seeing your photos. I'm going to pick up our vent liner Wednesday or Thursday, and hopefully after reading the instructions, it will all make more sense. But I am going to keep trying to find someone who knows how to do it fast and right the first time.

I posted our Day 1 hood installation progress on my blog. We had a lot of other things going on today so we just got started. However, we made important progress. We have it positioned and marked and John thought through all the steps. He is feeling very comfortable with the installation.

Here is a link that might be useful: Vent A Hood island installation Day 1