I emailed you too and I wish I could help but I can't. My GC installed the hood while I was at work, so I wasn't able to watch him do it to see how it was done. Hopefully someone else on here can help but you can also check the appliance board and perhaps someone there can guide you. Best of luck to you and let us know how it turns out.

I am not a professional builder, but I am building my own house. I'll tell you how I would do it. the drywall is in but the granite is not....right? OK...this will make a bit of a mess, but it is how I installed my stainless shelf so that it will be strong. I don't like those crappy anchors to hold up anything heavy. the chances of the holes on the hood lining up with the studs is very slim. So what I did for my shelf is I located where the studs actually were and then cut a hole in the drywall next to the stud so that I could screw a chunk of 2x4 directly next to the stud horizontally. this patched in stud doesn't need to go all the way over to the next stud, just make sure it goes past the anchor point for the hood. The end of it will be behind drywall that was not cut out. So one end of this stud is securely screwed off to the main stud. the other end of this board can be secured by running a couple of Sheetrock screws through the drywall. Then patch the hole in the Sheetrock. No need to tape it, the granite will hide the damage. Now mark on the drywall patch exactly where the hood screws go and make sure the granite installers drill a hole in the granite so you can mount that hood with good strong decking screws directly into wood and not drywall. I hope this makes sense. Here's a picture of my shelf install. The brown is uncut sheetrock with part of the paper torn off. The studs are located on either side of this brown area. The gray are the patched in pieces of drywall. And you can see where I drove screws into the uncut parts of the drywall (yellow) to secure the ends of the 4 boards I put in there (I needed 4 because of the shelf brackets...you only need two). My shelf is VERY strong and I can tile over the shelf brackets.

Thanks to both of you mustbnuts and ccoombs1, specially the detailed help described above. My DH and I aren't even weekend DIYers. We painted the kitchen wall, first painting job ever. I don't think I'm using the installer as I said I lost confidence when they could not even give me the size of the screws, anchors or the size of the drill bit to pass to the granite people. I thought of a co-worker and consulted with him late Sunday. He came over and suggested exactly what you described. The only difference is that he will help my DH strap a 2X4 horizontally (16"in length) across two studs at a height where the vent hood hook screw will go in. I think once we get the precise holes drilled by the granite guys when granite wall is installed, the vent hood installation is actually quite simple. You're right about the messy situation tearing into the drywall which a day earlier sounds terrifying to us. However now that we hear two experts (you and my coworker) suggest opening up the wall, and not even patching up the wall neatly, it sound doable! :)

The only part I did not quite understand your explanation is when you said you are adding 4 pieces of 2X4's horizontally. Don't you mean you are attaching two pieces of 2X4's "vertically" and aligning them to one stud on the left gray area and similarly 2 more "vertically" to the right stud? And the difference is that my coworker is suggesting attaching 2X4 "horizontally" spanning two studs. Would value your opinion. The two aren't working on this little project until tomorrow (Tuesday) night.

You can attach a piece of 3/4 thick plywood to the wall studs and mount the hood directly to the plywood. Cut the mounting strip a bit smaller than the back of the hood so that the edge of the granite will extend up behind the hood for a bit.

Or, cut away the drywall & notch the studs for a nailing strip & patch the drywall in. Cover with the granite, drill holes thru the granite & use long wood screws.

Mine are horizontal. I couldn't cut out enough rock to span the space between two studs (because the cabinets are in the way, so I secured them to the stud on one side and the other end stops short of the other stud. That is the end I secured by running several screws through the drywall into the loose end of the stud. Not a perfect fix, but believe me...that shelf is really strong and stable. I am sure this will work for your hood.

Wow! This opens up with ideas even the installer is not thinking of. My coworker and I are going to work on it over lunch hour. He does not think it would take more than an hour. Wish me luck! I will post picture if successful that is. There's the pessimistic side of me. This remodel sure wears me out and I'm suppose to be the optimistic one in the family! The installer accused me of trying to be my own GC and wasting his time and getting free advice from him. Just trying to save money or there will never be a remodeled kitchen. You guys (/gals) gave me more advice than he ever will. Thanks a bunch!

What's that old saying...."necessity is the mother of invention"? and then theres that other saying "If you want something done right...do it yourself". I like both of those. In my case, I really really wanted to use the ikea shelf under my hood, but since it's european, the holes did not line up with my framing. So I did as described and fixed the problem. It took me maybe an hour, once I figured out what needed to be done and after trying something else that didn't work...those stupid plastic achors. I am confidant that you will get your project done too and your hood will be secure. The contractor is probably just mad that he didn't come up with a suitable solution!! Be sure to post pics!

Cindy

I think we did it - the 2X4 support and drywall patch up. The granite isntallers are here yay! I am off work and excited to be home to see the best part of the kitchen get in (my opinion). I was going to post some pictures that perhaps can help somebody else like Cindy helped me. A picture is certainly worth a thousand words. Just realized I don't know how to post pictures, excuse me I'm a newbie here. Will read up the instructions and come back. In the meantime, I am supervising...mostly taking peeks at the granite and trying to be out of the workers way. :)

I am so glad I was able to help! Isn't the granite install the most exciting thing ever?? It was hard for me to stay out of their way. I think they are installing my bathroom granite today. I only needed a small piece (50") and was able to get a bargain on a really wild exotic one. I can't wait to see it....and your granite too!! Posing pics is easy. Are you using photobucket to host them? If so, under each pic you will see 4 codes in boxes. Simply copy and paste the code that is in the 3rd box (the html code) into your message here and that's it!

So let's see if I can do this right.

First the problem,

then picture of 2X4 support solution.

And then the patch up job. I'm so proud of myself...well with a lot of help from my friends (lots of them, here and there, virtual and real!)
{{!gwi}}

Cindy, thanks for the tip on posting picture. I was at a standstill trying to follow the re-sizing instructions. Your hint about copying the 3rd line link came in handy. Now you've rescued me twice! I love exotic granite too, do tell what your bathroom one is and will look like. Budget grounded us to the tier 1 granite selection, hence my moniker!

That looks great!! Well, maybe not LOOKS great, but will certainly function great and once your BS is done, you'll never see the patch job. I don't know what the bathroom granite is called. It was exotic and cheap and the colors were perfect so I got it. I'll post a picture once it's installed and maybe someone will know what it is.

Believe me....I am the queen of budget!!lol!! I have exotic granite taste but tier one granite budget. I actually ended up with an exotic called Delicatus though, for much less than even the most common granite would have cost (about 1/3 of the regular price). They had two slabs on the yard that had been outside in the sun for several years which caused some of the resin to get yellow and brittle. They wanted to move it out so they gave it to me at a HUGE discount. They worked around all the bad resin and the few bad spots that remain can be polished out. Here's a couple pics of it. It has the most beautiful chunks of smokey quartz all through it along with glittery spots of mica and lots of veining. I am thrilled with it!

The granite sure is exotic! I luove it when there is both brown and gray tones in it. You're lucky to get such a price break. I don't see much of that here in CA.

Here is a teaser pic of granite.

Really I needed to practise going back to Photobucket and posting another pic. Besides I'm off work today and have time to goof off. Will post picture when vent hood is installed over the granite backsplash. That's the real test whether we did right or not. The one hour project at lunch time yesterday was only 1/2 hour. As it turns out the rush job created another problem. The vent hood screw will have to go in a gap/air that is right next to the stud where the end of the 2X4 is trying to attach to the stud. The patch job included sawing a very small wood wedge that we crammed into the space with epoxy

Looking forward to seeing your pictures!!