Is kitchen vent too close to bedroom window?
I saw the vent cap for our kitchen hood in the gable of the porch roof weeks ago and made a mental note that it looked awful from my daughters bedroom window, but it had to go somewhere. Then, at midnight last night it occurred to me that whatever gets vented from the kitchen is going to go straight into her room if she has he windows open. Needless to say, I couldn't sleep after that.
Background. Our back porch spans the width of the house and instead of having a shed roof (which I wanted) it has a pair of gables, which would give the back of the house a lovely perspective if our yard weren't only 16 feet deep! LOL! Total waste of money and wrecks the view from the upper back windows and porch (can't see the garden) but DH loved the detail so it stayed. Anyway, the range hood is on the back wall and the duct work runs through one of these gables and out the top. It's not only unattractive but I think it's close enough to the window that the smells will be a bothersome. I'm meeting with the builder and HVAC guy tomorrow to decide what to do. Could you take at the pics below and tell me if you think we have a problem here? Thanks!
You can barely see it to the far right on the roofline.
Zoomed in you can just see the top of the vent cover
You can see how close it is to the window on the left.
Comments (22)
Michael Lamb
6 years ago
cpartist
6 years agoRelated Discussions
Fridge too close to bedroom but everything ordered!
Comments (12)It is probably impossible to say if this is going to be a problem, because you could be a light or a heavy sleeper, noise-sensitive or not, and the soon-to-be owner of a noisy or quiet refrigerator. I once read a hilarious thread on noisy refrigerators, in the Appliance Forum, where people were complaining that they could hear ice being made in their refrigerators, whilst laying in their bedroom - around the corner, down the hall, in the other wing, across the grounds, in the next zip code, across the time zone line - it could be an hour earlier and these preternaturally gifted people would still be hearing their ice cubes drop. Okay, it was hilarious to me. I'm insensitive. I live in a house full of stampeding children and yelling women. Sorry, dear, I meant ''women firmly expressing their views''. Still, I think - kids, turn down that damn music! - sorry, can you hear me now? If your head is going to be right on the other side of the wall and you think you, or whoever you share your bed with, now or in the future*, might be light sleepers, I would really consider sound-insulating that wall. After all, it is not just the refrigerator that makes noise. Say that person A goes off for her beauty sleep, leaving person B to scrub the pots, do the dishes, clean the counters. All that inconsiderate disposal grinding, pot banging, dish clattering, cabinet door closing, and dishwasher running might possibly put a furrow in person A's delicate brow, no? Somewhere toward the end of the thread linked, there is some info on sound insulating methods. You will have to research this yourself, your contractor may not know. If he suggests simply screwing on a second layer of drywall, then you'll know, that he, doesn't. * One of my friends, when arguing with her husband over an idiosyncratic house he wanted to buy and she didn't, said ''someday, you'll die, and my next boyfriend and I won't be able to sell this house''. That must be powerful logic, because she won that argument, as she wins all arguments. Or, maybe it's because she has a pistol. No, I meant, is a pistol. Here is a link that might be useful: Link...See MoreBedroom doors Open or Closed while Entertaining
Comments (34)It may be a cultural thing (UK born but lived here for 25+ years) but closed. I'm not nuts about house tours either unless it is family or very close friends. To me bedrooms are private space, however nicely decorated. :-) Sue36, I'd have been livid in your place and that relative would never have been invited back! I do leave the guest room and the upstairs bathroom door open if we are having enough guests to need the coat space and upstairs bathroom. That is to make them easy to find and to discourage people from barging into the other bedrooms and linen closet. For smaller numbers, people use the powder room (door always kept closed*) and coat closet downstairs. * FYI, most Europeans have locks on bathroom doors, use them, and prefer to keep them closed. I'm not sure whether this is a germ control or a privacy thing. I still find it disconcerting if I'm not to be able to lock myself in the loo during those private moments, and to rely solely on the US closed door convention, LOL....See MoreClose off doorway to convert dining room to bedroom
Comments (10)Lilac, welcome to the group. If that doorway is 70 inches WIDE, that will be too wide for a tension rod to span. However, you might think about getting a SHOWER ROD, WHICH IS ABOUT 6 FEET LONG, and a diameter of more than one inch. You could even put a sexy shower curtain on that rod and also hang the canvas drop cloths on the same rod. Shower hooks are great, or even the set of shower rings. I have used the 9 strand 100 pound stainless steel picture hanging wire to hang curtains. In my case, I bought a 100 foot roll of it, but you can get it in lengths. OR, you might go to a place like RESTORE which is a Habitat for Humanity resale place. They have many many doors that came off closets, like the bifold shutter doors. I've found many nice doors that way. If you cannot screw them to the woodwork, and you want to take any purchased items with you when you go, think about attaching the doors to a bookcase or entertainment center at the side so you can open/close the bifolds. It is possible, depending on the size of the room and the location of that wide doorway in it, that you could position an entertainment center in front of the opening, and leave only enough space to have a 28 inch entry to your bedroom. I'm assuming that closing the passage to the kitchen from the dining room will still give you another entry to your kitchen? Quite an interesting question, and you can definitely make your choice attractive. Also note, I use the regular canvas painter drop cloths, available in all sizes, very washable and quite durable, as slip cover for my furniture, bird cages, curtains, pillow covers, bed throws, and I can paint on them and make them tough and hard for small rugs at the doors. Very washable, very durable, and the cheapest thing you can buy. Sort of the color of oatmeal denim, and as durable as a canvas bag....See MoreIs it unhealthy to sleep with the windows closed in your bedroom? co2?
Comments (27)Elmer, firstly, I wasn't disagreeing with you. Second, if you didn't notice I 'liked' your post. Third, my job is research on US vs other OECD countries - where we are doing well and where we need to improve. As to Google, it is actually a great resource that most people doing research at any level will use extensively. Even though I do this research as a core part of my career, I frequently learn stuff in comments from 'amateurs' on the internet who I frequently find know more about some particularly topic than I do. Finally, living somewhere can certainly give insight but rarely gives understanding. How many people who live in the U.S. understand why we have the highest road fatality and injury rates of all developed countries? Or even know that we do? Or understand our poor IAQ issues? I spend a lot of time outside of the U.S. doing research and it's important but I actually do not consider that very critical to most of our research. Now, alcohol. You have to look below macro level numbers. There is a vast difference in a population all having 2 or 3 drinks per day and one that has the same or even less per capita consumption but where half the population doesn't drink at all and the other half has 4-6 drinks per day. That's an extreme example but hopefully makes my point. What we are seeing is that in the U.S. the 20% heaviest drinkers are consuming about 73% of the total alcohol consumed in the country. In Finland the top 20% consume 67% and in France the top 20% consume 49%. When all of the numbers or run we find that the 20% heaviest drinkers in Finland consume the most, those in the U.S. are a surprisingly close second and those in France are a quite distant third (of these three countries). This even though per capita France consumes more (11.8 liters/yr) than the U.S. (9.7 liters/yr). Alcohol consumption in the U.S. is much more concentrated than it is in France. Is alcohol good or bad? There is increasing scientific information about the benefits of moderate alcohol consumption though we still don't fully understand why it's good. Perhaps a much better bit to consider is that if you look at the healthiest populations in the world (the Blue Zones of; Ikaria Greece, Sardinia Italy, Okinawa Japan, Loma Linda US and the Nicoya Peninsula Costa Rica) you'll find that one thing they have in common and that is believed to contribute to their good health is a few drinks of alcohol per day. (Loma Linda is a partial exception as they don't drink as much so there's research being done to see if there is something else providing the same benefit or if it's simply an issue of here are 11 healthy things - pick 9). How much alcohol is good and when is it too much? We actually don't know. Just when we think it has to do with someone's size or what they eat or when they drink relative to when they eat... we seem to find too many exceptions to call it a rule. And then layered on top of this are concerns about liability in the U.S. Science now seems to point to any alcoholic drink or most alcoholic drinks as providing similar benefits but among the healthiest populations it's almost purely red wine (which we use to think was the healthiest before deciding that it wasn't but maybe we should reconsider?). What we do know is that there is very strong evidence that 2-4 glasses of red wine per day appear to be beneficial. Similarly, there is growing evidence that any level of CO2 above 600ppm is not good. If so, then how bad is 610? Or 700? or 1000? For how long of exposure? Is any harm cumulative or temporal? And something interesting brought up to me this morning - can a glass of red wine cancel out any harm caused by sleeping in a room with 1200ppm of CO2? Now, I'm going to ride my bike to the pub for a healthy pint rather than continue to sit here drinking water....See MoreMichael Lamb
6 years agocpartist
6 years ago
PROMark Bischak, Architect
6 years agocheri127
6 years agocheri127
6 years agoThe builder and HVAC contractor are telling me there's no other place for it. Why I wasn't consulted before it was run, I don't know, but I really should have caught it sooner. Now the porch ceiling and roof are installed and the drywall is finished and painted inside. I'm not even sure where else we could run the ducts. I don't even know how long the lines can be or how many turns they can make. The HVAC contractor said that we could vent down out the crawl space but then it would be under the porch. I actually think that's better than stinking up the bedrooms. I'm not convinced the odors won't get through closed windows. He said we could run the duct in the crawlspace to a different location but that would require a fan and we're not allowed to have any mechanicals below the BFE since Sandy. I'm so upset about this! :'(
Here's the back and side layout. The hood is where that middle window was. Follow that middle post to the gable roof and that's where the cap is, but closer to the house. If anyone has any ideas, I'm all ears.
cpartist
6 years agovinmarks
6 years agocheri127
6 years agocheri127
6 years agoartemis_ma
6 years agocheri127
6 years agoStill have the cook sleep in that bedroom.
I'm the cook and I'm NOT sleeping in that bedroom!!!! LOL!
But I have very expensive Marvin windows, and I would always smell chicken cooking odors
I hope our windows seal out the smell. Otherwise, it's going to be an expensive fix. Right now we have a grill right outside the dining room window and I can't smell it if the window is closed. Fingers crossed!
The other thing is that it's so darn ugly!!!! I wonder if I can paint it to match the roof.
Mark Bischak, Architect