The vent hole is where the current vent recirculates the air back into the room? Then it's not an exterior vent. It's just an interior loop that does you no good. And yes, the condo board most surely DOES have say as to how you punch holes in your exterior. Start by asking your neighbors what they have done for ventilation. And then get an HVAC expert in to examine the situation before you get too far into the design phase. Once you get their recommendation, you can approach the condo board about alterations to the unit's exterior. Good luck! Most boards aren't that willing to work with you on something like this.

Those prices seem outrageously out of line to me! In early 2010, TOTAL cost for ours, including the actual working vent was less than $2500. Here is a picture of my kitchen where you can see the hood. My custom cabinet maker charged me $800 to make the custom range hood cover out of clear coated mahogany. (I JUST looked up his invoice to make absolutely sure that I was remembering the price correctly.) He designed and built the cover so it would fit over this stainless steel vent hood that we purchased from Sears for about $1500 on sale. The purchased vent rests on a couple of very small ledges inside the custom cover and fits so that bottom edge of the stainless steel hood sits about about 1 inch higher than the lower edge of the curved section on the front face of my vent cover. That way the purchased vent is completely hidden by the vent cover but the controls are easily accessible. In the shot below, (taken from underneath) you can see how the purchased vent fits inside the custom cover and you can see one of the "ledges" at the side of the vent. BTW, I just looked and Sears currently has the exact same stainless steel hood we used on sale for $1626. Here is a link to it: http://www.sears.com/vent-a-hood-euroline-series-model-wall-mount/p-SPM7417651910?prdNo=13&blockNo=13&blockType=G13 Or for even less money, Sears also NOW sells a 27" Broan range vent that is designed specifically to be installed in a custom enclosure for less than $600. See the link below. When we were building, I couldn't find ANY vent hoods that were designed to be installed inside a custom cabinet. (They may have been available but I could not find them for sale to consumers anywhere and I'm usually pretty good at finding things.) Thus we paid extra for the fancy Modern Euro "finish" on ours and then paid to have a custom cabinet cover made to give it the old-fashioned look we like! So, even if cabinet builders are now charging twice what we paid 3 years ago to have our vent cover made, it still looks to me like you should still be able to get the look you want for under $2500. You might need to pay a bit more if a very high powered vent fan is important to you...but the cover alone SHOULD NOT run you anywhere close to $4000. Sounds to me like maybe your cabinet maker probably ONLY knows how to make cabinets (boxes) and drawers and then probably purchases pre-made doors to go on those. He's probably doesn't know HOW to make a vent cover and the mere idea of making one scares him. Thus, he quoted you that utterly ridiculous price in order to scare you off from ordering a vent cover while still hanging on to the rest of your cabinet business. If it were me, I'd talk to another cabinet builder or two. And if by any chance, you're in my neck of the woods (central Texas), I'd be delighted to give you my custom cabinet builder's name. He was absolutely terrific! Here is a link that might be useful: vent designed for installation in a custom mantle style hood.

dueceluxe I'm not sure if you ever got an answer to your question, but I'm going to chime in because in 2008 I was in the same boat. We have a 48" BlueStar in a 12' island, with a prep sink located about 48" away, which is where I spend my prep time. Frankly I wish people would focus on answering the direct questions, vs. lecturing about what percentage of prep/cook/cleanup time people "should" be spending in their kitchens, or in which direction they should be facing when doing so. The OP stated they were looking for an island hood for their cooktop, not IF they should be putting the cooktop in the island. For us personally, my prepping and cooking is very intertwined, and we entertain a lot. Ergo, I want to be facing my guests while prepping AND cooking, and not facing my guests during cleanup (THAT sink is behind the prep area against a wall), so the cooktop in the island is what we did and we (and guests) LOVE it and wouldn't go back. It's not for everyone, but it's definitely right for me. Having said all that, yeah, sadly the hood is going to be expensive. We went with a Best by Broan IEX222 51" with a 1500 CFM externally mounted blower. The pros are that the thing will suck up ANYTHING at full speed. The con is that we've had it for 7 years, and unfortunately have gone through 4 control modules or transformers on the thing (everything on it stops working). So nn my frustration I'm now researching replacement hoods, which is going to be $$. It's the price you pay for the style you want. Currently evaluating Cavaliere and Imperial 54" hoods....

You don't need a roofer if they vent goes out through the wall. That said, the first difficulty is where you can or cannot hang the hood as the joists in the ceiling may be in the way and you have to offset from your desired location. You can open up the ceiling in the space where the duct will run and see if there is wiring and plumbing that gets in the way. You can do as much as you feel competent enough to do. Let me say that refinishing flat drywall is a PITA.