You're purchasing a top of the line Wolf so I would bet that cost isn't an issue. Why then is cost an issue with the hood? It shouldn't be. That's like buying a sports car but using old spare tires. Sounds and looks good......in idle. Wolf recommends 900 CFM for that range, but with a griddle, you may want 1100 or 1200. Wolf also recommends a 42" wide hood. With a griddle I would say that is very important. Some manufacturer's supply a duct for 8 or 9 foot ceilings, where as some, like Vent-A-Hood, offer it in addition. Regarding noise, the LARGER the blower, the QUIETER it will be for everyday use. In my opinion, for less than $2000, you will be forced to get less CFM and less width than you would like. This will make the hood noisier, and not very effective. A Vent-A-Hood meeting the recommended Wolf criteria, will be over $3000. The Broan, with an external blower of 900 or 1200 CFM would be a good unit but will still be over $2000, probably close to $2300-2500. DO NOT get the internal blower, even though it costs less. The extension on this is for an 8-9 ft ceiling. If you can meet the criteria with a Faber, in width and power, that may be the way to go.

Unless you have a grill, I wouldn't sweat the particular fan unit or CFM's. A good large hood, yes, and quiet on the lower speeds, but I have a feeling that the diameter of the duct (larger is better) and how it exits the home is more important than the brand. If you like to grill fatty meats, then a fan hood becomes a very important subject.. Including the 'capture area' over the cooktop, and the blower power. Some of the items people like to 'grill' on top, cook very nicely under the broiler in the oven, and it helps to keep down the smoke.

OK, I"ll ramble on a bit on these topics. I have a Wolf Pro Island hood (60-some inches wide, made by Independent) and a Wolf 1500 cfm nominal roof fan (actually made by Broan), with a Fantech silencer in between. The hiss through the baffles at maximum speed is modest, and certainly not inhibiting to conversation (unless one is whispering sweet nothings across the cooktop). The crackle and hiss of Wok cooking is louder. The silencer (really a muffler) is the only addition you could make to reduce fan noise further. To extend Trevor's remarks, the fan blades are not perfectly aerodynamic, and shed turbulence that causes noise. Also, there will be turbulence in the ducts that produces noise. There could also be motor rumble. Few manufacturers provide the essential facts about their hoods, viz., noise versus flow rate, and pressure drop versus flow rate. Occasionally, one may run across a commercial hood with a pressure drop spec., but commercial kitchens are so noisy that baffle noise is the least of anyone's problems. I'm not sure of Independent's status at present, but ModernAire is a potential hood source, as well as Abbaka and even local sheet metal fabricators providing hoods for commercial application. (You probably won't want one that meets the commercial requirements, but derivative designs might be suitable.) Broan is another candidate source. The main goal is capture and containment, and this requires a cavity for collection and a flow rate sufficient to remove the effluent before it "reflects" back out of the hood. There are other sources of hoods, but some tend to emphasize aesthetics over function, so if function is more important, evaluate them from the point of view of capture and containment. Unfortunately, the best we can do usually is guess at the fluid dynamics taking place in a candidate hood; the truth requires careful measurement, usually with Schlieren photography to see what is happening to the effluent as a function of cfm. kas

Removing Paint from Siding. There are two tools that, in our experience, are very good at taking paint off siding, and a lot better than the traditional heat and scrape, or scrape and sand methods.. 1. Silent Paint Remover is one. This tool is a GIANT STEP above heat guns and the dangers they cause. The other is 2. Paint Shaver. This is a mechanical, high speed stripper that uses replaceable carbide blades. Which one we use depends on the paint to be removed. Silent Paint Remover is slower, but does a very neat job requiring very little sanding. Paint Shaver is faster, but takes a bit of practice to remove the paint without putting a lot of crescent-shaped divots in your siding that require a lot of sanding out. One mistake to guard against using this tool is setting the depth adjustment for too-aggressive a cut. You don't need to remove all the paint, just the loose paint, so don't try to get down to bare wood in one pass. When you are removing paint, you hope the original painter did a lousy job so it will come off easily. If he was good at his job, it's going to come off hard no matter what tool you use. Keep in mind that the EPA lead abatement rules govern the safe removal of any exterior lead paint. As a homeowner, they may not apply to you, but follow them anyway for everyone's safety. Both of these tools are commonly available at a deep discount over retail from e-Bay and Graig's list. We have used and cannot recommend the Metabo or Wagner machines. They don't work nearly as well as the suggested machines. Repairing Plaster To repair cracked or falling-off true plaster you need to reattach it to the wood or metal lath underneath. The traditional way is with screws and plaster washers. These usually extend proud of the wall, making them difficult to conceal except with thick coats of patching plaster. The better way is to glue the plaster to the lath. There is a commercial kit to do this called Plaster Magic which we like, but which we also think is pretty expensive. We just use our own, locally available materials, that work just as well and are a lot less expensive. Here's what to do: 1. Using a concrete bit, drill about 3/8" holes in the plaster until you hit the lath -- do not drill through the lath. You will feel it when you reach the lath. You will want to drill about 1" on both sides of any crack, putting a hole about every 4-6" along the crack. Its a judgment call. Drill as many holes as you think you will need. If in doubt, more is usually better. For large loose areas, drill about every 4"-6" in the field and every 4" around the perimeter of the loose plaster area. Sometimes you will hit the gaps between lath strips. Don't worry about it. Just move about 1" away and drill again. 2. With your trusty shop vac, suck the plaster dust out of each hole. This is important, plaster dust interferes with the adhesive. 3. Using your caulk gun and a good construction adhesive (we like Power Grab, but any quality adhesive should work. In a pinch, we have used most of them at one time or another and none have failed.) squirt a good glob of adhesive into each hole. This will probably be messy, so have some mineral spirits and rags around to cleanup any drip-out. 4. Make a bunch of 4" square wood washers. You can make them out of job scrap. We use 1/2" or 3/4" OSB most of the time just because it happens to be around. Drill a hole in the center of each washer - 3/16" or 1/4" ought to do it. 5. Line the washers up with the holes you drilled earlier and, using a drywall screw, attach the washer to the wood lath beneath the plaster. You don't need to screw into every hole, about every 4-6 holes is a good rule of thumb. What you want to do is put even pressure over the loose plaster area and draw it back to the lath. This will allow the adhesive you just applied to bond the lath tightly to the plaster once again. As you tighten the screw, you will feel the plaster draw in. DO NOT try to sink the screws all the way in one go. Draw them in gradually moving from screw to screw. This lessens the risk of cracking the plaster further. When all the screws are sunk, you are done until tomorrow. Go have a beer. 6. After 24 hours, remove the screws, put them back in the box (they can be reused) and throw the washers away. The plaster is now stuck solidly to the lath once again. There are no screws or washers in the wall - so finishing the plaster is much simplified, and this fix is strong. The adhesive sticks like, well, like glue. 7. Using patching plaster, a setting joint compound, or even regular joint compound, patch the screw holes, cracks and fill in any missing plaster. The purists will tell you that joint compound has a different texture than real plaster and is softer, so you should not use it. It does have a different texture and is softer, but so what? The paint will hide any differences. 8. We recommend against paper tape on cracks. What we use is nylon screening -- the stuff in screen doors. buy a role from your hardware store and cut it into 6" strips while it is still rolled up -- its easy to cut with normal shop shears or even your utility knife. Use this in place of nylon mesh tape -- it works better. We embed it in a thin coat of joint compound, then, when the first coat of mud has set, mud over it. Its wider footprint is better at stabilizing cracks than narrow nylon mesh tape. In fact, we have never had a repair fail using this method. Removing Layers of Paint from Interior Trim Definitely use a commercial stripping service if you have one in your area. At $1.00 - $2.00 per linear foot, the price is well worth not having to deal with the mess of stripping in place or on saw horses in your garage. After stripping be sure to sand with a fine sandpaper to remove the fuzzing that stripping causes. Good luck.