O.K, I posted this question on the shower/bath forum and I have gotten very helpful responses, but since in new home construction it is the HVAC people who handle all the venting, I thought I'd run this by you and see what you thought.
I live in central Maryland in a house built in 1981. The master bath on the 2nd floor has a window and no exhaust fan. It shares a wall with a full bath that has an exhaust fan that is vented by uninsulated rigid metal ducting to the roof and is attached to some sort of cap that doesn't look anything like what I have seen roof vent caps look like. The metal ducting runs at an angle of probably 45 degrees to reach the back slope of our roof.
Anyway, I am having an electrician install some overhead lights in the 2nd floor bedrooms and thought I'd have his crew install an exhaust fan in the master bath while they were here but I am confused about the best way to vent the exhaust. The electrician is an expert in electricity, not venting. He said he could run the duct to the side of our house, which would be 22-23 feet of ducting. Going out the front of our house would only be about 2 feet because the master bath is in the front of the house, but who wants to look at a vent cover on the front of our siding!! I haven't asked the electrician if his crew knows how to vent it out the roof using a roof vent cap. My husband was thinking he could maybe try the roof vent if they say they don't have experience with it, but he is not much of a handyman with no experience of this either, so I am worried about that.
My research indicates people are divided on if venting to the soffit vents under our roof is a good way to vent or not. I got quotes from 2 electricians on my work, and one said soffitt venting is o.k. for central Maryland and the other said he thought some of the moist air would come back in through the soffit intake vents and cracks and gaps in the soffit materials, etc, and cause mold in the attic. The internet has people saying yes it is fine and others saying no, it is not good. Of course it would be the easiest way to vent. I am assuming the electrician means cutting through the soffit perforations and actually putting on a soffit vent, but maybe he means taping the duct to the top of the perforations from inside the attic.
So what do you all of you think? If it truly is not a good idea to soffit vent, then I am wondering if we should we vent out the side, which would be 22-23 feet or to the roof, which would place a roof vent cap on the front slope of our roof, very near the pipe that is on the front slope of our roof which I think is the pipe that vents out the sewer gas. I don't even know if it is safe to cut a hole near that vent pipe besides the fact we then have two ugly things on our roof to be seen from the front of our house.
I talked to a Fantech tech rep about an inline fan system before I discovered our hallway bath was vented to the roof and he said running duct 23 feet would be o.k. since each bath is about 8 X 8. A member on the shower forum brought up the point that 23 feet could cause air resistance, leading to condensation, so I am not sure if I should rely on the fan tech guy. Plus the Fantech guy based his answer on if I connected both baths to share a 230 CFM fan, not if I put a separate 100 CFM fan with 23 feet ducting out the side. Please share your thoughts and experience!
I live in central Maryland in a house built in 1981. The master bath on the 2nd floor has a window and no exhaust fan. It shares a wall with a full bath that has an exhaust fan that is vented by uninsulated rigid metal ducting to the roof and is attached to some sort of cap that doesn't look anything like what I have seen roof vent caps look like. The metal ducting runs at an angle of probably 45 degrees to reach the back slope of our roof.
Anyway, I am having an electrician install some overhead lights in the 2nd floor bedrooms and thought I'd have his crew install an exhaust fan in the master bath while they were here but I am confused about the best way to vent the exhaust. The electrician is an expert in electricity, not venting. He said he could run the duct to the side of our house, which would be 22-23 feet of ducting. Going out the front of our house would only be about 2 feet because the master bath is in the front of the house, but who wants to look at a vent cover on the front of our siding!! I haven't asked the electrician if his crew knows how to vent it out the roof using a roof vent cap. My husband was thinking he could maybe try the roof vent if they say they don't have experience with it, but he is not much of a handyman with no experience of this either, so I am worried about that.
My research indicates people are divided on if venting to the soffit vents under our roof is a good way to vent or not. I got quotes from 2 electricians on my work, and one said soffitt venting is o.k. for central Maryland and the other said he thought some of the moist air would come back in through the soffit intake vents and cracks and gaps in the soffit materials, etc, and cause mold in the attic. The internet has people saying yes it is fine and others saying no, it is not good. Of course it would be the easiest way to vent. I am assuming the electrician means cutting through the soffit perforations and actually putting on a soffit vent, but maybe he means taping the duct to the top of the perforations from inside the attic.
So what do you all of you think? If it truly is not a good idea to soffit vent, then I am wondering if we should we vent out the side, which would be 22-23 feet or to the roof, which would place a roof vent cap on the front slope of our roof, very near the pipe that is on the front slope of our roof which I think is the pipe that vents out the sewer gas. I don't even know if it is safe to cut a hole near that vent pipe besides the fact we then have two ugly things on our roof to be seen from the front of our house.
I talked to a Fantech tech rep about an inline fan system before I discovered our hallway bath was vented to the roof and he said running duct 23 feet would be o.k. since each bath is about 8 X 8. A member on the shower forum brought up the point that 23 feet could cause air resistance, leading to condensation, so I am not sure if I should rely on the fan tech guy. Plus the Fantech guy based his answer on if I connected both baths to share a 230 CFM fan, not if I put a separate 100 CFM fan with 23 feet ducting out the side. Please share your thoughts and experience!