Construction Zone: building, remodeling, additions: Stove vents to attic?

Forum: Construction Zone: building, remodeling, additions Replies: 7, Views: 64 Print -

Author Content MikeyBth Eugene, OR July 14, 2007 1:45 PM Post #3735609 Buying a home built in '56. Just had the inspection done & looks to be in good shape. One problem though: The pipe for the stove vent goes directly into the attic & doesn't vent to the outside. Obviously a fire hazard, since flames can travel. There are 3 roof vents & the nearest one is about 5 feet away (horizontally). Should the stove vent have its own roof vent that goes directly up, or could I route the pipe to the existing roof vent? Thanks in advance for your replies! BackyardZoo Poquoson, VA (Zone 7b) July 14, 2007 10:30 PM Post #3737127 This really depends on the size/strength of your fan. Our range vent came with venting instructions that included the max length of the pipe as well as how many angles the pipe could have. Most kitchen vents not being terribly strong, I'd suggest the straight-out method. Ours is an almost-commercial-grade fan and it gave a max of 15' and 2 90-degree angles, IIRC. There's also the issue of grease build-up. A stove vent will often get a coating of grease from cooking in it. You would not want to combine this with, for example, a dryer vent where the heat might potentially be enough to ignite it (yes, this would be an extremely hot dryer, but weirder things have happened). This is also why it's a good idea to clean the vents every now & again - but almost nobody does... zion_lover delhi (India) July 15, 2007 2:58 PM Post #3739220 BackyardZoo has almost left no words for me to explain anything..thanks BackyardZoo...that was really a help!! MikeyBth Eugene, OR July 15, 2007 3:43 PM Post #3739349 Ditto. Much appreciated, BZ! BackyardZoo Poquoson, VA (Zone 7b) July 16, 2007 11:09 AM Post #3742061 Glad to help! We built (most of) our own house, so I now have an absolute WEALTH of information that is pretty useless to me now (we have NO plans to build another! ;-) ) so I'm very happy when what I learned can help someone else! ;-) Photographer Moxee, WA (Zone 4a) July 17, 2007 11:07 AM Post #3746165 I'm no expert ... but the idea of having combined vents from stove & dryer (a lousy example) could be extremely problematic. We had a near idiot construct this place and our dryer vent actually goes up inside an interior wall to the roof. Lint build-up combined with the grease from the stove top could almost as explosive as old greasy rags in a mechanics garage bin. Venting a range via straight up method is standard for sure and safest. That is why homes generally have several vents here and there. This place will eventually have a dryer vent going out a side wall ... a couple new exterior walls + a new ceiling, an entire new set of roof trusses, new OSB covering the trusses and new roofing material ... like copper or metal. Kelly pepper23 KC Metro area, MO (Zone 5b) July 19, 2007 9:13 PM Post #3757010 Sounds like you are pretty much building a new house again Kelly. Photographer Moxee, WA (Zone 4a) July 27, 2007 3:41 AM Post #3784719 Pepper23, That was a bit of an exaggeration on my part. We'll be extending part of 1 exterior wall and increasing up the exterior wall height by about 2 ft on both sides. We'll work our way westward across the length of the house removing the old roof and replacing it with new rounded barrell trusses and a new rounded roof to match ... we'll do it in 4 or 8 foot increments. Before we jump into the roof removal we'll add an annex to the north that is about 2k sq ft. The old fix-er-upper we're in now can be repaired at a leisurely pace. The one thing I learned as a kid is that carpentry is mostly sweat and time. My dad was a CB in the Navy during WWII. When he returned from the war ... he built homes in the evenings and weekends while working his way through college and then continued to build homes later when he got a day job. I lived in about 25 different homes before I graduated from HS. I picked up quite a bit of on the job carpentry training as a kid. Another of my b-in-l's is a local General Contractor. Given my varied exposures ... I've picked up general know-how for home foundations, cement work, masonry, sill plate, framing; wiring, plumbing, etc. I also play golf on the weekends with a grade school buddy who inherited his dad's construction firm. If I ever need an answer ... he's got it. I don't ask my b-in-l anything about construction because my sister thinks I should be hiring her husband to do all the work. This message was edited Jul 27, 2007 9:41 PM This message was edited Aug 7, 2007 10:08 AM

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