Before I start cutting...

[mustangmike6996]

I installed a bathroom vent fan and I now need to add the roof vent for the hose hookup. Before I start, is there any tips/tricks/hints/guidelines that you recommend? I am located in MI so the roof will see snow. Being water tight is a must. I have had a few people tell me to cut the hole in the roof, tuck the leading edge under the higher shingles(apply tar or roofing sealant) underneath the base and the bottoms of the shingles.

What do you guys use for cutting?

Any advice would be great.

 

[JamesW84]

I used a jigsaw. You want the higher shingles over the top of the flat part of the vent base and the lower part of the vent base over the shingles. I used geocel sealant around the edges of mine. Google it...i think family handyman and ask the builder have articles about this.

 

[LS6 Tommy]

Mine goes out the side of the house...

Tommy

 

[mustangmike6996]

I used a jigsaw. You want the higher shingles over the top of the flat part of the vent base and the lower part of the vent base over the shingles. I used geocel sealant around the edges of mine. Google it...i think family handyman and ask the builder have articles about this.

Ok, that is what I was trying to explain. Ill look up the Geocel

Mine goes out the side of the house...

Tommy

I cant route mine outside of the house due to location. The best I could do for side exit is a soffit vent, which I don't think I'd want.

 

[James-W]

I have two fan vents in the roof, one for the kitchen fan above the range and one for the bathroom fan. Both of mine were put in when the roof was shingled and a 3 inch hole saw was used. The vent is nailed down to the roof with shingle nails and the shingles come over the top and the sides of the vent. The bottom of the vent is on top of the shingles below the vent.

When you have a lot of snow on the roof, the vent tends to not work so well until the warm air from the house melts the snow enough so that the air can flow more freely. If the vents get covered with snow really bad, you can always remove the snow from around the vent but in some cases it may mean getting up on a slippery roof to do it. For me, because of the placement of the vents, I can remove the snow from around the vents by standing on a ladder. It may be a good idea if you were to plan the vent placement so that you can do the same.

 

[James-W]

I cant route mine outside of the house due to location. The best I could do for side exit is a soffit vent, which I don't think I'd want.

A soffit vent is not all bad, there isn't much chance of it getting covered up with snow and causing it not to work.

 

[mustangmike6996]

A soffit vent is not all bad, there isn't much chance of it getting covered up with snow and causing it not to work.

The soffit vent would be easier to cut and install with the exception of trying to reach the soffit from the attic (1 story house) due to the pitch of the roof. Its doable but I might need to recruit the wife to help route the vent hose. She has longer and skinnier arms than I do.

I have an exhaust fan in the kitchen with the same style vent as I bought for the bathroom, haven't had an issue with snow covering it due to the way the sun hits the roof.

 

[CNGsaves]

Sounds like you have a pretty good plan with roof penetration.

Be sure to PLAN for length of hose and direction that exhaust leaves the vent fan in ceiling of bathroom (ie dirty work crawling around in attic). Also SEAL every potential chance for dirt/dust for getting into either the fax box or the hose assembly - - ie lots of duct tape.

For roof penetration, +1 to plan your hole and drill pilot hole with paddle bit (from underside) and finish the circle with jigsaw while on roof. I used lots of BlackJack roofing tar on entire perimeter of hole on BOTH surfaces (ie "backbutter" the roof side and also goober the vent cap). Your nails should be going THROUGH tar as they go in hole so that it's self sealing. Good luck.

 

[mustangmike6996]

Thanks guys. Yes the hose will reach. Everything is installed except the roof vent. The hose will reach my planned spot. I plan on using a great amount of sealer. The roof is in great shape and Im planning on keeping it that way. lol

 

[Leaflessshadetree]

The soffit vent would be easier to cut and install with the exception of trying to reach the soffit from the attic (1 story house) due to the pitch of the roof. Its doable but I might need to recruit the wife to help route the vent hose. She has longer and skinnier arms than I do.

I have an exhaust fan in the kitchen with the same style vent as I bought for the bathroom, haven't had an issue with snow covering it due to the way the sun hits the roof.

You don't have to reach through. If you can get a stiff rod or string trough the opening. Might be easiest to take a section of soffit down and reach through.

 

[mustangmike6996]

You don't have to reach through. If you can get a stiff rod or string trough the opening. Might be easiest to take a section of soffit down and reach through.

Reaching through would be more due to the pitch of the roof and the slim amount of space between where the soffit drops off. Its will fit but I don't want to snag a roofing nail and rip the went tube.

 

[Doug B]

Should look like this when you're done.
Don't nail down the lower edge where it lays on top of the shingles,even if there are holes provided. Put some roof tar underneath it to seal it down,

 

[fury9]

Make sure you use insulated duct hose, available from the box stores in 25 ft pieces. Get some of the foil tape for the connections.

 

[RAYJAY]

is it legal to tie into the other vent you have on roof ?

 

[James-W]

is it legal to tie into the other vent you have on roof ?

I am not an authority on this, but I don't think it is permissible to tie into the vent for the plumbing system.

 

[Shiftless]

I am not an authority on this, but I don't think it is permissible to tie into the vent for the plumbing system.

James-W is right
You DEFINITELY don't want to tie into a sewer vent. Think of sewer gas migrating back into your house.
Tying into another exhaust fan might be OK. The only problem I can see is if the roof vent is blocked, then one fan will blow its exhaust into the other room.
Code requirements?? I dunno...
My bathroom exhaust fan blows through 4 inch galvanized vent across the attic and down through a hole in the eave.

 

[stikman56]

Have you considered plumbing it out the gable? We have 3 that way, they are a flapper vents, much smaller and you just paint over them, they paint nice, hardly noticeable too.

 

[larry4406]

I did this same thing about 2 weeks ago.

Pretty good tutorial here
http://www.thisoldhouse.com/toh/video/0,,20783011,00.html

I also foam sealed the fan box to the drywall on the attic side.

 

[James-W]

I did this same thing about 2 weeks ago.

Pretty good tutorial here
http://www.thisoldhouse.com/toh/video/0,,20783011,00.html

I also foam sealed the fan box to the drywall on the attic side.

Really informative video. I wasn't aware that venting thru the vented soffit would cause warm moist air to be drawn up into the attic. That is good to know.

 

[pmiranda]

Yeah... even running a vent out the side of the house too close to a vented soffit could be bad. And any leaks in a vent pipe inside the attic are going to cause moisture to escape. Another thing to worry about is the slope of the vent pipe, since you'll get condensation inside it when the attic is cold.

 

[speed bump]

I did one on my bathroom remodel and found it was way simpler to do a roof vent than a soffit vent. Pick where you want the vent to come out from below and drill a pilot hole. Go up on the roof and cut the hole with a cheap hole saw (I used one from HF I think it was $10). Trace out the shingle cut for the vent and cut it out. Install vent as per instructions. Less than a half an hour and done.

The soffit would have required 5' more duct so it wasn't venting right outside the window, laying on my stomach straddled across two trusses trying to feed it out my low pitched roof (probably still would have caught a roofing nail), and several more bends. Totally not worth it especially considering if I wouldn't have tried that method I could of avoided the attic entirely.

 

[mypov]

read through quickly not sure if someone else said this or not, but make sure you do not install the vent directly over top of the van. If you have any condensation it will leak out the fan. you want to have the insulated vent hose to run on a horizontal for a while. the moisture will evaporate in the hose and will not drip into your house...