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When we bought our house, both our bathrooms didn’t have exhaust fans. They both did have windows but we wanted a fan too. We had an electrician install fans in both bathrooms. They both passed inspection at the time.

When we started our master bathroom remodel, we found out that our city had a new requirement for bathroom fans. They are required to have a humidity sensor that automatically turns the fan on and off. So we knew we would have to replace our fans but figured we would just have to switch out the units. Mike headed into the attic to see how easy it would be to switch them out:

He found out that the exhaust fans were never vented out of the attic! I’m not sure how they passed inspection. The unit was covered with insulation with no additional ductwork:

No wonder we’ve had moisture issues in the bathrooms and why everything was rusting. We should’ve checked this sooner! I guess it makes sense that an electrician wouldn’t be the one to add venting out through the roof but he should’ve at least told us he didn’t complete it – or the inspector should’ve caught it. We called around to get estimates for an HVAC person to handle the venting but apparently no one likes to do that kind of work because we got the runaround from various companies. We gave up and decided to do it ourselves. Mike did most of the hard work. I just researched how to do everything and assisted him.

Navi helped too, of course:

The old fan (I hated the style now so I didn’t mind seeing it go):

Mike first installed the new fan units in the attic. He braced the new units to the joists and connected the existing electrical wires. I had to hold the unit up from underneath in the bathroom while he did all that work – but still I had the easy job:

Mike was a real trooper working in the attic with only 3 ft clearance (at the highest point) of vertical space (he’s 6’4″). Adding the exhaust pipe:

Our son helped a little too:

Before leaving the attic, Mike nailed into the roof to designate where the roof vents should go:

Mike wore a mask while in the attic. This is what the filters looked like afterwards. Imagine breathing all that in without a mask!:

We found this video very helpful for installing the roof vents:

Mike headed to the roof with his shopping bag of tools and the extension cord wrapped around his waist LOL:

He first cut away the shingles:

Then, he cut a hole in the roof using a hole saw:

Installing the exhaust vents:

Mike nailed them down and used roof sealant around the vents to waterproof them:

Finishing up on the roof – showing both units:

The finished fan in the bathroom:

This project was one of our most complex ones but we took our time and researched everything to make sure we did it properly. You definitely need 2 people for this project. I’m so thankful that Mike was willing to take this on! We learned a lot from doing it.

I love our new fans! They are much quieter and lower profile. The automatic turn on/off is cool too.

It’s been a year and so far they are holding up with no water issues from the roof. We don’t have any moisture issues anymore either.

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RECEIPT
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BATHROOM FANS PROJECT

COMPLETED

MARCH 2017

TIME FRAME

4 DAYS

DESCRIPTION

AMOUNT

NuTone humidity exhaust fan x 2

$584

Roof vents x 2

$84

Ducts (rigid, elbow, & clamps) x 2

$60

Safety mask respirator

$33

Hole saw

$21

Misc (tape, roofing cement, nails)

$17

TOTAL (9% SALES TAX INCLUDED)

$799