All Our Ducts In a Row

We have a fan base! Or at least, a working fan.

Once the old kitchen fan was degreased, it was time for the fun part: reinstalling it. This thing mounts to the outside of the house, sucking air out of the kitchen and blowing it into the atmosphere. That's all great, but the machinery weighs about 40 lbs. and needs to be mounted up overhead, outside the kitchen wall. Easier said than done.

Originally, the unit was mounted on stilts about 8 feet tall. That worked fine, but the heavy wooden supports completely obstructed the kitchen window. Who wants to look at the legs holding up the vent fan? So I tore all that down and resolved to suspend the fan from above instead of propping it up from below. Again, easier said than done.

The toughest part was simply lifting the stupid thing up into position. I tried hoisting it up with ropes, but after many scrapes, tumbles, and close calls I never even got it halfway. Kathy and I were able to work together and muscle it up. Once we got it over our heads and more or less in position, we tied it off with ropes. So the think dangled in midair for a few days.

The trick then was to build permanent supports around it while keeping it hanging in place. As the support structure went together, I could gradually loosen, and finally remove, all the ropes. Before long, the fan mechanism was firmly mounted to the underside of our back deck -- almost as if we'd planned it!

Actually, we had. Our original deck had been red-tagged even before we moved in, and had to be demolished. When the new deck went in, we were careful to make sure it left a fan-sized hole right outside the kitchen. To be honest, I wasn't entirely sure we'd planned it right (or that the builders had constructed it right), and that caused some sleepless nights. What if the fan won't go back in place? What do we do then?

But it fit just fine. Not a single beam or brace was in the way. Now the fan mechanism is back in its accustomed spot, but held from above instead of from below.

The second problem was routing the exhaust vent. Sucking air out of the kitchen is only half of the equation. Where does it go after that? The health department and fire codes have strict regulations about that. The exhaust vent has to be a certain distance from the house, it can't blow towards flammable materials, etc. We didn't have a lot of options.

The old vent was J-shaped and pretty badly deteriorated after all those years out in the weather. We had a new duct fabricated and I installed it just a few days ago. A couple of coats of house paint help it look a little less conspicuous.

Oh, and then there's the electrical hookup. The fan is operated from a switch next to the stove, but those wires were cut off long ago when the deck was rebuilt. Rerouting and reconnecting the wires presented its own complications, but that eventually sorted itself out.

Fan mounted. Electrical connected. New duct installed. Everything degreased. Let's test it. Throw the switch, Igor. Hooray, it works. The hood fan drones away and sucks so much air out that it pulls the kitchen door open. Success.

So we're in business, right? Not to fast. We need official sign-off from the Fire Department.

As the fire marshal watches, the fire-suppression installers again tie balloons over all the nozzles and pull the big red handle. POOF! The CO2 cartridge blows and all the balloons inflate. Pop! Pop! Pop! They overfill and bright little scraps of balloon flutter down all over the stove. Smiles all around.

As proof that we've officially passed inspection, we get a tag tied to the handle. I feel like we won the blue ribbon at the state fair.