Venting Bathroom Fan Through Soffit Or Roof
Venting through a roof vent or exhausting them in the attic could cause moisture problems and rot.
Venting bathroom fan through soffit or roof. Opposed to the traditional practices of venting a bathroom fan through a side wall or roof you can also vent it through a soffit which is much preferable in some cases as we will see in this article. When a bathroom exhaust duct terminates in a soffit it drips. Even for the second story bathroom you can access the attic to vent the moisture outside. Vent your bath and kitchen exhaust fans through the roof through a special roof hood.
In cold weather it forms icicles. By exhausting warm moist air in that area you will most certainly cause a mold problem in your attic usually very evident on the underside of the roof sheathing close to the area where where the exhaust outlet is found play it safe. This eliminates the need for you to make a hole in the roof or your walls. The master bathroom and the 2nd bathroom vent through the roof and through the same opening.
If you are looking for a diy install roof ventilation is a risky job. That s why wall terminations are preferable to soffit terminations. The 2 pipes one a 4 master and the other a 3 2nd do not go through the ceiling but into a common box that goes through the roof. Cooler air which is found under your roof overhang soffit is drawn up through the perforations of the soffit and exhausted through your roof venting system.
But if you have a vent several feet away 10 feet is required for noxious exhaust but bathroom exhaust is not considered dangerous and not subject to this you do not have a problem code wise or not. Can i vent bathroom fan through soffit. So then the argument is that your humid bathroom exhaust comes out and is sucked back into the attic by the soffit vents built into most roof attic systems. And the closer the termination is to the soffit vents that supply ventilation air to the attic the more likely that moisture from the bathroom will be drawn into the attic.
The point of a bathroom exhaust vent or any vent really is to remove hot moist air from the house. A down through soffit exhaust vent design by leaving warm air in the exhaust duct when the fan is off creates a heat trap that reduces heat loss out of the bathroom through the exhaust fan duct when the fan is off in comparison with up routed vents or even horizontal vents through a gable end wall. Going through the roof guarantees it will go up in the air and away from your home i would love to see a copy of the building code that suggests venting a bathroom fan through the soffit is recommended. The 2nd bathroom vent drips on the floor and is ruining the ceiling.
If you are also amongst the people who are interested in avoiding making a hole in the roof and get the deed done using a soffit you have come to the right place. However natural air flow from the outside will bring. As the warm moist air leaves the bathroom through a soffit it leaves in a downward motion. The best exhaust fan venting is through smooth rigid ducts with taped joints and screwed to a special vent hood.