Bathroom vent out the side of the house?
Bathroom vent out the side of the house?
So I'm planning out a bathroom remodel and part of that is replacing the vent fan because currently mine is just venting into my attic (no bueno). I know normally bathrooms are vented out through the roof but my bathroom is on an exterior wall so I was wondering if I could just vent it out the side of the house. I'm going to be ripping open that wall anyways and I would much rather cut a hole in the side of the house than run a vent pipe up through the roof.
Also I'm in Minnesota if climate is a concern.
Where I live,the majority of exhaust vents are placed on exterior walls. I don’t see why it wouldn’t work for you. Just be sure to have some kind of weather guard on there to stop rain getting in (basically, the slats on the vent cover should point downwards).
Same here (northern Midwest US) for new construction. Although, to clarify, they're still generally routed/ducted through the attic and exit through an exterior wall.
Weird. Must just be one of those regional things. All of the ones I've ever encountered that I know of went out the roof. Good to know going out the side is normal somewhere though.
Prefacing this with I don't know much about this stuff:
I just bought a house and the vent did basically this. Issue was it back drafted into the sofets and made the attic still moist and there was mold. Without knowing what you're doing I think out the roof is the best.
I second this as one should be careful where you vent moist air. My dryer vent in the winter would draft up into my soffits as well and it caused mold. Instead of fixing the issue I just replaced my gas dryer with an all in one washer dryer that condenses the air into the drain pipe and pumps it into the drain.
Theres no sofets on my roof (only has like a 4" overhang) so that shouldn't be an issue on my house.
Well that's concerning too.
I have a bathroom vent going through the wall. No problem at all, in Wisconsin.
The vent cover has louvers that close it off, plus a shroud covering it. Weather is not a concern.
Now that you mention it I have a dryer vent that's exactly like that. If something like that works for warm moist air from a dryer then I don't see why it wouldn't work for warm moist air from a bathroom.
I don't know if it can work, but I know if you run it out too close to the roof-line it'll just go in the soffit and mold up your attic anyway.
My roof only has like a 4" overhang with no sofet so that isn't an issue in my case.
I live in New Hampshire, and our downstairs bathroom vents out the wall. It works fine!
Our house has wall vents for all 4 bathrooms, so it's definitely something allowed by code here. It works just fine, there are louvered exits on each one. It's better than venting into the attic like a lot of older houses for sure.
It won't be as efficient because it's not at the highest point, but it should work fine and is done often.
Out the side will be much better than through the roof as long as you don't place it too close and directly under a soffit air intake.
I think you'll have a tough time insulating such a vent so that your bathroom doesn't end up cold to make up for your attic being less stinky. I don't see a vent cover that is openable by air pressure being heavy enough to keep the cold from getting in when the fan isn't on. Though it might help to make the vent push the air downwards so that the cold air would have to creep upwards to get into the bathroom.
I am out of my element for this, however, so this is more advice to look into this angle rather than advising to not do it.
It's not about the smell, its venting moist air into the attic which causes it to get trapped and promote mold growth like with a sweaty gym sock. The people who built my house just used string to point the vent pipes toward the standard screened roof vents and even that has been an issue. They should ideally be exhausted through the roof with purpose built vents. Even exhausting through the wall or soffit can be an issue as air gets sucked in through the soffit which can pull that hot air with it.
Yup. With the vermiculite insulation in my attic and the moisture from that vent, I practically have an ideal mold farm up there right now. I need to fix that vent before it gets too much worse.
Most fans have a back draft flap built into them, do it shouldn't be an issue.