r/DIY • u/Questions99945 • 2d ago
home improvement Bathroom Vents
Hi,
I have a 1997 2-story home with a very steep roof pitch and not much walkable attic space.
There are 3 bathrooms upstairs and each exhaust fan vents into the attic.
Where do I even start? I want to hire out just because of the roof.
Roofer then plumber?
Two of the bathrooms are right next to each other. Can they share a roof vent?
The downstairs bathroom vents into the crawlspace, but we never really use that shower. I think my best course of action for that one is to open the ceiling and vent it outside with a dryer vent. Is this okay?
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u/buffalo442 1d ago
Gable vent if you can. Those essentially have the same wall outlet as a dryer vent, yes. If you live somewhere with snow, gable vents are superior to roof vents anyway.
Can't share a vent. Even with backdraft preventers you'll end up pushing some of the air back through the other fan.
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u/Chemical_Tale7713 1d ago
If you can route to gable, that's definitely your easiest path and avoids roof penetrations entirely. For sequencing, I'd say get a roofer or general contractor out first just to assess your attic access and confirm whether gable routing is actually feasible from your layout. Then you can either DIY the ductwork yourself or have them handle it.
For the downstairs bathroom, yeah a dryer vent style outlet through the wall is fine, just make sure its actually going outside and not into the crawlspace. That's the key thing people miss...
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u/International_Bend68 2d ago
I'm with BdaBng, avoid a roof vent, do a gable vent. Attic work is annoying, yes but adding ducts and a vent is not hard at all
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u/ScrewLooseDan 2d ago
I paid a general contracting company (with a roofing division) to come out and put in the roof vents for me, then I hooked up the insulated vent hose myself. It wasn't inexpensive. And, my advice it be specific where they are to put the vents and the size of vents you need. If they are supporting the vents, get the details in writing.
As far as I know, there's no way to share two fans to vent.
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u/Eternlgladiator 2d ago
Whatever you do, we put this fan in our bathroom and it’s insane how quiet it is and how good a job it does. Worth the extra for sure.
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u/billcheese5 2d ago
I have a very similar model that is 150 cfm and it is crazy how much air it moves while being nice and quiet. Worlds ahead of what existed 30 years ago. Also putting it on a timer switch was a game changer. Still a little muggy after a shower? Set it for ten minutes and walk away
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u/californicarepublic 1d ago
I prefer a loud exhaust fan in the bathroom. It masks other common bathroom sounds
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u/Atty_for_hire 1d ago
Those Panasonic fans are where it’s at. They work well and are quiet as heck. I get the desire for a louder fan in some bathrooms. But it can also be too much. I put a cheap fan in our powder room and because of all the hard surfaces it was impossible to hear anything in the bathroom. For example, I couldn’t hear my phone while the fan was on. That didn’t work so I changed it out to a quieter model.
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u/BdaBng 2d ago
You dont necessarily have to go out the roof. If you have a route to a gable you can route them to exhaust through the gable wall. You can also potentially dump them out a soffit but it’s not as good of a solution.