To see if the bathroom fan is pulling air, it is customary for me to place a piece of tissue paper over the fan when it is running. If it holds the paper in place, it is a pretty good indication that the fan is pulling air----at least to some degree. On a recent inspection I was unable to get three different exhaust fans to hold tissue paper. This happens sometimes---but not usually to all of the vents in the same house. When I inspected the attic I found out why. None of them had pipes connected to them and they were all buried in insulation. I guess they haven’t been "useful" for quite a while.
Charles Buell
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Click on the Rose to check out: AHA!---A Forum of Landmark Proportions---your Group
PS, for those of you that are new to my blog (or for some other "unexplained" reason have never noticed)all pictures and smiley-face inserts (emoticons) (when I use them) have messages that show up when you point at them with your cursor.
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It is amazing what you find behind walls. In a house we lived in we found a part of a news paper from 1939. Which basically dated the home
Good job!
Talk about a useless fan Charlie. I am amazed at shoddy construction techniques sometimes. It blows me away. Doesn't anyone check this stuff after it is installed??
Charles, that is just disgusting... and we wonder why people are having more and more health problems, increased incidents of asthma, etc... Thank heavens for good home inspectors!
Charlie---finding old newspapers is pretty cool---I wonder if that will become rare 100 years from now:)
Monique, thanks----and thanks for the reblog!
Gay and these had been that way for probably 20 years.
Joanne---it is definately a good idea to get that moist air out of the bathroom.
I am guessing this is something that showed up in the repair request!
that would be funny, if it weren't just so sad... who do you suppose installed those fans??? Just an inept handyman, or a homeowner?
Some builders think cleints will never check out all the small stuff. I remember one inspector telling my client that these fans were just for removing "odors" anyway. LOL I think that one was just vented to the attic and not the soffett.
If my memory serves me right, I was along on that inspection. Photo below.
Nutsy
Gary---most likely:)
Alan they were likely installed venting into the attic when the house was built (pretty common). The guy that screwed up would have been the insulation contractor that should have known better when he added more insulation in the attic.
Lizette, well mabe for the powder room---but not where there are showers and tubs.
Nutsy---doubtful
It is a good thing they have not found a way to out source home construction to Japan.
I too see this quite often. A dead give-away is discolored insulation. As soon as I move some of it back, sure enough, there is the fan...
Your building consultant for life in Nashville, TN
Calling the fans less than useful is just going to make them more shy than they already are...
Gene, not sure I follow you.
Michael---they do sometimes give themselves away.
Jay, are you saying I need to be more sensitive?
See this way too often or some wrong variation such as venting the fan "into" the gable or soffit vent.
James it seems like almost a 50/50 chance of their being something wrong with the venting.
I put that at 80 / 20 chance of being wrong. I find so many wrong I take it as a given it will be wrong instead of right.