tricks in replacing bath fan with no attic access?
geoffhazel
| Posted in Energy, Heating & Insulation on
I am tasked with replacing 5 bath/vent fans in a three story townhome. 4 of them are “easy” access via the attic, but there is one in a bath on the middle floor with no attic access. All I can think to do is cut a square in the rock around it, put the new fan in, and then replace the sheetrock. Is there “a better way” that avoids the hassle of patching in the sheetrock? Assuming, that is, that the new fan is at least as big as the old one?
Replies
yes
The hard part is removing the old one, that might be fastened with hanger bars. Cut, pry, hacksaw at least one side of the hangers and get the thing out of the way.
Once down, dewired and the exhaust accessible...........
Make the hole bigger if necessary to fit the new fan, in the direction of solid framing. Block out that side up to your cutout.
Many fans have mounting holes for the purpose of running screws sideways into blocking or the joist.-prepare to mount one side that way.
If you can't add blocking the other direction to another joist-simply glue and screw a block to the sheetrock/plaster in that position.
Get a ladder tall enough to hold the new fan on the top and still be able to hook up the exhaust (flex). Use the top knockout for the electric.
Move the fan into position and fasten to your blocking.
I did this in our downstairs bathroom. I was a <cute little puppy> but I got it to work -- what I called "endoscopic surgery".
Particularly difficult was joining the duct. I had to change the duct size along with everything else, so I couldn't just slide the new unit in and hope is sorta lined up with the old duct. Luckily there was enough space (about 18 inches) above to be able manipulate things in there, and I joined a short piece of flex to the old duct, then a reducer, then attached the reducer to the plastic "funnel" that attached to the fan. Did this with the "funnel" detached from the fan, then set the fan housing (minus guts) in place, then managed to snap the funnel on working from the inside of the fan housing.
But your situation could be entirely different.
Why are you replacing it? Can you just put a new motor in the old can?
All the exising fans are "builder grade" and quite loud. We're upgrading them to ultra quiet (0.7 sone) fans.