Since beginning construction on my retro pink master bathroom, the hall bathroom has been seeing a lot more action. We’ve never had guests complain about the moisture issues in there, even though we knew they existed. But when we started using it full time ourselves, we realized just how bad it was. So when the electrician returned to finish working on the pink bathroom, I asked him to install a new fan in the green bathroom too.
In case you don’t have time to watch the video, here’s the gist of my bath fan woes:
- Before we began work on the pink bath, both fans vented into the attic instead of outside. That’s a code no-no these days. Also stupid, because you don’t want wet moist air pouring into your attic.
- The fan in the green bath didn’t seem to do much other than sound like an airplane landing — our towels wouldn’t dry and funk grew back quickly on shower tiles as soon as four or five days after being cleaned.
- As long as we were paying the electrician to come finish up our master bathroom work and vent that fan out of the roof, we had him replace and vent our hall bath fan at the same time, saving $$$ since he could do it all in one trip to our house and one trip into the attic.
- When the electrician removed the old fan he discovered a problem that went back to the fan’s initial install: The damper that opens when the fan is on (to let air out through the ductwork), and then closes when the fan is off (to prevent back drafts), was stuck in the closed position. This meant that no air could be pulled out of the bathroom through the fan.
- The reason the damper wouldn’t open was that when the ductwork was attached to the fan, it was mushed up against the damper, impeding its ability to function.
- The old fan — probably installed in the 1990s — never did anything but use electricity to make noise for all that time.
- Since the installation of the new fan, we’ve noticed a huge difference. The mirror is no longer completely fogged when we get out of the shower — in fact it usually has no fog at all. Also, our towels have been drying and there has been no “funk” regrowth since the last bathroom cleaning.
The moral of the story here — if you suspect the fan in your bathroom only sounds like it is working, it might be worth checking (or having a professional check) the exhaust vent. If the damper does not move freely, or there is an obstruction in the ductwork, your bath fan may not be able to do its job.
Read all of the stories related to my pink bathroom remodel project here.
18 rare vintage Hall-Mack bathroom accessories 
A complete 1925 catalog of recessed soap dishes, towel bars and medicine cabinets 
Nutone Heat Vent-a-Lite with white powder coated grille 
4 retro bathroom towel designs from Anthropologie, Pottery Barn and Kmart 
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lynda says
I think people don’t value bathroom fans enough. I personally like the Panasonic brand and I tend to buy a bigger fan than recommended for the space. Fans and water softeners keep baths clean longer! Glad you solved another household problem.
Chad says
Based on experience growing up, I’ll definitely second the Panasonic fan endorsement. Very quiet and they way outlasted the consumer grade products available at Home Depot. As far as sizing fans goes, from what I remember the larger ones are sized for really huge spaces, and the smallest fans are already slightly overkill for normal sized bathrooms. (I stubbornly refuse to call a sensible bathroom small)
Kate says
YES! The last house I lived in didn’t have a bath fan. I’m glad to have them now — especially when they work properly. I also bought slightly more fan than needed for the space…mostly because of the moisture problems I’ve been having in those bathrooms.
Kristen says
This got me thinking about how well our bathroom fan works (or doesn’t work) which we had installed only a year ago…I think we might have this very problem! Thanks for the post.
Kate says
You are welcome! Hopefully you have an easy fix!
Andi says
We just had a similar revelation about our original 1952 bathroom fan. We also knew it was barely working (though producing plenty of noise), so during our recent tub-to-shower conversion—-which, as an aside, was just finished yesterday after 19 WEEKS of assorted mishaps!!!—-but I digress.
We had the fan replaced early on in this project. It vented to the outside as it should have, but when the electrician removed the fan, he found the duct almost entirely blocked by an old bird’s nest!!
I didn’t know about that until the new one was all installed and the work done, or I’d have kept the old one—I think it would have worked fine again with a cleaned-out duct!
One thing I couldn’t get them to remedy (at least not willingly) is that the fan and the light are on the same switch, so if you want light, you get the fan. There are, thankfully, great vertical sidelights on my medicine cabinet, which I leave on all day, but it is annoying to have the noisy fan when you don’t need it. (It does work, though).
Boy, we sure do learn a lot with these projects, don’t we?
Kate says
Wow — a bird’s nest! That’s a new one. 🙂
In my hall bath there are lights over the vanity so we can turn those on without the fan/light. In our pink bathroom, I had the electrician wire one switch for all the lights (fan light, over vanity and ceiling fixture) and then put the fan on a timer switch. He also made it so we could put the fan and light on the timer (or another switch) easily if we changed our minds later. Our last bathroom had like 3 different switches for lights and we would accidentally leave one on all the time…not anymore!
jan arnett says
They make bathroom fans that have a dual control just like your living room fan or you could run a wire mold and surface mount another wire. {edited – consult with a pro}
Mary Elizabeth says
Not new to me, Kate. We had the same problem with birds in our old condo. Small sparrows, especially, love to get into the vents for dryers, bathrooms, etc. It was very funny that it took us a couple of springs before we figured out where all the cheeping was coming from in our downstairs powder room. We finally saw the parent birds flying in and out of the vent flaps with worms in their beaks. Then, of course, we disconnected the fan rather than kill the cute birdies! A simple solution is to install a wire cage over the vent so small animals–mice, birds, etc.–can’t get in.
Melody DeLury says
Would you believe that neither of our bathrooms have a fan installed? I don’t know if that’s a flat roof thing or a dumb prior homeowner thing but we have no bathroom fans and likely no ventilation installed for them.
Jay says
Depends on the building code in effect when your house was built. I assume you have operable windows or skylights in your baths which at one time was considered adequate ventilation. I grew up in a 1920s era rowhouse that had an old fashioned chain operated skylight over the tub.
nina462 says
My 1965 ranch bathroom does not have a fan either – something I want to have installed. I just open the window when I take a shower (yes, even in the winter sometimes). If I don’t, the steam will set off the fire alarm…
Melody DeLury says
mine is a 1954 ranch.
Anastasia says
My Mother-in-Law’s old place was the same way. They used a HUGE dehumidifier in the winter & opened the small skylight in the summer.
MattS says
To test how well (if at all) your fan works, stick a single square of toilet paper up against it while it’s running. If it stays, the fan is doing at least the minimum it should. And I’ll third Panasonic, they make some quiet yet powerful fans.
pam kueber says
ah, I am going to try this toilet paper trick. one of my new-ish bath fans never seems to be working well enough… thanks for the tip! i’m gonna go try this NOW!
Renee says
My house was built in 1955 and still had the original fan. The paint on the plaster walls in the bathroom was bubbled up, so we knew something was wrong. When we went up into the attic we found out it was ‘venting’ into a crossbeam….so basically it hadn’t worked properly in 53 years!
Kate says
Venting into a crossbeam? Who decided that was a good idea????
Chad says
Better than one fan my dad took out when I was a teenager – vented right into the attic floor, which was full of loose vermiculite insulation! That makes a great habitat for mold.
Linda says
I didn’t realize that venting bathroom fans into the attic was a widespread thing. We had that same issue in our 1965 house and it seemed so stupid. Not as lame though as the tub drain that was disconnected and just ran water under the house (that the home inspector did not catch!). *sigh* Love our “project house.”
Kate says
YIKES!
Adrienne says
I once owned a top floor condo in a historic building and started to notice mold spots on my ceiling where the studs on the beams would be. Turns out all 10 of the top floor units had bathroom fans venting directly into the attic, which was filled with moisture. Apparently they had been venting into the attic for a LONG time. All of the ceilings on the entire floor had to be ripped out.
pam kueber says
OH MY!
Mary Elizabeth says
Yes, when my DH was working as a handyman he found a least 50 bathroom fans that were venting into attics, some from relatively new construction. The owners would complain when the fan seemed ineffective or when they saw mold growing on the ceiling! It is against code in our area, but it sometimes happens when the plumbers, HVAC guys and the roofers don’t coordinate. A similar thing happened with our range hood in the 1959 house, which used to vent through the roof, but was covered over by the roofers, who didn’t tell the owners. Since no one was living in the house at the time and using the stove, no one had thought to check the vent. So for the first few weeks, the hood rained water and cooking grease back down on the stove. Eech! So my husband did a quick check of the roof and found no vent there.
Sandra says
Note: You can check the damper from inside–no need to go into the attic. I sometimes take the cover off and get a vacuum up there to vacuum out the dust, grease the fan spindle (?) if necessary, or clean the grille. Sometimes you can see a place to unplug it and some parts can be removed with 4 screws. I’ve brought fans back to life by cleaning them.
The damper is above the fan blades so you may want to tape the fan switch OFF (especially if it’s on the light switch), and use a stick to push on the damper. It should be easy to push up and let flop down. Cleaning off dust can help it move better, seal better. From there, you can probably tell if it’s blocked by insulation or whether there is a duct protecting it. Sometimes it can get stuck open, and then you get spiders and dust coming down into the room from drafts.
The only reason to go into the attic is to put in a duct or deal with something unusual.
Kate says
Yes, good point Sandra. No need to go into the attic to check the damper….and keeping a fan clean also lengthens its life and helps it perform at its best!
Nancy says
We just this week had our bath fan vented outside as part of an energy upgrade. Ours took a long while to start up and was noisy and a mere metal louvred plate. With all the insulation work, our new audit showed a 47% improvement!
DavidF says
My parents rehabbed an old house where all the bathroom fans basically vented into the drywall; no ductwork, outside vents, nothing. We speculated on whether the work was done by a dodgy contractor who knew better or a do-it-yourselfer who didn’t.
Kate says
Vented into the drywall????? Oh man…