Ba. fan water damage

[Mark Parlee]

Kevin
Give me a call today if you have time

number is in contact inf on the building consultant website

[kfc510]

Sent you a p.m. Mark

kevin

[Mark Parlee]

got it
i will reply via direct email

[kfc510]

Did the demo around the fan for the seismic work, so I got to open up the joist bay and have a look.

Vent slopes down back to the fan, almost 1/4" per foot.

I think there's barely enough room to lower the exit hole to create slope to the outside without carving out the top plate. It'll be close.

The ceiling has plaster and lath with drywall over it, so the fan is a bit lower than it would be otherwise, relative to the top plate.

(In the pics the fan is to the left)

[James Eggert]

In my own home I use a special switch from www.efi.org which is adjustable as to fan speed and run time. Because of a concern of air exchange in an ICF house it is set for 40% and 15 min/hour. I have no water drainback or condensation issues with that fan, and the vertical run is a good 12' long.

On my other bath fans, if I don't run them enough I get some staining from duct condensation, even with insulated flex ducting. I should simply put the same switches in each, but just never seem to get around to it.

Another switch they have leaves the fan running for a selected time after you leave the room. Again, it works based on removing room humidity or odors down to a balanced level.

[Mark Parlee]

Kevin
could you raise the fan to get slight slope to the exterior then install a timed switch as Jim suggests.

You would possibly have to fabricate an extended mounting for the cover.

[kfc510]

In my own home I use a special switch from www.efi.org which is adjustable as to fan speed and run time. Because of a concern of air exchange in an ICF house it is set for 40% and 15 min/hour. I have no water drainback or condensation issues with that fan, and the vertical run is a good 12' long.

On my other bath fans, if I don't run them enough I get some staining from duct condensation, even with insulated flex ducting. I should simply put the same switches in each, but just never seem to get around to it.

Another switch they have leaves the fan running for a selected time after you leave the room. Again, it works based on removing room humidity or odors down to a balanced level.

There is no timer on the switch, I think that is a large part of the problem.

According to the homeowner the tenant doesn't run the fan at all a lot of times, in fact. (I don't know if that's true.)

kevin

[kfc510]

Kevin
could you raise the fan to get slight slope to the exterior then install a timed switch as Jim suggests.

You would possibly have to fabricate an extended mounting for the cover.

I'll take a look at that today. If I attached directly to the bottom of the joist that the fan is next to I can move up a good inch. The cover is attached with springs, so it seems like it ought to stretch down the extra inch to the plaster/drywall surface.

Definitely easier to move the fan up than the exit hole down (if it will work), good thought.

kevin

[Mark Parlee]

maybe you should isolate it slightly from the floor above with an anti vibration mount of some sort.
The springs do give you some latitude

[James Eggert]

If the problem continues after moving it, consider adding a motion switch in place of the regular FAN switch, and then use one of the EFI offerings.

Also, at JLCLive today, I saw a new version which not only has a delay setting, but also the auto function so it goes on at % speed for x number of minutes each hour! Cool, now both functions are built into one switch!!