Venting Kitchen Exhaust
Does anyone have experience with deciding where to vent a kitchen exhaust? We are installing a kitchen on the first floor of our three story/three family brick which would include an exhaust hood and I’m wondering if I should install an exhaust vent right out the back side of the building or if it would…
Does anyone have experience with deciding where to vent a kitchen exhaust? We are installing a kitchen on the first floor of our three story/three family brick which would include an exhaust hood and I’m wondering if I should install an exhaust vent right out the back side of the building or if it would be a better idea to use one of the four 6 inch flues that are in our chimney stack. Would exhausting 20-30 feet up one of our chimney flues (if it were lined with venting duct) be too far a climb for all the grease etc.? Would exhausting out the back side of the building be a code violation. Does anyone have any experience with this? Thanks.
The requirement for keeping an exhaust away from a window is only for the by-products of combustion, i.e., a boiler flue or gas-powered clothes dryer. Since you would only be venting
kitchen air, it is fine to go through the wall and out the back.
Building code requirements are very different for a 3 family than for a 2 family. I am not a code geek but I believe 3 family’s must vent at least 9 feet from any residential window. Does anyone else out there no about building code for venting in a 3 family?
to 3:26pm: couldn’t you put the vent above the window if that’s a problem? BTW, I’m not sure it’s true. I got my new c-of-o and that didn’t come up.
We are putting in a new kitchen and were told by our architect that we could not vent out the back unless the vent was more than a number of feet from a lot line or any windows. I can’t remember the specific number of feet, but in an 18.5 foot wide brownstone with three windows, we could not vent out the back while meeting these requirements, so we wound up venting through the roof. We have noticed, however, that most have our neighbors have illegal vents out the back. We are getting a new C of O, so that was not an option for us.
I vented a parlor floor front kitchen to the roof by relining the existing flue. The fan I need on the roof in gigantic and noisy. Air slows down pretty quickly, especially it you make any turns at all. Always go for the shortest distance. We had to do this due to landmark restrictions, although so many other people on the block simply vent out the front (by having a hole drilled through the facade by a specialized drill) that it seems pretty silly. The exhaust holes are hard to see and can be easily hidden. I’d go that way.
Do it from the side, it’s not a violation.
My exhaust vent is at the back of the building (ground floor kitchen). I really don’t know if that’s a violation; it was done about 30 years ago. It’s certainly far easier and less expensive to clean out or repair a short vent duct than one going up to the roof. Maybe there are other readers with more recent experience who could offer advice.