Bathrooms vent to furnace closet?

You have to have vertical duct from first floor to the roof with exhaust fan on the top. All exhausts an all bathrooms on all floors belonging to riser must be connected to this duct. Fan is controlled by time clock.

ellenlourie

in Building Code 12 years and 4 months ago

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milkshake | 12 years and 4 months ago

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Is there any chance this meets code? 

The bathroom vents in the condo we are renting (built in 2008) weren’t doing much, and after a little experimentation (no exhaust pull unless the furnace fan is on, no exhaust pull if the furnace closet door is open) I have concluded that the vents in the bathrooms are ducted to vents in the ceiling of the furnace closet, rather than ducted outdoors. 

Any way that this meets code? If not, who is liable for correcting — the condo owner or the sponsor they bought it from in late 2008?

greenmountain | 12 years and 4 months ago

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I see this all the time.  Usually, the vents just go to the ceiling cavity.  Sometimes a flex hose, like for a dryer exhaust, but smaller diameter, is loosely attached, broken or looping around so much on its way to a distant roof opening, as to be ineffective.  It is probably just a coincidence your bathroom is near the furnace room.  In my renovations, home owners almost never want to pay me to correct this sort of thing.  Maybe somebody else can judge if this is the way furnace room ventilation should work.  Say, do you have any pilot lights in there?  If so, a tightly sealed room could cause the little flames to go out and gas to accumulate.  Be concerned about potential explosions if you limit air intake to your furnace room.

daveinbedstuy | 12 years and 4 months ago

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And when they just vent into the ceiling or attic cavity they will promote mold growth.

jockdeboeraia | 12 years and 4 months ago

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Not legal.

needmtg | 12 years and 4 months ago

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I’d say any appliance built since, say, 1930, has an automatic gas shutoff if the pilot fails. Fearmongering, much? Why not stick to the actual issue? From your description, sounds like the bath vent terminated in the furnace room was because they expected to vent out along with furnace gases. Since it’s not kosher to connect the pipes together (I wonder why, especially if the furnace is power vented?) they just left it unconnected, hoping for the best.

zampano | 12 years and 4 months ago

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don’t waste any lipstick on this “pig” – no way to make it kosher or even a pig