I have problems with both my kitchen and bathroom fans. There is very little suction. They vent outdoors under the soffets. The house has had its sofets replaced with aluminum soffets. The new soffets cover the bathroom and kitchen vent. There is no grill or vent cover on the soffet. My guess is that the duct work for the vents is plugged or is severally restricted where the soffet covers the vent underneath.
How do I fix this. Can I vacuum the duct work? Do I need to cut into the aluminum soffet to expose the vents?
Any help or suggestions would be appreciated. For your information the house was built in 1965. The aluminum soffet were installed before we bought the house.
In alt.home.repair on Mon, 7 Jul 2003 17:09:16 -0500 "Michael" posted:
I never take hot showers and I never use my bathroom fan. I almost never use my kitchen fan. So it's easy to imagine that the owners didn't forsee this, didn't care, or didn't notice even after it was done.
The soffets are the horizontal plates under the eaves, right? If not, I'm not understanding your question. And if so, I'm not sure how the vent comes out behind them.
Can you find where the ducts come out without removing anything, or by removing something you can put back later. I haven't had this problem, but I would problem drill a few holes in a pleasing pattern, enough to let enough air out. Or drill some holes and use a nibbler to make some horizontal slots in a pleasing pattern. Will that let rain in or something. If it will let bugs in, glue some plastic window screening over the hole. or under the hole.
The screening that made up part of my soffits came away from the wood, before I bought the house, and I found two sparrows dead in my pink insulation, with only their heads sticking up. I wonder how they did that.
My bathroom fans upstairs vent just under the ridge rail, inside the attic. I've wondered for years where the powderroom fan vents. :)
Meirman
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I have ran fishtape through soffits before and then attached a makeshift mophead on it and then pulled it through to clean the track. You may need to pull it a few times but I bet it is full of dirt and dust and whatever..they get dirty fast with a little greae in them or moisture.
My soffets are aluminum that are corrugated with small perforations.
Is there a way of removing a section of soffit? They seem to be set into a track and linked together. If I could remove a section then I would have a better idea of what I am dealing with.
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