I had my shingles replaced recently by a roofer. Since that time I've been hearing clicks at night, some soft, medium and really loud.
I've located the sources, two roof vents. One for the bathroom fan and one for the kitchen fan. I've talked with the roofer (he's re-shingling the house across the street).
He's agreed to come back and take care of the problem.
What is the best method to use to address the problem? He has confirmed that there are moving parts in the vents he installed.
Are there bathroom/kitchen vents that don't have moving parts? Can you recommend some? If not, what's the best way to silence them/stop the parts from moving.
I've told him that I don't use the bathroom fan (I disconnected it the week after I moved into the house). I've used the kitchen fan maybe a handful of times in the 14 years I've been in the house.
Since I can't see your roof vents from where I'm sitting, I'm going to guess that your vents have a spring loaded closure that keeps the vents (somewhat) sealed when the fans are not on. The force of the fan opens the vents and allows the air to escape.
My dryer vent is like that. It helps to (somewhat) keep the conditioned air inside the house instead of letting it leak outdoors.
If you really don't use your fans (which I'll question later) then they could be sealed shut, or even removed.
If you don't care about air leakage, they could be altered to be open all the time so that if you did use your fans, the air could get out.
Now I have to ask: What do you do with all the moisture from your bathroom? The main purpose of the fan is to remove the moisture so that you don't get mold or peeling paint. Why don't you use the fan?
As far as the kitchen fan, we don't use ours all the time, but a "handful of times in 14 years" seems pretty extreme. Don't you ever burn anything? ;-)
We mainly use ours when we use the oven on hot days. Ours is an pretty old exhuast fan mounted in the ceiling, not a hood over the stove. I'd rather have the fan suck out the hot air that rises to the ceiling than let it hang around and try to cool it with the AC.
I'm pretty sure the fan is the original from 1956 based on the style and venting. It still works very well and I'll replace it if it ever fails.
I usually use a second bathroom for showering etc. that has an HVAC system pulling air out. Moisture has never been a problem in the first bathroom. No mold/peeling paint etc. I don't use the fan because I don't like the noise (I know there are supposed to be quiet fans, but this one is quite quiet already).
I rarely use the big oven and thus rarely burn anything. Literally I've used the fan a handful of times over the 14 year period. But I would like to keep it functioning for emergency situations.
I spoke with a fellow at an HVAC venting company today and he was talking about attacking this from two different points. He suggested a second 'back draft damper' inside the home and weighting the damper at the outside vent head.
Does this sound like it would solve the problem? I'm looking for a solution to completely remove all flapping noises (inside and outside).
As long as the weight can be overcome by the force of the fan I guess it's OK.
However, I'd be curious as to why you are hearing noises in the first place.
I have 2 bathroom exhaust vents, a dryer vent and a kitchen vent.
I don't think I've heard a peep out of them *ever*.
Did the roofer replace the vents when he did the shingles? Mine did, as part of the roofing job. (He also painted the stacks to blend in with the roof better, nice guy)
If he didn't replace them, what did he do to them that they now make noise? If he did replace them, what did he replace them with and how are they ddifferent than the ones that were there before - the ones that didn't make noise?
Yes, I asked him yesterday and he told me that he did replace the old ones. I also got him to repaint other stacks on the roof that had lost some of their paint. He gladly did that. He's been very accommodating.
Yes, as I said he did replace them. The new ones are definitely different than the original ones. I'll try to find out exactly how they differ when he comes back. All of this flapping noise has been occurring since he did the new roof three weeks ago. And it's not taking much wind at all to get them going!
I'd like to get to the bottom of this and really understand what's happening. Because it seems there could be two noises at play here. The first occurring at the outside vent and also air coming down the vent and flapping something inside the house near the fan.
The exhaust vents I have seen have some kind of flapper installed to keep out wind, insects, rodents, etc. The flapper is normally closed until the airflow from the exhaust fan blows it open. You could certainly remove the flapper, but then you would probably have other issues with drafts, insects, etc.
I have had similar issues with wall vents in the past. When the wind blows it creates a suction that pulls air through the vent and causes the flapper to "flap" in the wind, thus making noise in the process. My current wall vents do not have that problem, so I don't know if the springs are stronger or if it's just a matter of being located out of the wind.
I suppose you could install a screened vent instead of a flappered vent, but I would be concerned this would eventually clog up with dust and other debris. This would also leave an opening for drafts to come into the house.
I am assuming the old vents did not make noise, so I would look at the differences between the old and new vents. Maybe the old vents used a different design, or maybe they were just oriented differently so they didn't catch the wind.
You should always run the bathroom fan when showering and let it run for several minutes afterwards to remove the moisture from the bathroom. It may not matter as much in an old drafty house, but in modern sealed houses you're just asking for mold problems if you don't use the fan.
If you don't use the bathroom often, you should still leave it functional in case you need to remove "odors". Not to mention, many folks have "bashful bladders" and appreciate the noise of an exhaust fan to mask the sounds of nature, so to speak.
However, there are really quiet bathroom fans. I installed Panasonic fans in our house and you can't even hear them running unless you get really quiet and purposely listen for them.
I don't use ours as often as I should, but the kitchen fan matters most when you're boiling water (lots of steam to remove) or if you burn something on the stove (lots of smoke to remove).
I'm going to seal the bathroom vent shut, as I don't use the fan.
Can someone recommend the best way to do this, considering temps range from -25C to 38C. Glues? Tapes? Other means? I suppose screws would be best but the problem is that I couldn't gain access to screw the two parts together. I don't want to take off shingles etc. to remove the vent. So whatever I do will be with the vent in place.
Before you seal it shut, consider that code typically requires a bathroom to have either a fan or window. So, if you don;'t have a window that can open, it may very well be a code violation. As well as, IMO, foolish.
Yes styrofoam would be a good 'plug'. I would still have to secure it though with something. But it really isn't workable as a fit for the entire vent, as there is a grill on the face of the vent. I would have to cut off the grills to gain access to the housing. That seems way too messy.
I did buy some rubber washers to possibly plug the last (bottom grill) where the flap rests. So the washer would stop the flap from opening up. But the washers would need to be secured as well.
I put in a new bathroom vent a few years ago as part of a roof repair. The new vent connects to the bathroom fan, and has a flap which rotates about an offset axis to keep the vent shut when the fan is off.
I can hear the flap fall back into place immediately after the fan is turned off, and I can also hear the flap fall back into place during times of a strong wind blowing outside (I'm guessing due to Bernouli's principle).
Sure, strong winds causing a flap makes sense. I used to have that before the new vent was installed. But now I'm getting flaps in moderate and slight breezes, which where I live is very common.
It seems to me that you are going to all kinds of lengths to seal the vents when the proper thing to do would be to get the contractor back to fix the root cause of the problem - the vent itself.
Perhaps you need a different vent or a different location.
Had another thought. It's also possible the source of the noise is not a flap in the roof vent itself. Mine have no flap there, but the typical bathroom fan has a flap inside it that closes when the fan is off. It's possible the new roof vents are larger, oriented different, etc so that maybe now the breeze is causing the flap in the fan to make a noise.
That might also explain why it can be heard. I would tend to doubt that ones located at the end of a hose, at the roof would be capable of making that much noise back inside the house. But then, who knows....
I went to a building supply store a few days ago to look at the roof vents made by the company in question. When I looked that the bathroom roof vent I immediately noticed a difference between the one in the store and the one that the roofer loaned me.
The vent company has made a change to the grill piece on the unit. At first it appears there are just two parts (the main housing and the flapper). But there is a third separate part, the front grill where the air passes through.
The vent I have on loan has a softer plastic for the grill. The grill in the store had a much more rigid grill. But the main thing though was the difference in noise they make.
For whatever reason, the flapping noise is much quieter on the store's unit. I just held the flapper at full height and let it drop several times in a row.
So it seems the company is tinkering with their design.
The vent for my 2nd floor bathroom would be heard if it made noise.
The original exhaust hose used to make a 90 degree turn when it entered the attic, then run about 10 through the attic and out an end wall.
When I replaced the fan I ran the vent straight up about 2 feet and out through the roof. Much more efficient, but literally within a couple of feet of the fan itself. If it made noise, I'm sure I'd hear it.
I've never had any of the condensation/dripping issues that I've heard about, but I just replaced my roof and added soffit and ridge vents. I don't know if the cooler attic will be an issue, but we'll see.
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