Kitchen Hoods

dalehitchy

I'm planning on a new kitchen in my home I bought last year. It was built in the 70s and looks like it hasn't been updated since.

One thing I'm wondering about is kitchen hoods. The one installed at the minute is built into a cabinet and the filter is some cotton wool stuff thats seeping out the holes. It's obviously an filter and not extraction, and in any case the house is semi detached and that wall is not external.

My partner does a lot of cooking with oil and strong smells (lots of Indian food) and so would prefer if we could get extraction. Is it possible to vent out the house by going into the ceiling and venting out between the void between there and the floorboards. Is this common and easy for a kitchen fitter to do.

Whilst I'm here... What do you look for in a cooker hood. I've been looking on various sites and they can range from £50 to £200+. What should I look for in a good hood.

Typhoon2000

Yes you can duct out to an external wall either win the ceiling or boxed in ducting.
Look for extraction rate and noise.

jk0

You can. But a kitchen fitter will be too idle to do it, even if they say they will.


I did a friend's some years ago. It involved taking up a couple of boards in the bedroom, and carefully marking up where the hole in ceiling has to be, and one in the exterior wall.


Then we installed flexible ducting between hood and outlet, and built a protective frame round it in the kitchen with kitchen unit offcuts.


Buy the best cooker hood you can afford.

Fire_Fox

Unless you are doing a like-for-like replacement you will need to comply with current Building Regulations. This covers stuff like extraction rate and duct materials (flexible pipe is strongly discouraged).

Most regular kitchen cooker hoods need a fairly short, fairly straight duct run to be effectively vented outside. Otherwise it may be nice looking, noisy but ineffective (not uncommon even if fairly new builds/ installations). Under floorboards you may have joists, electric wiring, central heating pipes in the way of proposed ductwork, so will need to check if you have a useable void.

Given you are having a new kitchen fitted consider resiting your hob on or close to an outside wall. If a cooker hood is not vented outside the same unit can be set up for recirculation: change filters regularly to be effective on food smells.

You might consider having a BPEC qualified domestic ventilation installer in to look at your ketractor fan options and ducting options.

dalehitchy

Fire_Fox wrote: »

Unless you are doing a like-for-like replacement you will need to comply with current Building Regulations. This covers stuff like extraction rate and duct materials (flexible pipe is strongly discouraged).

Most regular kitchen cooker hoods need a fairly short, fairly straight duct run to be effectively vented outside. Otherwise it may be nice looking, noisy but ineffective (not uncommon even if fairly new builds/ installations). Under floorboards you may have joists, electric wiring, central heating pipes in the way of proposed ductwork, so will need to check if you have a useable void.

Given you are having a new kitchen fitted consider resiting your hob on or close to an outside wall. If a cooker hood is not vented outside the same unit can be set up for recirculation: change filters regularly to be effective on food smells.

You might consider having a BPEC qualified domestic ventilation installer in to look at your ketractor fan options and ducting options.

Thanks. Does this sound like it's going to be more hassle than it's worth. The above poster mentioned he did it for a friend and so had to go upstairs into the person's bedroom to rip up the floorboards. In my case.... The above room would be right where my bathtub sits.

I thought it would be possible to cut out some of the ceiling plasterboard in the kitchen and then see if you can vent it. I was planning to replastee anyway. It would mean the vent being about 1.5 metre to the outside wall.

I've thought about moving the cooker.... But unfortunately there is just nowhere for it to go. Though it's quite a decent size kitchen, the only external wall i have has a large window smack bang in the middle of it.... So if I move the cooker there I won't have a place for a hood.

jk0

dalehitchy wrote: »

Thanks. Does this sound like it's going to be more hassle than it's worth. The above poster mentioned he did it for a friend and so had to go upstairs into the person's bedroom to rip up the floorboards. In my case.... The above room would be right where my bathtub sits.

Oh, that's even easier. No need to lift boards. Just run some ducting under the bath.

jk0

Have you come across 'downflow' extractors o/p? Have you got a complete run of units to the outside wall?



You can get them built into a hob, or to mount behind one.

Fire_Fox

dalehitchy wrote: »

Thanks. Does this sound like it's going to be more hassle than it's worth. The above poster mentioned he did it for a friend and so had to go upstairs into the person's bedroom to rip up the floorboards. In my case.... The above room would be right where my bathtub sits.

I thought it would be possible to cut out some of the ceiling plasterboard in the kitchen and then see if you can vent it. I was planning to replastee anyway. It would mean the vent being about 1.5 metre to the outside wall.

I've thought about moving the cooker.... But unfortunately there is just nowhere for it to go. Though it's quite a decent size kitchen, the only external wall i have has a large window smack bang in the middle of it.... So if I move the cooker there I won't have a place for a hood.

The earlier poster (jk0) says they used flexible ducting a few years ago: so likely under older Building Regs, the section on ventilation has changed quite a lot. The same regulations apply to both professional and DIY installations.

1.5 metres run should be fine for a regular cooker hood.

Again depends what is in the ceiling: direction of joists, any central heating or bathroom pipes, anything for the bath. And what type of ducting is used, now flexible pipe is strongly discouraged (easily damaged, texture reduces air flow, preventing fire spread).

Not sure you could get solid ducting with a 90 degree bend into the space without taking a big chunk of ceiling down or getting under the floorboards. Boxing in just under the kitchen ceiling/ above any wall units would likely be easier.

There are kitchen extractor fans that fit in/ on the ceiling, they don't all attach to or protrude from the wall. A BPEC qualified installer would be able to give you the different options for products and ducting, so your ventilation system is effective and complies with current Building Regs.

Sounds like you would benefit from effective extraction with your cooking style and new kitchen, so I don't think it is more hassle than it is worth investigating properly.

FreeBear

dalehitchy wrote: »

I thought it would be possible to cut out some of the ceiling plasterboard in the kitchen and then see if you can vent it. I was planning to replastee anyway. It would mean the vent being about 1.5 metre to the outside wall.

This is what I did with the extractor in my kitchen - I was fortunate that the rigid ducting fitted neatly between the joists, and apart from a single 90° connection above the extractor, had a straight run to the outside. As I was adding insulation (a flat roof with minimal insulation) and replastering, installing ductwork was a prudent exercise.

Fit the largest rigid ducting you can and avoid using the flexible stuff as much as you can.

EachPenny

dalehitchy wrote: »

My partner does a lot of cooking with oil and strong smells (lots of Indian food) and so would prefer if we could get extraction. Is it possible to vent out the house by going into the ceiling and venting out between the void between there and the floorboards.

If you are going to vent to the outside you need to consider where the vent will be, and the direction it faces, relative to neighbouring properties.

Not everybody is a fan of the smell of cooking, especially not strong Indian food cooking smells... it is after all why you are thinking about putting in an extractor yourself.

If you will be venting towards a neighbour, or out of a wall close to their windows, then you might find them complaining about the smell.

Not only could that lead to a neighbour dispute, if they complain to Environmental Health you also run the risk of having Building Control taking an interest which you won't enjoy if the work hasn't been carried out in accordance with current standards.

So I would definitely second Fire Fox's suggestion of getting professional advice.