IF your husband is right and you could go straight up and be in a closet, is that closet also on an exterior wall? If so couldn't you go straight up into the floor of the closet and then out the wall? it would still take up a bit of closet but at floor level.

Two pictures to show you what I mean...the first shows you the bay the Hood ductwork needs to go through. My KD was planning on going behind the main waste pipe and then across to vent over the window on the other side of the kitchen...until we ran into the 6" wall space problem and the tub waste pipe problem. (I don't think she knew that HVAC duct work was there either...we did open up several peepholes into the soffit, but you couldn't see it from any of the holes.)

This shows you the tub waste pipe that runs through the bay on the other end. This is the exterior wall.

BTW...I cross posted on the Kitchens Forum. But I thought I might find some hood "experts" over here... I made a mistake on the subject, I should have mentioned the hood issue. Unfortunately, you cannot change the Subject line after the fact :-(

If it is a brand new hood then perhaps you can take it back and purchase another that works with a smaller vent pipe as you say you can fit a 6 inch pipe. Some are designed to work with pipes in the 6 to 7 inch range and still pull a pretty decent cfm.

If you put the smaller 6 inch pipe on your existing VAH I would assume that it would work, but you would change the cfm flow characteristics I would think. Probably would end up reducing the cfm characteristics by doing so.

Anyway, taking it back and getting one that will work for the pipe size you have available would seem perhaps the cheaper solution than reconfiguring part of the house, taking up precious closet space or perhaps going recirc. Would just mean going through the agony of rechoosing the vent hood all over again.
Guess depends on what you need and want with your cooking style and range. Our only experience with recirc was a vent that was probably too small and underpowered really so not really something to go by. With our situation as it was we ended up with cooking smoke etc. not getting sucked through the system and so we still had a house smelling like whatever we cooked and the smoke alarms going off when searing etc. Made us decide we were going with external vent for sure this time. Quite a difference as now I can cook my most garlic laden dishes without the smell lingering for days.

Best of luck!
Cheers

So, by the pics, do you not have room for even the 6" size you mention if you had a pipe to vent that size?

mccall--the closet has all interior walls. It shares walls w/the upstairs hall, one of the bedrooms, the Master Bath, and the MBR (which is where the door is and close to where the hood would vent through). The closest exterior wall would take it through the bathroom.

pggirl--No, the tub's waste pipe on the other end completely blocks access to the outside in that bay.

Thanks everyone...keep the ideas coming!!!

Our MB is also over the kitchen. Our vent hood also runs through DH's closet. I didn't love the idea in the beginning but we knew it was the only way.

In the end, it's not a problem at all. It took up about a square foot of space along the back wall on the bottom of the closet. Looks like a shoe platform. No odor or any problem at all. Wouldn't worry about that. If you need a photo of the closet interior let me know.

I talked to the contractor briefly about going through the roof and he said they would not do it b/c if the roof leaks later than they're responsible for it, so their policy is to not break into roofs. If that's the case, then maybe it could make a turn in the attic and go to the outside wall...but then the run will be very long...not a good idea, I know.

Rococogurl...I wish we each had a closet like you & DH do, but that's the only closet we have! I'm still willing to do it if it's the only way to get an externally vented hood!

First of all you don't need an 8" round pipe for the hood. You need a pipe with at least the equivalent area of an 8" pipe, in this case about 50 square inches. A rectangular duct 6" by 9" should be ok. A HVAC sheetmetal shop should be able to fab something up. What is not as clear is whether or not you can use the soffit area to move the vent pipe over to the inter-joist space on the right. From the second picture, it looks like there might be space on to the left side of that pipe where all the insulation is stuck.

First off, you mentioned 7x10 ducting replacing of 8" round. 8" round has roughly a 50 square inch cross section, 7x10 has 70. 50/6= 8.3". Therefore, unless I'm missing something, the bay should be big enough to fit an appropiately sized duct.

Secondly, if I'm understanding you and the pictures correctly, the waste pipe in the way is the one on the right of the upper picture. Correct? If so, is anything stopping you from changing that to go down the originating bay rather than jogging over two bays? Unless something else is in the way in that bay, it would seem an easy change.

You Wrote:
I talked to the contractor briefly about going through the roof and he said they would not do it b/c if the roof leaks later than they're responsible for it, so their policy is to not break into roofs.

In my DIY remodel I had to take the vent pipe up through the roof (since I have cathedral ceilings, there is no attic) If I can successfully install a cooktop vent through the roof without any leaks, I'd think a professional GC should be able to. Especially since you have an attic which should make detecting (and fixing) any potential future leaks relatively easy.

That's a huge closet! :)

I'm not a hood expert but the roof is a perfectly normal place to vent a hood around here. If it needs to go through the roof and your GC can't handle that, I'd be scared of what else he can't handle! (I thought you needed some comforting hehe.) Do you think maybe he's afraid of heights?

Maybe you can subcontract that job out yourself to a roof guy, but get a reduction in fee from the GC to account for him not doing it.

I agree with you about recirculating hoods. I don't know what your KD is suggesting, air is air, and recirculating is recirculating. Perhaps she's saying that the filters are better now, but I still think that direct vented is always best when it can be done. When you burn something, there is not recirc hood that will get the smoke out as quickly and efficiently as a fully vented one. Find a way!

No resolution yet on the vent hood. I called my KD and basically told her we don't want a recirculating hood and I described some of the options presented here. She told me she was meeting with other designers tonight to try to figure out what to do...she hasn't called back yet, so I assume they haven't figured it out yet. She did mention that there needs to be at least 12" b/w turns and a couple of other issues that I can't remember right now (I'm tired!)

I want to thank you all for your creative ideas. I just hope we can come to some resolution w/a ducted hood!

Right now, I need sleep, but I wanted to let you all know that I haven't been ignoring you...my DS had a concert tonight (Jazz Band) so I've been out-of-touch.

Is your GC also an attorney?

[Warning: Repeat of update in the "Recirculating Vent" thread]

Update: After much "discussion" about this and other issues, our kitchen is back on and yes, we are venting outside!

We ended up with 3 outside plumbers giving us estimates. Two different solutions were proposed. One plumber (the $550 estimate) involved tapping into the toilet waste pipe w/a sanitary T. However, the other plumbers were uncertain that it would pass inspection, so they proposed tapping into the 2nd floor main waste pipe and venting up the wall into the attic where, it turns out, we have a "whole house" vent stack. The 2 estimates we got for that were $925 & $1,000. We went w/the $925 bid since they also offered drywall repair (another $500) and the other one did not. However, we did not need it as the bay to the attic was completely clear so they were able to feed the vent pipe up to the attic w/o cutting through any drywall.

Our contractor kept saying there's no way that will pass code/inspection and that we HAD to go through the roof to be sure it would pass...(they wanted $4,800!)

Well, we went w/the $925 bid/solution anyway and yes, it did pass inspection...I even asked the inspector about the toilet waste pipe solution and he said that would have passed as well!

There's much more to the story, if you're interested it's on the Kitchens Forum...my "Kitchen Saga" threads.

BTW...while we were at it we also replaced all the polybutelyne water pipes...another unexpected expense! (But it was better to do it now while most of the ceilings and walls are opened up...costs less in the long run.)

Thanks for you suggestions, comments, etc.

Not a contractor and certainly do not know anything in that regard for sure, but surprised that hooking into a waste pipe vent would pass. Unless there was some way to prevent sewer/waste type gas from filtering down the pipe for the kitchen vent I would have thought that would be a direct route for them to come into the living area.
Probably don't remotely understand or have the knowledge as I said. Just interesting to me.

Glad all worked out for you finally on it. I know it was a real hair puller for you and caused a lot of stress. Congrats on taking a step closer to being complete!

Cheers

Your contractor is a clown (sorry) but most do vent through the roof. Call any roofing company to come do it and i am sure they will guarantee it.

Westcoast is correct, 98% of range hoods are vented thru the roof, and it is a very very common practice.

The venting through the roof was for the shower drain vent when rerouting the shower drain--that's what was $4,800 vs the $925 we actually paid to reroute drain & vent.

We are venting our cooktop hood out the back wall. It's going up to the ceiling and then turning to go straight to the outside wall; unfortunately, it makes another S-turn at the outside wall to get around the fascia (???) of the second floor overhang. That makes 2 or 3 turns + an 11' run. I hope our VAH (SEPH18-242) is strong enough to overcome the turns & long run!