I had a problem like that too. I took the liner to a sheet metal place to be cut down. It wasn't a big deal and didn't cost a lot.

Look in the phone book for sheet metal fabricators. You absolutely need the liner.

If you're cabinets were truly custom and they had the specs for your liner, then it sounds like their mistake. I would call them and see what they say before doing anything else.

Thanks. My kitchen was full custom and they had the specs. So yes, they'll be getting a very unhappy phone call tomorrow am. This is the third time we've been held up by a serious fabrication mistake that Imperia made. We'll see.
I'm having a bad remodel day because I also have doubts about other things like the island light maybe being too big. I think I'm just being loony at this point.

After a lot of wrangling on the phone, someone came today and took the hood and our liner/insert (we are using an external blower) back to the shop to redesign and fix it. This guy is the one who's been great to me with all the mistakes they've made so I trust him.
THANKS!

So, anyone wanna give me the down low on why "you absolutely need the liner?" I'm interested in everyone's opinon on that.

Hi Andrea,

How was the rest of the Imperia cabinets? Would you use them again? Where/who did you buy them thru? I was thinking about using them but will probably go with Medallion since I don't really need custom. I'm in Newton, MA. thanks and good luck

I said that ...

because the steam and heat from cooking would warp the wood over time if you just had a hood made of wood and a blower up at the top. My solid maple dishwasher panel warped and split from a malfunctioning part in the door after only a few months so I can't imagine what full cooking would do to a wood hood without a metal liner. Not mention, I would think fire codes would preclude forgoing the liner too.

I think this is a really interesting thing to discuss. There are many parts to this thought process.

For instance, a dishwasher panel is literally surrounding an appliance designed to create a steam bath while the exterior edge of a hood is a minimum of 30" away (often farther) and the interior considerable farther. Hoods are not required at all by most codes (I say "most" because there may be one I haven't heard of) for residential cooking sources. There are many houses in my area with "lower" ceilings than the currently accepted 8'. In those houses the ceilings are approximately 7 feet tall. If you assume 36 inches for the cabinets and then a space of at least another 30 inches as your clearance above the cooktop that leaves only 16-18 inches until you reach the ceiling itself... which is perfectly acceptable by code. Downdraft hoods are considered perfectly acceptable though less efficient perhaps and they leave the space above the cooktop open and therefore expose the ceilings themselves to the same moisture.

The Whirlpool website sets an average dishwasher cycle at anything from 1.5 - 3 hrs long and though it's hard to judge how much of that is a cycle that produces heat such as wash, hot rinse or hot dry it's substantially longer than I ever have anything boiling. If you assume it takes... 12? minutes for pasta or 4 minutes for a boiled egg or ... 20 minutes for potatoes (this one is a cheat... you bring them to boil and then simmer) but you can see what I'm saying. It's hard to make a comparison there.

As far as the mositure penetration into the plywood there are certainly paints and enamels made to hold not only extreme heat but moisture as well. (consider the enamel in your oven or the paint on the bottom of wooden boats).

Also, the substrate doesn't have to be ply wood. It would be possible to build a hood with concrete board (many types available) so there would be a minimal amount of wood, if any.

But let's say, for the sake of ongoing conversation that you slap together some plywood and use regular exterior house paint. Total cost about 100.00 bucks. Then you need to redo it in a couple years because of warping. If you did that every two years for 30 years and you're total cost is something like 1500.00 bucks. Considerably less than the cost of a custom hood. But most hoods don't/aren't designed to last that length of time anyway.

The big issue of course is fire. There are MANY fire proof and fire retardent paints on the market. I'm attaching a quick youtube video of testing done on one brand. If you google "fireproof paint" and choose video's you'll find a number of similar products.

Here is a link that might be useful: Fireproof Paint Video

I'm not sure why one would choose this option when the metal liner represents only a small part of the cost of the hood. The blower and fans are where the money comes in. I would bet you could have a stainless liner made for several hundred which would last a lifetime without the inane idea of remaking a plywood painted hood every two years.

Also, cooking styles are different for many people. My range puts out 80,000 btus if I am using it at capacity, far more heat and moisture than my dishwasher does. A recent dinner I made..Bolognese sauce 4 hours of sauteeing and simmering, shrimp scampi, broccoli rabe sauteed in olive oil, grilled pugliese garlic bread and flambeed bananas foster for dessert. That's a lot of heat and steam...more than my dishwasher for sure.

Inane. That's me.

While there may not be codes specific to ceiling or hood height everywhere, there are codes pertaining to flamable surfaces above heat sources. A wood hood without a liner is a rediculous thought. Cheapness shouldn't come before basic safety and a layer of paint isn't gonna help if you get a nice grease fire going. I suppose if your family and home is expendable, by all means slap a bit of paint on some plywood (use marine grade, it will last longer) but if you're like me, they mean a whole lot more to me than the few hundred bucks it takes to have a metal liner made.

Thank you for this thread. Guaranteed that I will be making another call to our KD to make sure that our custom hood will have a liner.

most local codes prohibit the use of a flammable material above a cooktop. I would not even consider using a hood made from wood, no matter what it was painted with!

Whoa. I'm not sure why the discussion digressed into the idea of making a plywood hood and painting it. I can't even understand why that would be considered. It's not about computing how much it would cost to repaint something that was done on the cheap. My wood hood is solid walnut and was designed to fit the style of the kitchen.

Anyway, anywhere I've ever lived a hood vent IS required by code. Either that, or all my contractors and KDs lied to me. Elsewhere on the forum, there was a discussion of "should I get a hood" and the response was overwhelmingly yes. So having one is not the issue. Plus since my hood is wood, the liner is also required by code because of the obvious flammability. My hood is wider than the range to meet code as well. I know it's not the same elsewhere but here in Massachusetts they take that stuff seriously. I'm curious where some of you are that it seems optional.

Hey BostonPam. Did you tell me Newton because you saw I asked you elsewhere? I'm in Melville Park in Dorchester. I have not been happy with Imperia and maybe I'll tell that story in toto somewhere else. Without the one guy who championed me, I think I'd have never gotten the problems fixed. They are beautiful but too many mistakes and too little guidance on their part of what I should be doing. I really needed full custom I felt for what I wanted and the fact that is our forever house.