Building HVAC vent into bath vanity

COLDIRON

U BEEN HAD 4 Sorry you are wrong all supply ducts terminate with a register boot and diffuser. That's That. You can ramble on all you want but you are totally wrong. Think about it what if you did that throughout the house the air wouldn't know which way to , you have to direct hot and cold air where you want it to go , IE: In front of windows, doors, openings. Duh!!!!!! I would never just cut a hole in a vanity and pump hot air in there it has to go out to the room. Glad I do all my own work and don't have to call in Contractor's if that's what I get.

Jackofall1

Have done, will do it again and again, no duct required, cabinet base acts as a plenum.

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COLDIRON

You guys crack me up. You sound like Mechanical Engineers or Homebuilders. Thank God I do my own ductwork.

ubenhad4

DIY guys crack me up. Here one of you guys ask a question, It get answered by PRO contractors and you say where wrong. The air goes out from under the cabniet through the register slots in the toe kick as I explained earlier. They dont just leave the duct buried. The air travels out exactly as it would if it was ducted over to a whole as the under cab cavity acts just like a duct and the air goes out the register in the front.. Everyhouse I have ever built or worked on is like this for toe kick heat, its like this for kitchens, baths, and laundry rooms.

ubenhad4

I have four toe kick resisters in my own home and the air all comes out just as hard as at the floor registers. Saying it doesnt is like saying ceiling mounted registers dont heat as well as floor mounted ones. Oh and also you dont ever run a register infront of a door or an opening.

Duh Huh... wow please do your own work and leave the contractors in peace you obviously know more.

COLDIRON

I quit every body just do it the best way they know how. Coldiron out.

mjzraz

If it were my house, I would want it ducted to the opening. What $5 in materials and 5-10 min work? It just seems lazy to do it the other way. Saves time, sure, but I personally wouldn't want my cabinet subjected to hourly cooling and heating cycles.
In the real world does it pose a problem? Probably not. It's probably not that big a deal, but as a consumer paying for work done, the perception is that he's sloppy, lazy and cutting corners wherever he can. I would want my contractor to say:
"We usually don't duct it and it's fine, but if you want it ducted, we can do it, it's $XX extra "

Michael Thomas

We had a long discussion of this over on inspection news: http://www.inspectionnews.net/home_i...ting-work.html

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mjzraz

Looks like the spirit of the code would dictate ducting to the face of the vanity as the vanity itself would be considered part of the supply plenum.

The technical interpretation (aka half @ss interpretation) would be to install a difuser vent under the cabinet and call it to code.

nolamar

I agree with mjzraz and a few others here, especially Coldiron, who relentlessly weighed in on my topic.

While they tried to talk me out of it with comments like "It's not usually done this way" and my response of, "I KNOW how some people tend to do it"...I stood my ground and I got what I wanted. The air is vented directly to the toekick, my way.

Thanks to all for the input. This was one hot topic! Geez.

Mary

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COLDIRON

I thought this subject was long gone and was tired of the so called experts and didn't want to argue with them any more. Good job nolamar your vent came out exactly as I thought it would and it looks real good and PRO.

Signed COLDIRON
40 YEAR HVAC PRO semi retired.

PS: Good decision and thanks for getting back to us.

HOTINTN

I have a 1987 house in the Nashville TN area. Very humid. I am presently spending a few days cutting the bottoms out of a 1/2 bath cabinet and a kitchen cabinet, as the vent stopped at the subfloor and used the cabinet base as a plenum causing a large amount of mold. I am having to add toekick plenum boxes to eliminate the problem. I will mention that my HVAC guy suggested using foamboard under the sheetmetal plenum and using insulation on the top and sides. You, no doubt, saved yourself some serious mold issues in the future.

Red Squirrel

+1 for ducting it directly, which I see has been done.

The base could have acted as a plenum, but that's like putting a 5 inch round hole in a wall going to another room, closing the door to that room, and saying that the room acts as a plenum so you don't have to run a duct to the other room.

Having a large cavity of space like that will add static pressure and turbulance, and the flow rate won't be as high as it could be.

And yes, mold, especially in humid areas, or if you use a humidifier in winter. You only get one shot at this, once that vanity is down, it's over, unless you want to be ripping appart plumbing and stuff later because of a funny smell.

rubberhead

Oh my god, that is the finished product?

nolamar

Why yes it is, rubberhead and what is your opinion. It's the photo posted in post #25, although a bit orangey in tonality. The toekick vent works great!

Although, they had the tile guy do it rather than an HVAC person. I would have preferred that the seams be taped up but "shrug" when MOST men are working with a woman, they wanna talk us out of everything sensible.

Basically though, I got what I wanted, not what they -didn't- want to do.

Thanks for reviving this old thread (sarcasm). What a nightmare it was.

Mary