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Installing an extractor fan


Deimos

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Anybody any ideas about how easy it is to install a bathroom extractor fan. Electrics is no problem, it’s making the hole in the external wall I’m more concerned about. Does one just set about the wall with a stone chisel ? Are there any structural issues with such a sized hole (e.g. how far from joists and lintels is advisable, etc.) ?

Many thanks

Ian

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[quote]Anybody any ideas about how easy it is to install a bathroom extractor fan. Electrics is no problem, it’s making the hole in the external wall I’m more concerned about. Does one just set about the w...[/quote]

I know what my OH does.  Put through a pilot hole at the centre of the circle.  Then daisy chain drill around the circle.  Then hack out with a chisel and swear a lot . Perhaps someone can come up with a better method!

Liz (29)

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Ian

You haven't mentioned materials used for ext wall - bricks, blocks. big/little stones. Having seen how our mason attacked our stone barn wall I have installed a VMC going up through ceilings etc. and exiting under the eaves where there are numerous gaps. The bathroom/kitchen extractor pipes for our VMC are  80 or 125 mm  and the exhaust is 125 or maybe 150.

HTH

John

not

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Sorry. Plasterboard inside and old bricks outside. Not sure if there is anything else between the two (but I would assume not).

VMC was a thought but nowhere convenient to put the VMC box (the ones I have seen are fairly large, plus they are not cheap).

Many thanks. I think there will be a lot of swearing when I do it. Trouble is that with other work the swearing has not helped (even though it gets worse and louder as the task progresses).

Ian

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If you can drill a pilot hole through from one side to the other so much the better; plasterboard is easy to deal with, the brick less so. You will find the first brick the hardest to remove. once you have the pilot hole (or very careful measuring), with a masonry drill, go round the brick drilling numerous holes in the mortar course, slewing it from side-to-side, then join the holes up with a cold chisel and hammer until you can wiggle the brick loose and get it out. Generally, the less brute force hammering you do the less you'll damage the rest of the wall. If you need to cut half bricks, take a whole brick out, then chop it in half with a hammer and chisel and motar the half you want back in: you'll not manage to split a brick in situ unless you are really lucky.

As long as the top of the opening is only a single brick wide you need have no fear of anything cracking or subsiding.

p

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[quote]I didn't think our last VMC was expensive, from Casto at around £60. We had a dearer one before, but this one works fine.[/quote]

I'm sure most of the ones I saw in Leroy Merlin were €several hundred. Maybe I will look again - mainly because above the bathroom I need to ventilate now is where I intend to put a 2nd bathroom in the attic. Doing it with a VMC would mean I could exit through the roof which would be easier.

Even if not, the suggestion to pipe maybe through the roof space might be easier (for me) than directly through the wall. That said, after the assistance here I can see that through the wall is not quite as horrendous as I had feared. I will look and think some more.

Many thanks all

Ian

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