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aa62579

Adding a hood later

aa62579
11 years ago

We are moving into my parent's old house and doing some renovations. The old kitchen was falling apart, so it had to be taken out completely. The walls will have to be redone behind it as well as the flooring in the entire house. We will be adding another layer of ceiling panels in the kitchen to repair it.

There is no budget. Right now we are trying to get it into safe and livable. Fixing the floor, walls, and electrical trumps any "optional" things at this time. Once we get all this done and moved in, we will have to do work on our current house and then try to sell it. If that goes okay, some options might get added pretty soon. If that goes poorly, we'll just have to wait until we can save up.

So, I think I can live without upper cabinets. There is a large pantry and a shallow cabinet (but 8' long) in the adjacent dining room that can be used for things that are not used daily.

So, looking at "optional" things, I consider a range vent to be one at this point in time. Even your starter one (without cabinets above) seems to be $400 or more. Our current hood went out over a year ago and honestly I haven't missed it that much. I rarely do any cooking at high temps and do not fry indoors.

So, I think my best bet at this point in time might be to just cover up the hole where it vents out the ceiling, run the power over a foot so that it lines up with the hole, and figure out some sort of housing that would cover the wire up temporarily. I've seen surface mount metal boxes that would work.

Any advice? If you were having to wait to install a hood at a later date and already had a hole and power near the location, would you do anything differently?

This is where we want to get to on the kitchen.

Comments (18)

  • aa62579
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    And this is where we are now.

  • live_wire_oak
    11 years ago

    A Craigslist used $15 hood and a $20 Habitat Restore cabinet above to attach it to will help to keep the kitchen cleaner while you save up for your dream hood. Same with any cabinets. You can sometimes find complete kitchens on there. And you can do oops paint from any box store to paint it so it looks OK. All you would need to do is spring for a decent primer and your time.

  • Tmnca
    11 years ago

    A hood is a safety issue. Cooking grease is flammable and cooking smoke is hazardous to breathe. At least get the cheapest hood at the Home Depot, you can find them for about $30 they will be "under cabinet" models but you don't actually HAVE to have the cabinets in place, you will just see the chimney pipe. Or you can get a recirculating type.

    Ikea has a very nice looking free standing SS hood for $379, see link below.

    Also I bought a really nice 400 CFM under cabinet Kobe hood on Overstock for $100, it's normally about $400... you may be able to find some deals there.

    Here is a link that might be useful: Ikea LUFTIG

  • aa62579
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    We don't have those options where I live. The measurements are funny with this being a mobile home. I've priced out RTA cabinets as well as those from Lowes and Home Depot and Ikea. It will be a mess of fillers and since those stores are not anywhere close, it will be quite a pain to return them if they are damaged.

    My mother's custom cabinets were $75 a linear foot, so we will go see that company this week to get a quote.

    I'd rather not have a single upper cabinet that does not match the lowers, so that takes out the cheap cabinet solution.

    I'd consider getting a matching cabinet and buying a under cabinet hood for $100, but am worried what that would look like with not having any other uppers.

    Have you seen any photos of this arrangement - just a small upper cabinet above a hood with no other uppers?

  • aa62579
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    How would an under cabinet hood mount to the wall only?

  • dekeoboe
    11 years ago

    You mentioned you were doing electrical work. Were you required to pull a permit to do this work? The inspector will be able to tell you if a hood is required for safety.

    This post was edited by dekeoboe on Mon, Mar 18, 13 at 19:21

  • aa62579
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    No permits or inspections where we live.

    Although we actually have done quite a bit if electrical on our own, we are hiring out the electrical to the contractor who built my parents house last year.

    We have one line that is not coming up with the right voltage. My parents have had electricians out before to look at and they have not been able to find the problem. We're going to get a second opinion on it before we move in and while everything is out and it won't matter too much if they mess up the walls or ceiling.

  • GreenDesigns
    11 years ago

    A mobile home? Don't waste your time or money trying to fix it up when you already have a home to live in. They only go down in value, never up. The value of the land is the only true value here. If you plan on "camping" in the home while you build a stick built home on the property, then that's another story. You need the minimum amount of amenities then. Even so, every dollar that you put into those temp quarters takes it away from the permanent ones.

  • aa62579
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    Wow. Were you trying to be insulting? I live in a poor area. I own a mobile home. I've never lived in anything but a mobile home.

    We are not thinking resale value. This is on the family land and my parents built a new house a few hundred yards over last year. We'll live in the old house until they pass away and then if we are still around we will move into the new house.

    I fail to see anything wrong with doing some improvements and it wasn't part of my original question. I just wondered what anyone else had done while waiting for a vent hood to be installed.

  • cawaps
    11 years ago

    Well, my 1910 house does not and has never had a range hood. The safety issue is overrated. I will say that when I cook bacon for breakfast, the whole house still smells when I get home from work (fresh bacon smells great; 8 hour old bacon smell, not so much). And when I painted there was a light sheen of grease on all the walls (I don't think the kitchen had been painted for 30 years). So a hood is definitley on my list of renovation. But can you get along without one? Yes.

    Sorry I don't have any suggestions on what to do with the electrical and vent. I'm starting from a clean slate on that front.

  • aa62579
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    Lol, yes, I know that bacon smell. May be why I cook it once or twice a year only and either bake it in the oven or in the flavorwave. When I quit smoking several years ago I became very sensitive to certain odors and can't be around something being fried or even in that area for a day or two. If my husband wants anything fried, he does it outside under the carport.

    If I were a big cook, it would be a bigger deal to me. I cook maybe 3 meals a week, and much of that is in the crock pot. Salads, cold cereal, miles leftovers, and take out tend to dominate supper during the week which is the only meal we are home for.

    Thanks for trying. I wish money was no option, but I've run up credit cards too many times before. I currently have no debt other than $30K left on my mortgage. It will take longer, but starting with the needs and then adding in the wants when those are paid off are what I hope to do to stay on top of my debt. This house is paid off so all I will be paying will be taxes and insurance ( and utilities). Hard work, patience, and skipping some of the bells and whistles is a no brainer to me when it means getting back out onto 100 acres and being close to my parents as they get older and their health starts to decline.

  • westsider40
    11 years ago

    For 35 years in my house, I didn't use the vent over the cooktop. I never fried anything, no bacon, no fish. It leaked cold air so er stuffed plastic bags in the vent. Never any grease on cabs or walls.
    We did a to the studs Reno two years ago, expensive one, and had the vent tubes thru the roof replaced. The hvac company did it for around $550. A fancy vent system would cost much more than this, but it was more than we needed, ESP for the kind of simple cooking we do. I am not advocating against vent systems here. Most gwers are big vent fans.

    Keep or make the roof hole.tubes.apparatus for an adequate and good vent but I don,t think you absolutely need to install it now. Be sure there are adequate dampers to keep the weather and critters out.

    Make a couple of calls to reputable hvac.companies in your area to confirm that it,s ok to do later. You may or may not need to install a temporary vent in the meantime. Good luck.

  • Gooster
    11 years ago

    If there are no code or permit requirements in your area, you can live quite a while with no ventilation other than the nearby window. In our in-progress demo, we discovered the last over the cooktop vent was simply venting into an exhaust hole that lead to nowhere -- just emptying between the 2nd story floor joists! It probably had been that way for 40 years.

    When you are ready to buy, if you head to your nearest metro area, you can often find floor models and returns in their clearance section. Some of these retailers will also put them on Ebay or Craigslist and are willing to ship. I've found vent hoods are the most common items you'll find in the clearance section, for some strange reason.

  • meangoose
    11 years ago

    On the Young House Love blog, they mounted an undercabinet hood directly to the wall and then built a cover for it. If you're not particular about looks you wouldn't have to build the cover. However, if you're not particular about looks, you'd be okay with having a non-matching hood cabinet so it doesn't seem like you'll want to go this route.

    Honestly, I'm not sure what advice you're looking for since it seems you've determined the path you're going to take already. I guess I would suggest you maybe consider what your eventual upper cabinet/hood situation will be so that you plan for things in the right spot.

  • aa62579
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    Yes, I did not intend this to be a thread asking any advice as far as hood/no hood/type of hood, ect.

    I used to browse the forum often (but years ago) and I recall people who spent a lot of time renovating/building their kitchens that were without a hood for some period of time. (I'm not saying any of these kitchens were in use at the time.) I thought I recalled some kind of temporary "cover" for the vent hole and power supply, but I was unable to find that thread. I want to say it was like an access panel (like you might have for plumbing), that was temporarily attached to the ceiling/wall to cover the hole.

    Thanks to those who tried to help. We'll figure something out.

  • lannegreene
    11 years ago

    I'm not sure the proper name but around here there are these metal plates (tin plate size, usualy with a picture on it) that go into the opening of a stovepipe where it comes out of the wall to cover the hole. My local hardware store has them. Sorry, I haven't a clue what they are called. I'm not sure the diameter required for a range hood, but I bet one of these would cover it. I like your kitchen plan. Sounds like you are being smart planning things out and getting it done as you can fund it. Good luck with the electrical mystery. We have some of those too!

  • JXBrown (Sunset 24, N San Diego County)
    11 years ago

    Perhaps you what you remembered was a convertible hood that could be used with or without ductwork? In any case, you have ductwork, so a plate to cover it should cost only a few dollars at the hardware store. The cheapest hood at Sears is $39.99. It's meant to hang from an upper cabinet, but I think that you could figure out a bracket to hang it from and then box out the ducting with drywall or plywood. It would make your kitchen a lot more comfortable.

  • JXBrown (Sunset 24, N San Diego County)
    11 years ago

    Another budget option would be to ceiling mount a bathroom type exhaust fan. My last house had a Broan exhaust fan in each bathroom and one over the cooktop. It would not have been adequate for searing a steak or wok cooking, but itwas okay for venting the steam from pasta water or the smell of fish and broccoli.

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