Never mind the appearance; you certainly don't want people walking up to your front door and being blasted with cooking odors.

It can definitely go out through the room above if you can live with a ~14" square box running up the wall (maybe you can combine it with a closet or bookcase). Try to use a silencer and remote blower in the attic space to avoid noise in the bedroom and kitchen.

I'm curious to see some comments too. I'm about to buy my hood. thinking of going with a 42 for a 36" stove. I can vent directly out the wall if i want - no problems as its on the 2nd floor and on a wall i don't care too much about.

or i can go straight to the roof. i'm going to use a hood without cabinets above (i like the look). any pros and cons of going to the roof vs out the wall?

i think thru the roof is generally preferred but i'm not sure why...

sorry for the thread jack. just thought that with 2 similar questions we might get more responses.

Thanks for the feedback - we can live with the 14" by integrating it into a bookcase. My GC is really reluctant to do this - he is worried about safety and grease fires in the future. His concern is that, 5 years from now, the long ductwork will have a layer of grease built up - then, if you have a grease fire on your stove, you've got a big chimney of grease that will ignite.

Does this sound like a reasonable concern? Don't people vent hoods through roofs all of the time???