Breaking into Dumbwaiter and Air Shaft to Gain Space (+Venting)

11 years ago

IÃ¢ÂÂm interested in feedback, pictures etc. from people who have taken over an inside airshaft and/or dumbwaiter to gain space for a kitchen (or perhaps bathroom). IÃ¢ÂÂm particularly curious how much extra it cost people to do that and how it impacted their layout. We have a 3-story brownstone and are adding a kitchen back on the parlor floor and without taking over the airshaft we have a 10-foot wall for pretty much our kitchen counters and appliances (not including island countertop) which is pretty tight, but if we take over the airshaft we gain another foot or two of width and a few feet of depth (basically fridge space). But it seems like it will cost a pretty penny and IÃ¢ÂÂm not sure how the kitchen even lays out well if we do it. We would leave the pipes at the back of the airshaft near the rear wall which also means itÃ¢ÂÂs not like our fridge would be flush against the back wall, so either it will be bumped out OR will face into the kitchen on a bit of an L. And to complicate things, one bathroom plumbing pipe snakes out about a foot, maybe at knee level inside the air shaft, so unless we can move that one pipe weÃ¢ÂÂre gaining very little by taking over most of the space.

Our alternative would be to use the former dumbwaiter space as a narrow pantry and perhaps build in shelving into the bathroom window where the air shaft is (around the pipes) which would certainly cost a lot less than taking out the ducting (but the ducting does seem like a waste of a lot of space, and outdated). The air shaft and dumbwaiter runs vertically the length of the house and has a relatively huge metal duct in the middle, compared to ducting these days which can be 6Ã¢ÂÂ. We would need to vent the first floor bathroom differently if we remove the current ducting; the parlor floor bathroom venting could be built into the renovated kitchen; and I donÃ¢ÂÂt think the third floor is even vented right now.

Since so many of these old houses had the utility air shaft and dumbwaiter, IÃ¢ÂÂd love to hear how others have solved this design issue! Our architect suggested we get our contractor candidates in and ask them the price to take over the space versus leaving it intact, and we may go this route but I wanted to ask this group as well.

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Comments (6)

renovator8
11 years ago
It would help to know what the purpose of the original shaft was, what might be needed to replace it, whether it is shared with another building, and what you mean by "venting" (a gas appliance needs a vent, a bathroom needs an exhaust).

A drawing would also be helpful.
dreamojean
Original Author
11 years ago
The original air shaft was off the bathrooms on all three floors of our legal three family house which we use as a two family, and contained a dumbwaiter (turned into a closet in the first floor bathroom and a linen closet in a second floor hallway next to that bathroom) and ducting that included exhaust from the ground floor bathroom to the airshaft to the roof and something similar on the second floor (the third floor isn't vented we have learned). The replacement would be exhaust fan through the airshaft to the skylight but much smaller than the one that is there now. The one there is probably 15"x9" and the replacement could be 4-6" - 100 years ago the ducting work was bigger.

We ended up opening up the space after all and need to price out adding the exhaust fans on all three floors and how to make the kitchen layout work since we can't go flush against the wall where we opened up the airshaft since we still have about 12"-18" of pipes from bathrooms that can't be relocated.

Here is a pic
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dreamojean
Original Author
11 years ago
Here is one more pic of the open airshaft
User
11 years ago
This is a masonry structure? I'm hoping that you removed the block from the top down and placed the proper supports in place. Many times, masonry structures acted as support columns for structural members of the roof or floor joists that dogged into them. Taking something like that down without inspection from a structural engineer was unwise.
dreamojean
Original Author
11 years ago
Holly springs we have an architect who said taking out the dumbwaiter and airshaft wasn't a structural issue. Taking out the wall between kitchen and dining room was structural and he guided the contractors through adding a header and post. It wasn't unwise to take it out without a structural engineer because we have an architect who serves a comparable purpose and will recommend an engineer if he can't handle something that comes up. Any layout advice would be appreciated! We haven't gotten kitchen design advice but it will be tricky I suspect
dreamojean
Original Author
10 years ago
So we finally figured out that once we move a pipe that's in the way, we can put the fridge, facing out toward the dining room, pretty much flush against the wall (which will need to be pulled down and built out for pipes/utilities/electrical anyway, about 2" or more), so taking out the airshaft gained us 2' of kitchen space for a fridge. and the duct work will come out and instead there will be exhaust fans off the bathrooms. so we seem to have a layout. thanks for the input!