Our Kitchen Does Not Have Ventilation! (1 Viewer)

[Chuck C]

The kitchen at our house at school is a bit shady. It doesn't have a fan or hood or even a window that opens. There's an outside door, but that just blows the smoke back in. So everytime I cook, it stinks up the adjacent office and inevitably seeps into our bedroom (I close the door between the bedroom and kitchen, but the office is wide open).

Is there any thing I can buy to trap the odors? Even if I put a door to close off the kitchen, then the kitchen itself would be a higly concetrated stink hole. Buying a hood is out of the question because 1) we rent the house and 2) we'd probably get arrested if we tried to install one ourselves!

 

[Grant B]

What about explaining the situation to the landlord? Fans are pretty cheap and easy to install.

 

[Will Pomeroy]

Its actually against building code to NOT have a hood, so bring it up with your landlord, he should do it, and if not, you could always sue him/her

 

[Chuck C]

Their excuse would be that there is a window and door...the most they'd do is take off the storm window on the kitchen window. But I think I will bring it up. That goes for the other kitchens in our house. I need some written documents that talk about the legal implications of not having a fan/hood. Anyone know where to access that info? I DEMAND JUSTICE!

 

[Chris Tsutsui]

Check the microwave above your stove, because thet are actually designed to be fans and are connect to ducts. (I'm just playin)
If you want to get rid of the stank, then get an odor effective air purifier. My dad got some industrial fan/ionic purifier for his work and he can eat all kinds of stinky asian foods and nobody ever complains. (As opposed to before he got the purifier)

 

[Philip_G]

if the house is old enough it could have been built before hoods were required, so he wouldn't be required to bring it up to current code unless some other work in the kitchen was permitted, like a remodel or something.

 

[Chuck C]

Philip...our house was built in 1863....that's right CIVIL WAR!!!

 

[Philip_G]

I rented a house here locally that was 98 years old, so it was built in about 1902 and had been bodged up by the owner and split into two apartments, I had a gas cooktop, and no vent, also the kitchen wasn't level, and was supported in the basement by some 2x6's hammered under the joists, it probably had about a 4" drop from center of the kitchen to the sink
also since it was in the old part of town all the garages were built off the ally in back (gravel no less, that's fun to shovel snow on..) anyway the street had slowly been graveled over enough that it was about 8" higher than the garage, so when all the snow melted it ran INTO my garage, then we got a cold snap and it froze, so I had 8" of solid ice on my garage floor, luckily I had an enclosed porch I could park my motorcycle
the bathroom had been added on in the master bedroom, and the toilet was actually right over the stairs going into the unfinished basement, so the bathroom was shaped like _|
a backwards L, and the toilet was in a narrow little offshoot (the _ part) just wide enough for it to fit.
luckily the place was only 500/month with all utilities included and had central AC and everything..

 

[Ted Lee]

can you somehow create an airflow in the room?

one place i lived only had the a/c in the living room. so what i used to do is open a window in the living room then open another window in my room with a fan facing out. the fan created a "draw" from the living room and actually blew cool air into my room.

i should mention it was a pretty powerful fan - that thing blew like crazy!

i think you could probably do something similar - you just have to make sure you have some sort of "cross-draft".

[edit] heck...i forgot the whole point of my post! if you do this, you should be able to force the air out of the kitchen to the outside.

 

[Philip_G]

may not want to open a window in Ohio in the winter :frowning:

 

[Ted Lee]

oh...didn't think about that part. details details details... :b

 

[Philip_G]

it's OK, don't have to think about that in CA

 

[Ted Lee]

yup! most people here gripe if it gets below 60 degrees!

 

[Chuck C]

exactly, but hey, it may be worth it....i'm thinkin one of those small, window sized dual fans you can buy at wal-mart...stick it in the window after the storm window is taken off....use sparingly (it's not like we're blowing cold air in, just sucking bad air out).

If it doesn't work out, back to Glade French Vanilla!

 

[Carl Johnson]

My house was built in 1950 and I don't have access to a vent. It's possible that it was covered when the house was remodeled and expanded but I don't think there ever was one. I installed a range hood that was specifically made for non vented use. It draws air in, runs it thru a filter and pumps it back out. The filter seems to work as well as any vented system that I've previously used.