This is a bathroom extractor fan we upgraded for a client in Ashford, Kent.
Residing on a new build estate in Kennington, Ashford, these clients had only been in the house for a small number of years. And right from the start, they had issues with their en-suite extractor fan. It wasn't great at pulling the moisture out of the air, which means a lot of the moisture was being left behind as condensation on the windows, walls and ceilings.
Another, perhaps more pressing issue, is it seemed to produce water leaks, creating water marks on their ceilings and - as we had come to discover when we removed the existing fan, standing water which left a lovely ring of black mould on the ceiling which was covered by the extractor fan housing. Yikes!
On the initial survey visit, we detailed where there was areas for improvement, and in all honesty, like many other conversations we unfortunately have had to have with customers who have problems with their ceiling extractor fans - we advised them that starting afresh was the best long term strategy.
What they had:
Standard ceiling fan
No ramp in place to offer direction to the ducting
The ducting was insulated! But the poor airflow meant moist water was able to meander in the ducting and condense into water
Roof tile vent was not lined up with the bathroom, let alone the bathroom ceiling fan!
No condensation trap fitted to collect any water rolling back down and send it away into the drainage system
We proposed:
Moving the hole in the ceiling to better line the ceiling vent with the roof tile vent, and fill the old hole
Building a ramp structure, to position the ducting as straight as possible, for maximum airflow
upgrading the small ceiling fan for a powerful inline fan in the loft
replacing the white plastic fan on the ceiling with a decorative ceiling vent - much like what you might see in a fancy hotel bathroom!
installing a condensation trap and piping out to the stack - to make sure water doesn't come dripping back inside again
use insulated ducting as previous - but then wrap a jacket of insulation over the entire system once it was built
Extractor fan issues on new build estates aren't uncommon.
Building control now requires new properties to have some sort of ventilation to service all bathrooms, kitchens and w/cs.
A lot of house builders tend to service this requirement with extractor fans
A lot of house builders have started using extractor fans on the ceilings
A lot of subcontractors actually putting these extractor fan systems in don't seem to be aware of the technical challenges that come hand in hand with these kinds of extractor fan systems
Leading to...
Weak / poorly extractors that underperform - Still, condensation, damp and mould problems inside the property itself
extractors that leak water in the loft - Causing water marks and damp patches on ceilings, water leaking back down through the extractor fan into the bathroom, all sorts of weird and wonderful oddities
If you live in a new build and are experiencing these kinds of problems - that's the bad news.
The good news is, we can fix your problems!
Would you like to see more of our extractor fan projects?
Would you like to see what else we've done for your neighbours in Ashford?
