How do you vent a bathroom fan? Just put in a dryer vent kit. A Pain in the Butt in Any Language.
Outside vent cover, check. Pest guard, check. Flexible duct, check. Now to put the thing together.
The first step involves bending a piece of sheet metal into a tube and slipping it into the vent cover. The issue is that it has to be a PERFECT circular tube or it won't fit. 45 minutes later, and we've got it. Now somebody's going to have to go cut a circular hole in the roof soffit that's 20 feet up. We get to use our nifty ladder to scale up the side of the house.
OK, ladders are hard. Jake goes up first to drill a hole in the soffit. Carrying a drill while trying to jockey up a springy metal ladder with one free hand is unsettling to say the least. A few butterflies in the stomach later, the pilot hole is drilled and Jake is back down to get the reciprocating saw. Jake goes up again, slightly faster this time.
This stupid reciprocating saw has a "safety" feature that you have to use both hands to push a button while pulling the trigger to use it. The ladder was scary enough holding on with one free hand. Look ma, no hands. Now the butterflies in the stomach are freaking out. Jake has to lean out to the side of the ladder, look up, and hold the saw in about every possible configuration to cut a circle-- right hand, left hand, thumb on the trigger, pinky on the trigger; you name it. The hole is finally done.
Let's be smart and attach the vent duct to the vent cover before we put it up through the soffit. Then, we can just pull the duct into the bathroom from inside. The duct seems to actually be smaller than the perfect round tube we made earlier. With a lot of elbow grease we finally get the duct attached and clamped on. This time Sue goes up the ladder to screw the vent to the soffit. The "secret" is not to look down. Four dropped screws later, Sue is back on the ground, and we are both getting grumpy. Sue goes back up again with a whole box of screws, and finally the stupid thing is in place.
From inside, pulling the duct through the space in the roof is like pulling teeth. The tube is slightly smaller than the space it needs to pass through, and it is pretty rigid, which makes pulling 5 feet of little round steel wire ribs a real chore.
Fortunately, the fan unit is more forgiving, and attaching the duct to the fan goes pretty smoothly. Done. Now, we can finish up the ceiling insulation and move on to furring the ceiling to level it.
There is nothing pleasant (well actually the wall niche in the shower makes a pleasant step for straddling the tub) about leveling a ceiling. Our ceiling happens to be a good inch out of level and not even close to in-plane. Furring basically involves a lot of shimming, measuring for level, and repeating.
Hours later, part of the ceiling is prepped up, and it's getting late. Jake's legs are shaky from straddling the tub and he can't lift his arms anymore. A rough workday is over.
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