Busting holes in the walls!!!

Anyone done it before.....?

It would make my venting needs easier as my bedroom is next to my bathroom and there is a handy old extraction vent in the bathroom ceiling which i could use for venting...

So rather than run ducting out my bedroom door, thru the hall, and up into the bathroom - if i could make a hole in that wall i could easily vent it with minimal amounts of ducting and less bends......................................

whats peoples thoughts?

anyone done it before? - how do you tell if there are pipes etc behind that wall - wouldnt want to hit a gas pipe or an electricity mains!!!!

You need a stud finder for hidden objects behind wall. Sounds like a good idea

go out and get you a stud finder to find the 16 inch centers. then if you have an outlet on the wall where you want to cut a hole DON'T. Obviously if there is a outlet on the wall then there is wire behind that. As far as pipes you should be ok, unless you live on a 2 story house then pipes run in walls. If its a flat one floor its either in the concrete of the foundation or you have a crawl space and everything is attached to the bottom side of the floor

thank you! and also for the quick response...

yeah it goes directly into the loft space so it looks ideal... im just worried about whats behind the wall - ill need to do a bit of reading up on it now.

Has anyone bust a hole in their wall for the same purpose?...

What would i use to drill through it... would need to cut a 5 or 6" hole and i dont know what would do that?

You can get a little dremmel type thing to cut drywall

i am so tempted, although it is rented property....

(could always fill it in and repaint later)

it would just make everything "neater" - although it seems like an absolute mission to get it to work!

thizz13 said:

You can get a little dremmel type thing to cut drywall

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You really don't need a dremmel thing... you can use a razor knife to get through sheetrock. Pick out the area where you think you want to put the vent and cut out a square about 5in x 5 in using a simple cheap razor knife that you would pickup at the hardware store. Make several passes over the four different 5in lines (top/bottom/side/side) and then just pop it out with your fist or a hammer. Because the sheetrock / drywall paper is cut it will not tear a bigger hole. It may fall into the wall, but that's ok.

Now you have a big enough hole to look in and see what is in that stud cavity.

whitewidow2 said:

i am so tempted, although it is rented property....

(could always fill it in and repaint later)

it would just make everything "neater" - although it seems like an absolute mission to get it to work!

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It is very easy to fix this later and plenty of DIY stuff on the internet that will show you how to patch sheetrock, cover with drywall mud and even apply texture.

Plus I am a landlord and it is a very common repair (holes in the wall, not vents through to the bathroom) to have to fix after somebody moves out.

Do you have an attic space or crawl space above these rooms? If so, I'd put the hole in your bedroom ceiling instead. Send your vent pipe straight up, then make a turn in the crawl space, and attach it to whatever vent the bathroom fan was going into (after taking the bathroom vent pipe off and setting it aside). You'd accomplish the same thing, and your bathroom would look fine. If you ever had to restore/repair what you've done, you'd have one spot on your ceiling to fix, as opposed to two walls to fix otherwise (bedroom wall and bathroom wall).

a key hole saw cuts threw drywall like butter and only cost like five bucks

thanks for the advice guys... i think thats the best place to vent it, its just a scary process as i dont know whats behind the walls etc... the bedroom ceiling i wouldnt do as im not entirely sure whats above it but a stud finer looks like the right way to go - once again thanks RIU.

whitewidow2 said:

the bedroom ceiling i wouldnt do as im not entirely sure whats above it

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You should have access in one of your closets or hallways. If you just stick your head up there, you'll probably see that there's just studs, insulation, and some wiring up there. If you're able to climb around up there, you could cut your hole from there and would have an easy time of placing your hole between studs and avoiding any wires.

Get a measuring tape and measure from the corner of the wall every 16 on center! good luck man!

Never done that before but it sounds easier that running the duct out your room back into the bathroom. If you have space in the attic (if your talking about the upper level) then I would go into the ceiling and tie into the bathroom vent that way.

The only problem I see with that is the fan in the grow room might push the air back into the bathroom unless you left the bathroom fan all the time.

Might have to run a seperate vent so you dont have a back up into the bathroom

I was thinking he could just completely disconnect the bathroom fan vent pipe and set it aside. Then he could connect his grow room vent pipe into whatever outlet the fan vent pipe was using. That's what I'd do, but if he's not into climbing around up there, I understand.

just blow it all into the attic. use a drywall saw.

i just finished drilling through the wall in my closet today. i put a 120mm fan to draw the air from inside the wall spaces.

iron joint said:

i just finished drilling through the wall in my closet today. i put a 120mm fan to draw the air from inside the wall spaces.

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Most of you are assuming the bathroom ventilator actually exhausts out the roof. It's a rental house...I'll bet my next paycheck that bathroom fan exhausts right into the attic space. Seen it a million times.

Cut the hole in the ceiling...either way, you'll be glad you did. And as far as pulling air from the spaces between studs....you do know there's a bottom plate that's nailed to the FLOOR, and two top plates that pretty much seal that off right?

Leothwyn said:

I was thinking he could just completely disconnect the bathroom fan vent pipe and set it aside. Then he could connect his grow room vent pipe into whatever outlet the fan vent pipe was using. That's what I'd do, but if he's not into climbing around up there, I understand.

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yeah thats what i plan on doing... utilising the fact that there is an old and pre-exisitng hole in the bathroom ceiling to directly vent into and blow into the attic space