Bath Venting

December 22, 2002

Greetings fellow RnY'ers...

One of the more noticeable issues post " roux n' y " is the obvious issue that

needs to be discussed. Odors from the bathroom, powderoom, half bath, hotel

bath, outhouse, porta-potty....any of those places. If like me, I'm very

uncomfortable just having to use the facility most anywhere...and that

includes areas in my own home. As a designer and builder, there's options

for each of us to consider during the process of construction, remodeling or

even trying to find a way to avoid the obvious nuisance to others.

I heard Vitalady discussing the issue with Sue Rudnicki once. Comments

about buzzards falling off of a manure wagon, or the Board of Health tacking

notices of condemnation on the doors of their residence more than once since

going post op. It shouldn't be that way...but that's the price (one of the

prices) for the procedure....most correctly, undigested matters and oils

that are a variety of aromatic strength.

There are new construction tricks to be considered if any of you are in the

process. The privacy area of the water closet...normally a room that is at

the minimum 3 feet wide and 5 feet long...just enough for you and the

toilet; possibly to accomodate the swing of a door. With an 8 foot ceiling

height, that gives you a room of 120 cubic feet of area (15 sq.ft. x 8 ft).

In many cases, these little privacy rooms are too narrow for a window; and

the plumbing arrangement makes access to a window a bit difficult, so you

have to rely upon a venting fan by code. They make a variety of fans with a

variety of ratings of 50 cubic feet per minute (cfm) to 150 cfm. Exchanging

the air in a 120 cfm room with a 150 cfm fan is extreme....but available,

depending upon the location of this privacy area. The powder room/half bath

that would get a lot of use during visits with guests, or becomes YOUR

bathroom, the faster the exchange the better.

For existing construction, you can guage the size of your bathroom by square

area and buy accordingly. Nutone has a variety of bath fans that are rated

by the square footage of the bathroom. These units incorporate a light as

well so that remodeling the bath ceiling or exchanging one fan for another

of higher rating is relatively easy with existing electrical AND ducting

vent in place.

Ducting vents are important. Do NOT allow your contractor to just take the

vent hose from the fan into the attic and drop it there; likewise, don't let

him/her dump that vent into the soffit area of the eaves...even though the

eaves are normally vented and the attic by code should have sufficient

ventilation for the attic. The problem in colder climates is that bathroom

air vents are moving not only odors, but moisture laden air from the shower

and bath; condensation on the mirrors will give you an idea of the amount of

moisture in the bath after showering or bathing. This moisture into the

attic or the eaves leads to excessive moisture in areas that moisture needs

to be out of. The attic and eaves have wood members that least need

moisture to saturate or dampen the wood on a daily basis over a number of

years. The vent should extend into a vent flapper through the wall or

attached beneath the soffit....or through the roof.

Some vent fans can be mounted directly behind or to the side of the toilet

in a through the wall arrangement....as in the old kitchen vent type fans.

This is something to consider for a bath area that is not being remodeled

into a privacy area, but needs that extra bit of venting rather than buy

caseloads of room deodorizers. The through the wall vents that are direct

vents must be chosen with care along with a proper installation to avoid the

problems associated with a hole in the exterior of the house that might

allow cold air back into your bath...right at your back or directly at your

side.

Some folks have gone to extremes to resolve the fresh air issues in baths.

They cut into the cold air returns of their HVAC systems (heat, vent air

condtioning) from an adjacent room to suck the air out of the bath for circu

lation of the air in the bath. A)It's against the codes to do this, it

just removes fetid air from that area for the rest of the house to enjoy as

it's pumped into the air handler and sent throughout the structure.

Put your bath vents on a timer that happens when you turn them on so that

they'll run for 5 minutes or so after you leave and then shut down on their

own.

Next topic....the RIGHT toilet for the Roux n' Y client.

Dan

rny 10.13.98

EdWaits,MD-Atlanta

December 22, 2002

Dan,

Are you a DISTAL RNY? Because I'm a medial RNY, 125 cm bypassed, and I adhere to

a basically low-fat diet... and while I'm not pooping roses, I do use public

facilities, toilets in my friends' houses, and the ones in my own house without

fear of doing harm to others, and often, even, without turning on the

standard-issue bathroom fan. No fears of stinking up the entire house.

Not ALL of us who have had RNY have the problems you're talking about. Granted,

you don't want to be around me on a day when I've eaten bread; the farts might

make your eyes water... but even then, the eventual " results " are not toxic.

I guess my point is, it's worth it to point out that not EVERYONE who has an RNY

will create especially offensive bathroom odors. Many of our lurkers are

researching surgery or fresh posties, and there's no point scaring them over

something that might not, ahem, come to pass. :-)

Z

Open RNY 09/17/01

Reconstructives 07/22/02

310/128/125

http://www.obesityhelp.com/morbidobesity/profile.phtml?N=M987208445 updated

today

________________________________

From: Dan

Sent: Sun 12/22/2002 8:58 PM

To: Graduate-OSSG

Subject: Bath Venting