Welcome back to MyMobilehomeMakeover.com! After my last post about mobile home moisture, I realized that there’s still more I can share about our difficulties with and triumphs over moisture in our home. Today’s topic: Bathroom Exhaust.
This week, we have (haha, well my husband has) installed a new exhaust fan in our bathroom. A lot of moisture gets trapped in there because we like to take pretty hot showers. We’ve also covered the walls and ceiling with bead board for a cottage look (See Bathroom Redux post) and the surfaces in that room are pretty non-porous. Moisture just beads up on the skylight and sometimes even rains down on me in the shower when the sun is shining!
Anyway, the ceiling fan we installed in the bathroom remodel was very lovely and all, but hardly functional. And this was pretty disappointing because it was a real beotch pain to put in. Of course, being a mobile home, the original fan was some backward cheapo fan with an oddball installation method that didn’t match any other logical method known to mankind. But we went at the challenge with gusto and retrofitted a lovely, poorly designed fan just because it matched the decor. We are nothing if not optimists!
First ceiling fan install. Lovely fan, not so functional.
While the style of the fan complemented our decor very well, if you look at the light cover, it just doesn’t allow for enough air to be sucked up around the globe to go up into the fan. Another reason we chose the fan was because it allowed for a dimmer in the bathroom light so when someone (me!) takes a hot bath in the Winter, they can relax in a dimly lit room. But, the dimmer wouldn’t work without a slight buzz that made me crazy, so it never really fulfilled all of it’s many claims to fame.
Fast forward to two years later, my husband is on the roof in November ripping up shingles and pulling out the fan assembly to install one that actually works! What a wonderful world it would be if this could have been done from the bathroom, but alas, no such luck.
Exhaust fans in your bathrooms are essential in a mobile home. Even this time of year when we run our pellet stove 24/7 to heat our home, the level of moisture trapped in the bathrooms is not good for that space. Unfortunately it doesn’t spread around the house the way we need it to in order to keep from having to run a humidifier so the living room ceiling (still popcorn of course!) doesn’t crumble to dust from the dry air near the stove.
The new fan “we” (Big D!) installed this weekend is just a fan, no light, full power, jet propulsion style! Not too loud and works like a charm. We’re keeping our fingers crossed that this will keep the rain showers to a minimum in there.
Broan White 80 CFM 2.5 sones Bath Fan
I must add, I did do a lot of the installation work on the original fan replacement (as I did much of the demolition and remodel work for the entire project). But today, I was hoping for an easy job so I could get to work on a new project, and this one just ended up taking hours longer than anticipated. So, who got into a snit and bagged out of the project? Well, that would be me. But Big D has forgiven me. He’s nice like that.
Stay dry!
The McGees
Ceiling exhaust fan is not suitable in the bathroom. It is not working well. Thank you for the post.
Can someone tell me where to get cheap bathtub wall for my module like home.
We live in a mobile 1987 double wide. We took down old exhaust fan in one bathroom to replace it but found out no where to mount the new fan what to do?
Our fan went out in our guest bath w/o us realizing it since we seldom use it & keep the door closed. I opened the door to no fan & mold covering the ceiling. Whole bath has to be remodeled. I want to replace fan with a better, higher quality fan. Was your original fan round? Ours is but the ones I’m interested in are all square. Hubby says he’s not sure he can change it out without a lot of pain in the butt change of all the ductwork.
Thanks for visiting, Lisa. Our fan was round and we put a square one in. It was quite a bear to get the piping adapted through the ceiling due to a small work space, but it works great. You can do pretty much what you want, you may just need to retrofit as best as possible.
A quieter fan is really great to have. The ones that come standard tend to be pretty loud.
Happy remodeling!
My husband and I have recently remodeled our master bathroom in our 1988 mobile home. It has never had a exhaust fan in it and we covered the AC vent in the floor since it no longer works. Painted the ceilings and walls and now we have mold growing on the ceiling. Please help. I feel like all the work we done was for nothing.
We have no ventilation in our bathroom. Moisture buildup. We live in a mobile home how can we add a fan?
I recently bought a 1972 remodeled mobile home. Its weird that in my bathroom there is a large vent with two 14×11 filters inside. It seems strange to me especially since one of the filters is half way down showing empty space. Can i remove this vent grate and cover the whole space with a board?
Hi Elizabeth. Is this vent in the wall?
With that amount of moisture does your bead board warp
Thanks for posting, Rebecca! The bead board has held up very well. Right over the shower, there are a couple of spots of some very small dimpling, but you can't see it unless you are standing up close. Hard to believe, but we did that remodel in 2007. So, 9 years ago? It's held up nicely. I am considering painting it this Summer. Since it's the glossy finish bead board, I will need to use Glidden Gripper on it first, but I've used that on bead board before and it worked great. I will post about that once I do. This room does get a lot of moisture, but we put a window in the bathroom and also have a great exhaust fan. So, that keeps the moisture down. It is also well trimmed and caulked so no moisture gets under the bead board, which I think helps a lot.
The rest of it, aside from the couple of small areas, still looks as good as the day we put it up. There has been no warping or buckling at all. They do make a bead board that is wider slats and is heavier wood-like product. It is available at Lowe's for about 30$ per sheet. We've looked at that for a while, but , feel like it would be harder to work with, heavier, and the edges are inconsistent as far as chips and such so you'd have to weed through a lot of the sheets to find perfect ones to use. Good luck with your projects! We'd love to see pictures when you're through. You can post them at our facebook page!
Happy Remodeling!
Our bathroom ceiling exhaust fan doesn’t work at all, and we NEED to replace it as cheaply, but functional, as possible without having to go on the roof! Here’s the problem, and I’m fixin’ to tear my hair out over it; the actual exhaust duct, pipe, whatever it’s called, goes straight up, and we can only find fans that have the pipe on the side! Please help! I don’t look good bald!
We have the same issue. What did you figure out? I’m at my witts end.
I have that, but bathroom is still engulfed in steam, what can I check, I'm new to home repair
Hi Sam. Thank you for visiting our site and for taking the time to comment. Do you have a window in your bathroom? We found that installing a window in each of our bathrooms has kept the moisture down significantly, even using the fan at the same time. I hope this helps!
Beth