Did you know that the most complex appliance to install is an exhaust hood?
My clients always comment that they can’t remember what appliances they ordered because you make so many selections early in the process of a renovation - as long as between 6 months to a year before they are installed. My job is to keep it organized so that we remember the details in that time gap.
Things always come up, it’s inevitable, even on my own house. You might recall that I wasn’t thrilled with my appliance salesman at the Rocky Bay Home project, after this hood debacle - I like him even less. My contractor needed more backsplash tile and I just couldn't figure out why until I saw it in person. Whoops! Wrong hood!
Locally, I know that my sales people will take care of me and ask the right questions. My mistake is that I didn’t check over his spec list and he refused to send me the full spec sheets. Lesson learned; I should have insisted!
The hood that he sold me was for under cabinet and I knew that we did not have a cabinet above the range. When it was installed, it was WAY too high. Not only does it look strange, it wouldn’t work right. The hood should be between 30 – 36” above the cook surface. Hung too high or too low, it will not function properly. So...
Option 1- get a different hood that was about $1000 + (not something that I wanted to do.)
Option 2- have the builder build the soffit down to get it at the correct height. (At this point all the drywall and painting is done so that would be stepping backwards- plus it would look strange. This would be about $100.)
Option 3 - have a cabinet built or buy another one from ikea then run an extension up to the exterior vent. (About a $165 expense)
We went with Option 2 for cost and timeline. The builder was able to jump on the drywall project and get an extension for the hood to make it work properly. It doesn’t look perfect but it is good enough for the next few years before doing a full-blown kitchen renovation.