Replace a Bathroom Exhaust Fan Light
Exhaust fans in bathrooms expel wet air from the room, helping prevent mildew and moisture damage to your walls. The fans have been around long enough that you might find yourself having to replace one in your bathroom. Replacing an existing bathroom exhaust unit is a lot easier than installing one from scratch, and should take only an hour or so. Make sure to measure the opening of the old unit and don't get a new one that's smaller than that, because you'll be left with a gap in your ceiling. This plan assumes you can access the unit from the attic above the bathroom.
Instructions
1. Turn off all power to the room.
2. Set your ladder under the current fan unit. Remove the vent plate that's covering it. It will likely be held on by screws or by a wire clip. Take out the light bulb.
3. Go to the attic, above the bathroom, and locate the exhaust fan unit, which will be attached to a floor joist and facing down into the bathroom. Detach the electrical wires going to the unit by unscrewing the wire nuts. Detach the exhaust hose from the unit, loosening the screw on the metal band that's holding it there. Unscrew the screws holding the unit to the joist. Pull the unit away from the floor, exposing the square hole looking down into the bathroom.
4. Set your new unit in place in the same position as the old one. If the face of the new unit is bigger than the old one was, trace on the drywall around the perimeter of the face with your pencil, then use your jigsaw to widen the hole at the line. Affix the unit to the joist, screwing in the support brackets with the provided screws.
5. Reconnect the wiring as it was connected to the previous unit, using wire nuts to make the connections and wrapping each one in electrician's tape. Reconnect the to the unit, if possible. If the exhaust hose from the old unit doesn't fit on the new unit, use the new exhaust hose that came with the unit and string it out through the hole in the exterior wall where the previous hose was.
6. Turn the power back on. In the bathroom, install the light bulb, then put the new vent cover over the hole.
Tags: exhaust hose, above bathroom, attic above, attic above bathroom, Bathroom Exhaust,