Bathroom Extractor Fan

[TwentiethCenturyGirl]

Our new house doesn't have an extractor fan in the bathroom and as a consequence there are little patches of black mould on the ceiling. I'm going to bleach the mould off but am also looking into having an extractor fan fitted.

Does anybody know roughly how much it costs to have one fitted to an outside wall - and how much hassle it is? Who even fits them - an electrician? Can you tell I'm clueless?!

yes, needs an electrician although a competent DIYer can do it subject to the wiring regs - depends on the rest of the house.

a decent fan costs £50 or under, the chap will need access to your loft and of course to drill some holes. For maximum extraction the fan needs to run on for some time after showers/baths.

I'd say you need a general builder to knock the hole in the wall and fit the fan. You'd also need an electrician to wire it in if you want it to go on with the lights or using a wall switch. no idea on cost sorry.

Hmm - DH is a pretty competent at most aspects of DIY but won't touch electrics. An electrician it is then, as I'd want it to work via a wall switch.

I had no idea it would need to go into the loft. I really am clueless! At least it doesn't sound like a majorly expensive job.

An electrician will do the whole job for you. But it will be messy as they will have to drill through both sets of bricks creating a lot of dust.

Get a couple of quotes, or try to find someone who's recommended.

Our extractor fan was fitted by an electrician and he didn't need to go into the loft.

He recommended a fan with a humidistat (supposed to come on when the humidity reached a certain point, but rarely did). Luckily it also came with a pull cord so we use that and it's timed to switch off after 20 minutes which is adjustable.

Because of the useless humidistat it was quite pricey but to have an ordinary one fitted an electrician should only charge you a half day's rate (ours = £75) plus the cost of the fan.

Great stuff - thanks for the responses :)

Get a fan like weedit says... That you can turn off and on manually, not a timer.There's nothing worse than an annoying fan going on and on while you are having a relaxing soak in the bath.

In the mean time, air the bathroom by opening the window regularly.

Well, there are lots of worse things actually, I can't believe I said that!

Also looking at having this done, is the £75 for the half days work inclusive of making a hole in outside wall?

Yes, our electrician's full day charge is £150 and this includes cables, switches and bits & pieces. It was done a while ago but I'm sure he only took half a day to do it - and he made the hole in the wall.

We've been quoted about £300 for the work and the fan which is to create a hole in thickish exterior wall and install fan. Think I'll be getting more quotes having read this...

Yes that's why I asked Misty, my cursory Google had come up with those kinds of figures