Bathroom Extractor venting into loft space?

[Deleted2797112]

Just over a year ago I had kitchen and bathroom renovation work done on my very elderly mother's flat to make it safer for her. One of the things that had to be done when taking out the bath and replacing it with a walk-in shower was to move the extractor fan as it was where the shower cubicle was to be located. It's an internal bathroom, no windows. The builder said it would be done to comply with building regs.

The old bathroom extractor and the kitchen extractor appeared to be connected to a (boxed-in) duct which is vented on the outside wall of the building (part of the original late-80s build). The builder appears to have replaced rather than just moved the fan and it has now stopped working. It's operated by the bathroom light switch located in the hall and the light is still working.

My 85 year old mother, bless her, has been up on her step stool and taken the front off the fan and says it's absolutely filled with dust, crud and muck and covered in what she describes as 'frost' - some kind of white deposit. I'm wondering now if the new fan is venting into the loft rather than to the outside and is sucking in all the rubbish from the loft. I'm not sure what regs say about this but given that it's a block of retirement flats and the loft isn't ours, I'm a bit worried. We're calling an electrician but I'd like to know what questions to be asking and be able to make sure it's done properly.

This in Scotland btw.

Many thanks!

 

[EFLImpudence]

A year isn't long but the 'frost' is perfectly normal - everything has to be cleaned.

Dust, fluff, skin, talcum powder etc.

It would probably be a lot less 'frosty' were it sucking from the loft.

 

[Deleted2797112]

Thanks, that's a bit reassuring. I'm surprised though that a new fan has failed after a year of light use. We'll just have to wait and see what a new electrician has to say about it.

 

[Deleted2797112]

I could really use a bit more help with this please. First electrician didn't even look in the loft and has quoted £138. Second one went in the loft and says that the fan has flexible ducting but the end is sitting (on the insulation I think) above the level of the soffit vent so effectively is just venting into the loft space as the hot air will rise away from the soffit. He is also concerned about fire safety and thinks it would pose a risk were there to be a fire below, sucking air in. I asked what happens to condensation in the duct and he said there is a U in the ducting in which condensation will colllect but didn't explain where it would go - I wonder if this has caused the fan to fail.

He suggested that the vent should go through the roof but the problem here is that it's a managed retirement block and if permission could be obtained at all, I could see it running to 4 figures if we have to pay the agent's costs for obtaining the permission and approving the work. Neither my Mum nor I can afford that kind of money.

We're trying to get the electrician that installed the fan back but he's being a bit elusive at the moment. The helpful electrician says he checked his catalogue and believes the fan has a 2 year warranty so it would still be covered and the original fitter should come back.

I'm really looking for less expensive alternatives - is there a way to install a fan in the loft that is compliant with building and fire regs? The helpful electrician also said he thought that the original fan would have been mounted inside the the boxed-in ducting that runs to the two vents on the outside wall and that there would have just been a grille in the bathroom. Is this an option that could still be considered? How far away from the bathroom grille would the fan have been located - there is now a shower cubicle over that area of wall so the only access to the ducting would now be in the kitchen.

Any help will be very gratefully received!