Building and Construction

Author

Wok fumes

mcinbrass@aol.com

2006-04-21, 11:21 am

I am having a problem with my neighbor. He recently installed a vent
over his cooktop for the porpuse of venting his wok fumes to the rear
of his house. We live in attached home row-style townhomes. I recently
notices these fumes eminating from my internal heat/ac duct work. We
have forced air. He did all of the work himself in the middle of the
night. We appoaced him on the issue but he simply said the fumes were
coming from my kitchen. I closed off some of the duct lines to try and
isolate the problem and now there are no fumes in the ducts but we are
still getting inundated with the odor. They ofen cook late like
9:00-10:00PM and its very disturbing. We get the fumes in our bedroom
also. Can anyone help me find some solution or some recourse. There was

a case a while back on this board about a lady who got a court order to

make his naighbor cook only certain hours and eventully got a win and
the courts made them move the ven to the roof. Do you think this is
possible in NYS?

Thanks in advance

tbasc@bellsouth.net

2006-04-21, 12:21 pm

Building department might be interested in work done without permit.
TB

mrsgator88

2006-04-21, 1:21 pm

<tbasc@bellsouth.net> wrote in message
news:1145629308.519839.301110@i39g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
> Building department might be interested in work done without permit.
> TB

The fire marshall too in this case.

Nehmo Sergheyev

2006-04-21, 4:21 pm

Are you asking a legal question or a construction question? Because if
it's a legal question, the chance of you getting a correct answer is
about zero. And how do you know a wok is causing the smell?

When the wind goes in the right direction, just retaliate with some
American cooking. Cabbage comes to mind, but roasting limburger cheese
is my favorite. I once successfully used it to preventing a house from
selling.
--
(||) Nehmo (||)

Phil Scott

2006-04-26, 1:21 am

<mcinbrass@aol.com> wrote in message
news:1145628743.614959.83320@t31g2000cwb.googlegroups.com...
>I am having a problem with my neighbor. He recently installed
>a vent
> over his cooktop for the porpuse of venting his wok fumes to
> the rear
> of his house. We live in attached home row-style townhomes.
> I recently
> notices these fumes eminating from my internal heat/ac duct
> work. We
> have forced air. He did all of the work himself in the
> middle of the
> night. We appoaced him on the issue but he simply said the
> fumes were
> coming from my kitchen. I closed off some of the duct lines
> to try and
> isolate the problem and now there are no fumes in the ducts
> but we are
> still getting inundated with the odor. They ofen cook late
> like
> 9:00-10:00PM and its very disturbing. We get the fumes in
> our bedroom
> also. Can anyone help me find some solution or some
> recourse. There was
>
> a case a while back on this board about a lady who got a
> court order to
>
> make his naighbor cook only certain hours and eventully got
> a win and
> the courts made them move the ven to the roof. Do you think
> this is
> possible in NYS?
>
> Thanks in advance

You can dig up vent codes, having to do with exhausting so
many feet away from other air intakes etc... You should be
able to prevail.

the larger problem is that with chinese cooking a lot of
grease is vaporized and ends up inside the exhaust ducts...
there are very strict codes on how grease exhausts must be
ducted...not seen with residential...but your local *fire
marshal* will absolutely be interested since this is chinese
cooking and the oil build up would be extreme.

Now...did the guy install grease rated, welded seam, cleanable
duct? No likely.. so that grease ends up in the attic space
or wall space... it becomes one of the worlds biggest fire
hazards...
thus yer fire marshal unless he is an idiot, will be very
interested, most are quite bright on these issues.

How real is a fire hazard... flash fires in chinese woks are
usual, part of the process... worse are also common...did his
hood have grease filters and drain attached? Maybe cheezey
ones... the best still pass grease, and the duct has to be
cleaned a few times a year to meet code....and CO2 fire
supression must be installed...in a commercial application.

residences are exempt except that they still must be safe, and
his isnt for sure... see the fire marshal. you could be
saving many lives.

this guy may also be running a commercial operation from his
home kitchen... that would account for the late cooking and
the volume... family cooking normally takes only a few
minutes in a wok... with him you are talking hours it seems.

In that commercial rules would apply...if ..it was legal to
run a commercial kitchen from a condo...it isnt.

Phil Scott

>

LinkBot