Range Hood Install

I started on one of the projects I teased a couple of weeks ago; the range hood.  I worked on this Saturday night, and then Sunday after church.  My wife was getting a tad bit nervous, as we were hosting a Ravens party (they won!)  I’ve got to sing her praises, though, because she let me work on it until the 5 mins before the first guest arrived, and we finished cleaning up before kick-off. 
We got the Cavaliere Euro 36in wall mount from here.

I did a lot of googling to try to find reviews for this unit, and they were few.  The ones I did find were very positive, though.  I’m not totally satisfied, but for the money, it’s a great buy.  The screen doesn’t look right unless you look at it from just the right angle, and there is little in the way of mounting points.   It definitely moves air, though.

When we redid the kitchen walls, we installed a new range hood vent, which I’ve already blogged about.   I had to extend the venting up to accommodate the chimney-style upwards venting. 

  

That 90deg elbow stuck out too far from the wall, though, so I ended up having to extend the in-wall ducting all the way up and then put in a hole and adapter. 

   

This is not ideal, as it doesn’t afford a smooth air path, but it will have to work.

Here's some key points from the install.

• Installing the ducting piecemeal was difficult, but the better option, as it allowed me to secure it to the stud better.
• The recommended height (32-36in) seemed ludicrously low, but I didn't want to go so high as to make it ineffective.  I ended up at about 45in.
• I cut myself about 5 times; once badly.  Wear gloves.

I’ve since mounted the hood, but I’m not totally happy with it, so no pictures yet.  I decided to use some spacer blocks behind the hood to put it about .75in off the wall.  This is so it won’t look sunken when I eventually put the stone around it. 
Still to do: hardwire it in, mount it better, install the chimney cover, and install the (as-of-yet-unpurchased) stone veneer.