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Range Hood Installation in the Houston Metro

A range hood in a 1962 ranch off Bissonnet and one in a 2016 house in Fulshear are different jobs wearing the same name. The older house gives you a shallow attic, brick veneer with a soldier course you would rather not cut, a…

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In short

Work starts at the cooktop and moves outward. We measure appliance width and burner spread, set hood width to cover it with overhang where the cabinets allow, and confirm mounting height against the manufacturer’s range, which is tighter over gas than over induction. Then we find the shortest path…

What the work involves

Work starts at the cooktop and moves outward. We measure appliance width and burner spread, set hood width to cover it with overhang where the cabinets allow, and confirm mounting height against the manufacturer’s range, which is tighter over gas than over induction. Then we find the shortest path outdoors. In an older single-storey house that is often straight up through a rafter bay to a roof cap; in a two-storey it is usually through the wall behind the hood to a wall cap. We open ceiling or wall, see what the framing is doing, and cut only where a header or added blocking carries the load. Duct is rigid, galvanised or stainless, sealed and mechanically fastened, sized to the blower rather than to the hole that already exists. Electrical gets its own run where the panel allows. The hood hangs off solid blocking, never drywall anchors. Duct connects, the back-draft damper is checked for free swing, the cap is flashed into the cladding and sealed. Drywall, texture, paint and cabinet filler close it out. Then the fan runs on every speed and we smoke-test capture at the burners.

What gets specified, and why

Duct is where the money should go. Smooth-wall rigid galvanised is the baseline; stainless earns its cost on long runs and exposed terminations. Flexible duct is not appropriate for grease exhaust, because the corrugations hold grease and the friction loss is severe against smooth wall. Diameter follows the blower’s rating, not the old hole. A modest hood may be fine on six-inch, mid-range appliances want eight, and the large ones want ten. Every elbow adds effective length, so two turns and a long run can quietly halve real airflow. Filters matter for cleaning as much as capture: stainless baffles go through the dishwasher, aluminium mesh mats down and eventually gets binned, charcoal is a consumable that only exists in recirculating setups. Blower location is the comfort lever, since an in-line unit in the attic or an exterior-mounted one moves the noise away from the cook, at the cost of a service access point you have to plan for. Wall caps need a real damper, and the bird screen in the cheap ones clogs with grease and belongs out.

Why the Gulf Coast changes this job

Two Gulf Coast realities drive this job. The first is negative pressure. A reasonably tight 2000s house in Katy or Cypress with a large blower can pull the kitchen below outdoor pressure and start drawing humid air through every gap in the envelope. In an older house with an atmospherically vented gas water heater in a hall closet or garage, it can pull flue gas backwards down that vent, which is a combustion-safety question rather than a comfort one. The second is what the termination does on a wall or roof that sees wind-driven rain. Roof caps on composition shingle need flashing lapped into the courses; wall caps through brick veneer need a sleeve, a sealed penetration and a damper that closes against wind. In newer houses the attic is hot and full of blown insulation, so horizontal runs get strapped and kept out of the blanket. In older houses the attic is shallow and the run is short, which is an advantage worth using.

Where these jobs go wrong

The one that shows up most in newer houses is reusing the builder’s six-inch flexible duct for a much larger appliance. The hood sounds like it is working and the kitchen still smells of fish, because static pressure has eaten the airflow. Second is duct that terminates in the attic or a soffit instead of outdoors, putting grease and moisture into insulation and eventually staining a ceiling. Third is mounting height set by looks: too high and the plume escapes the capture area, too low over gas and the clearance is violated. Fourth is cutting a truss chord to make a duct fit. Engineered trusses are not framing lumber, so the route moves instead. In older houses the recurring one is electrical, either tapping a kitchen small-appliance circuit for a hood that draws real current or landing a modern connection on aluminium branch wiring without a properly rated connection. Across both, the last is skipping the smoke check, which is the only cheap way to know the thing actually captures.

What moves the price

Route length and complexity move price more than the hood does. A short vertical shot through a single-storey rafter bay is one thing; a run across a second-floor joist bay to an exterior wall, with elbows, is another. Duct size and material matter, since ten-inch stainless costs meaningfully more than six-inch galvanised. Whether a dedicated circuit can reach the panel, and whether the panel has room, is a real variable, and older panels sometimes need attention first. Masonry penetrations cost more than lap siding. Cabinet modification, chases and chimney enclosures add carpentry. If the appliance is large enough to trigger a makeup air requirement under the mechanical code your jurisdiction has adopted, that is a separate system. Ceiling repair and texture matching on older popcorn or knockdown is routinely underestimated.

How a project runs

We start at the house, not the catalogue. Someone gets into the attic or opens the wall to confirm a route exists before an appliance is chosen, because the appliance should follow the duct. You get a written scope naming duct size, material, termination type, blower location and electrical work. Trade permits are pulled where the jurisdiction requires them, and that differs between the City of Houston and unincorporated Harris or Fort Bend. Work runs demo, framing and blocking, duct and electrical rough, inspection where applicable, close-up, hood set, trim and paint, then commissioning on every fan speed with a smoke test at the burners. Call (281) 235-6971 if you want the route looked at before you buy the hood.

Common questions

My 1970s house has no duct at all. Is a ducted hood still possible?

Usually. Single-storey houses of that era often have a short clean path straight up through the rafter bay to a roof cap, which is the shortest run available anywhere. What decides it is what sits above the cooktop, whether that is a bathroom, a chase or an air handler platform. We look before quoting, and where no honest route exists we say so rather than selling a recirculating unit as an equivalent.

The builder put my hood on flexible duct. Do I have to redo it to upgrade?

If you are increasing airflow, generally yes. A six-inch flexible run built for a small builder unit will not deliver what a large appliance claims on the box. The motor spins hard, the spec-sheet numbers never happen, and the kitchen still holds smoke. Replacing to rigid pipe at the correct diameter is the part that changes performance; the appliance swap alone usually does not.

Is recirculating ever the right answer in Houston?

Occasionally, in a condo or on an interior wall with no route. Understand the trade. Charcoal filters take some odour and grease and return all the heat and all the water vapour to the room. In a climate where indoor humidity is already the fight, that is a real cost sitting directly over your stove. Where a duct route exists, duct it.

Do bigger hoods need makeup air here?

Above a certain exhaust rate, adopted mechanical codes generally require compensating air, and both the threshold and the accepted methods change between code cycles and jurisdictions, so we confirm the current requirement with the permitting office rather than quoting one. Practically, a large blower in a tight house needs a planned air path regardless, or the fan depressurises the house and drags humid outdoor air through the envelope.

Range Hood Installation by location

We cover 102 ZIP codes across the Houston metro. Pick the area closest to you:

Planning range hood installation?

We measure, look at the slab and the existing rough-in, and give you a scope you can actually compare against another bid.

Call (281) 235-6971

MS Home Remodeling · 1530 W Sam Houston Pkwy N, Houston, TX 77043 · (281) 235-6971

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