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You may not cover the vent. I'm a member of my building's Co-op Board here in the city and we say absolutely not for our building. Covering it would make the apartment not up to code anymore. You could fall into legal trouble if you did so.

My guess is that it's part of the central ventilation of the building. I'd see if there was a way to leave some space so the vent can still pull air in though.

Do you want to cover it because you find it unattractive, or because you want bigger cabinets?

I want to cover it so I can get bigger cabinets. My kitchen is about 6x7 and it would be great to have more storage!

I wouldn't permanently cover up that vent. It pulls air out of your kitchen, allowing for new fresh air to replace the old. Perhaps an alternate would be to put a removable or flip up panel (maybe with a grill in front) in front of it that is flush with the front of your cabinets. If you find you don't care about the air circulation in your kitchen or if the vent doesn't work, leave it on. If you are cooking or if it's hot in the kitchen, open it up.

I have a vent in my bathroom that doesn't work at all and only blows cold air in, so it is all taped up.

I have similar vents in my apartment. They ventilate heat, smoke and odors from the kitchen and bathrooms. Although redirecting the intakes around your cabinets might be a good idea, I would never block them. In fact, since yours appears to be caked over with paint, I would suggest you remove the grilles and clean them and the airflow dampers underneath thoroughly. You will probably find your kitchen retaining fewer cooking odors.

it is part of your building's ventilation system and you can't cover it. i came across the same problem when i renovated my kitchen. for legal and safety reasons, i chose regular height cabinets, painted the vent the same color as the wall and installed a wine rack in front of the vent.

i would've loved the extra storage space, but i learned that covering circulation vents is a fire hazard, so better safe than sorry.

your building's management will say no.

yeah, they were put there just for show. Why worry?

thanks for all of your help and I think I'd better be safe than sorry.

what I don't understand is, why are all of the contractor's telling me I can cover the vent?

mmm why not go with taller cabinets but have an over the range microwave. then have some vent tubing or whatever you call it lead from the microwave to the vent...obviously this would all happen inside the cabinet above the microwave but that would be my choice since you could still take full advantage of that vent...just a thought.
im not quite sure if it would still be a firehazard if you allowed the vent to actually be open inside the cabinet....i think as long as its not completely covered this could work.

Another example of why most "advice" from contractors should be double checked. "No problem with cutting through that supporting beam - in fact it will make my job easier and save you money!"

the contractors are telling you that to please you and get the job - they don't have to live with the after effect.

I wouldn't obstruct the vent, because there's a reason for it being there. There are however vent covers that allow air to pass through while enhancing the overall look.

To solve your storage problem, I would use baskets above the cabinets and perhaps efficient and creative storage solution within what's already there.

Does the structure behind the wall allow you to move the vent opening? For instance, can you move the opening vertically down the shaft to vent at the basebord/toekick level? Or can you extend it up and forward, to vent in front of the new cabnets as a ceiling vent?

You will be violating building codes by covering that vent -- just say no!

Hi Deb,
I am at the tail end of a kitchen renovation where I encountered the same exact problem. I also work in this industry so to give you an explination of the code. IF your kitchen is under a certain amount of square footage and does not have a window it is the law that you have ventilation ie:the vent that you are showing. For the past 2 months while we were going through the installation one of our cabinets was covering that vent until the perforation that I designed for the face plate was finished. I can tell you that there was a serious difference in air flow and you do not want to cover that vent up. As I said I designed a fixed panel that has a perforated pattern to go in front of it. It looks great. I am very happy about the way it turned out. good luck

You are asking two different questions to the contractors and the building management.

"Can I cover the vents?"
Contractor's answer: "Yes, it's physically possible."

"May I cover the vents?"
Building managers: "No, it's not permitted."


Here's an idea: Install regular height cabinets on either side of the vent. In the space where the vent is, though, in stall another vent cover that bridges the gap between the cabinets on either side--you could probably get something that blends in well with the rest of you cabinetry. I don't know if my idea would be up to code, but it seems a lot cheaper and more efficient that rerouting the vent.

I also live in a co-op and had my kitchen renovated 2 years ago, had a similar vent, and decided to do what your contractors suggested - taller cabinets and then cut a hole for the vent.

It works great. The vent is still there. It still allows for airflow (unless you have airtight kitchen cabinets) and you can't see it because it is hidden behind the door of a cabinet.

I'd ask your building and if they say it's okay... go for it... My building said that as long as it was not totallt covered, it is fine. There just has to be airflow - which there still will be.

Actually, I just moved into a newly renovated apartment that had one of those vents in the kitchen. A friend lived in the apartment before me, and I knew that you could hear everything that was happening in the neighbors bathroom (yes, everything!) through this vent. So during the renovations I asked the landlord about it. Since there was a window in the kitchen, the vent could be covered up. They covered it with a square of drywall, patched and painted.

I'm with cuomo21. Don't delete the vent, just keep it the same size and move it to run through a tall cabinet and you'll be fine. Sure you may not be able to use the top shelf of that specific cabinet, but I'd say it's worth it to be able to half taller cabinets through the rest of your kitchen.

I was going to suggest something along the lines of what sugar rae said. Install high cabinetry all around it, put up something decorative, but not obstructive to cover the front of the vent - flush with the other cabinets, that blends. Something cool with fabric immediately springs to mind, except that in a kitchen it would likely grease up fast, or retain odors....If you had one 'pretty' display piece that could sit up there and not block the flow maybe that would work too.

Sugar rae - if you happen to have a picture of what you did, I would love to see it!

Re: luckycharmer's comment - Usually when a kitchen has a vent and a window, the window is a lot line window, meaning if a tall building were to go up next door, it could potentially block your kitchen window, requiring the exhaust vent.

Also, the contractor would love to sell you the taller cabinets.

The question is valid though. Maybe the ventilation system that it was part of has been replaced, but they left the derelict cold air return system in place because it would have been expensive to remove. Who knows?

If you end up keeping it as-is, then let me tell you this much: you can use a little bit of paint stripper to at least dislodge it from where it is -- mainly near where the screws are.

Once it's down, find some kind of metal pan that the entire thing will fit in and let it soak in some paint stripper OR just use some of the Peel-Away kind where you paint on the environmentally-friendly kind and put some wax paper and then peel it away. Anyway... underneath all that paint, you'll probably find some nice metal. Once it's at least clean, if the metal is very dark, then you can at least use some silver Rust-o-leum (either spray or brush-on), and have something that will at least look pretty nice, like I did in my old bathroom -- have a look toward the top of wall:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/artycurtis/1440963300/in/set-531399/

Just a thought!

I wouldn't cover it... probably illegal and you'd throw off the airflow and temperature control in your unit.

One option: Replace the grate and install open shelving below that particular space - maybe two or three shelves to balance taller cabinets in other areas of the kitchen. It would give you an airy, open feeling, particularly if your other cabinets have glass fronts. Add some tall vases for architectural interest and instant glam!

I'm sure if you posted a photo of the wall area, folks here could help you come up with a layout that would look stunning. There are some talented people here.

Good luck.

Hi Deb, let me post a photo tomorrow. Sorry, I lost track of this question. But basically I had the millworker take a fixed filler panel that was there and perforated it with a large drill bit.