The bulk of tomorrow's meeting will be spent on a walkthrough with the contractor. Before and after that we will discuss the finer points of the contract and iron out pending logistics that depend on his understanding of project scope.
During the walkthrough, my plan is to bring him up to speed on the preliminary decisions that the clients have made along with the items in discussion, just to get his immediate reaction. To follow up, I plan to transform the project matrix that the clients filled in a few meetings ago into a draft specifications guide, then hand it over to the contractor to fill in his initial comments on budget and schedule.
During the walkthrough, a big question for the contractor is the capacity of the current kitchen mechanical ductwork, electricity and plumbing, and how much rerouting for each item will be required to accomplish our new layout. Because the clients will be doing a lot of cooking, it would make sense to find a powerful (yet quiet and low-maintenance) hood. The catch is that in order to keep the budget and schedule sane, the hood must work with the current duct dimensions.
Since the power of an average hood is about 350-400 CFM, I think we should consider something in the 600CFM-850CFM ballpark. There are two hoods that seem to work for my clients’ needs (Zephyr Typhoon AK2142 850 CFM) and (Broan Elite E661 550 CFM.) For either to work, I am just crossing my fingers that the current ducts are at least 7" wide.
I looked at a ton more hoods, but ruled them out. Kobe and Vent-A-Hood have strong hoods but break down more often (lower quality products.) GE Monogram, Viking Pro are amazing and known to be high-quality but are too pricey for our budget and also too powerful for my clients’ needs. They are also by definition noisy - comes with the territory of having high-powered fans.
