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Exhaust Fan Installation
Northern Beaches

Last updated 28 August 2026

If the mould keeps coming back around the bathroom ceiling, it is almost never the cleaning. It is the fan. We replace bathroom and laundry exhaust fans across the Northern Beaches, ducted properly to outside air.

Quick answer

Recurring bathroom mould on the Northern Beaches is a ventilation problem, not a cleaning problem. Most older bathrooms through Manly, Dee Why, Brookvale and Mona Vale have a fan that is undersized for the room, switched off the light so it stops before the steam does, or ducted only as far as the roof cavity instead of outside. Connery Electrical replaces the fan, sizes it to the room, ducts it through the eave or roof to open air, and can fit a run-on timer or humidity sensor so it keeps going after you leave. Licensed, NSW Lic 473086C, fixed price after a free assessment.

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Ventilation Services

Exhaust Fan Installation & Replacement

Supply and install of bathroom, laundry and toilet ventilation across the Northern Beaches, done so the moisture actually leaves the building.

Bathroom exhaust fan replacement, ducted out through the eave or roof
Undersized fan upgrades, sized to the room rather than to the hole it sits in
Inline fans for long duct runs, upstairs bathrooms and awkward ceiling spaces
Fan, light and heat lamp combination units
Laundry and internal toilet ventilation
Run-on timers and humidity sensor switches so the fan keeps going after the shower
Re-ducting existing fans that currently vent into the roof cavity

Why Choose Us

Why Connery Electrical

Licensed, local, and doing the part of this job that most people never see.

Licensed & Insured

NSW Electrical Contractor Licence 473086C. Every installation is tested and comes with a Certificate of Compliance, and the wiring is done to AS/NZS 3000.

Ducted Outside, Every Time

The duct is the part nobody checks and the part that decides whether the fan works. Ours run through to open air and are sealed at both ends, never dumped into the roof space.

Built For Coastal Damp

Bathrooms a few streets from the surf carry humidity that inland homes do not. We size for the room and the climate it sits in, which is why a fan that was fine in a display home struggles here.

What To Expect

How It Works

Most replacements are a single visit. Here is what is involved.

A look at the existing fan, the duct run, and where it currently vents to
A check that the fan is sized for the room rather than for the cutout it sits in
Fixed price before anything starts, covering the fan, the ducting and the install
Old unit out, new one in, ducted through the eave or roof to outside air
Timer or humidity sensor wired in if you want the fan to run on after you leave
Sealed, cleaned up, tested and certified, with the old unit taken away

Oscar Connery, licensed electrician, beside the Connery Electrical ute on a Northern Beaches job

Oscar. One licensed sparky, NSW Lic 473086C. You get him, not a call centre.

Connery Electrical handles ventilation work for homes across the Northern Beaches. Need something else while we are there? See our full range of services, residential electrical work, or LED lighting.

Northern Beaches Specifics

Why Beaches Bathrooms Grow Mould

Two things make this a Northern Beaches problem more than an inland one, and both of them are about air rather than cleaning.

Black mould spreading across a bathroom ceiling and cornice around a round exhaust fan vent

Mould spreading out from the vent is the tell. The fan is either too small, stopping too early, or not moving the air outside.

Bathrooms that never fully dry out. Coastal air carries more moisture, and a bathroom a few streets from the surf starts the day damper than one out west. Add a shower to that and the surfaces stay wet for hours. Most fans in older homes through Manly, Fairlight, Dee Why and Collaroy were specified for a smaller room than the one they ended up in, and plenty are wired to the light switch, so they stop the moment you flick it off and leave a room full of steam behind. Sizing the fan to the actual room and putting it on a run-on timer or a humidity sensor is usually the whole fix. The fan keeps going for another ten or fifteen minutes after you have gone, which is the window that decides whether the ceiling dries or not.

A bathroom exhaust fan being ducted out through the eave of a Northern Beaches home

Ducting a bathroom fan out through the eave. This is the part that decides whether the fan works, and the part nobody checks.

The fan that vents into the roof. This is the one that surprises people. A fan can sound like it is working, move air off the ceiling, and still be doing nothing useful, because the duct stops in the roof cavity or was never connected at all. The moisture leaves the bathroom and condenses on the underside of the roof and on the timber instead. You get the same mould back downstairs, plus damp insulation and framing you cannot see. On a lot of older Beaches homes the duct is either missing, crushed flat where someone has walked on it, or has come off the outlet entirely. It is worth checking before you buy a new fan, because in many cases the fan was never the problem and re-ducting the existing one properly is the cheaper job.

A flexible exhaust fan duct ending open in a roof cavity above insulation batts instead of running through to the eave

A duct that stops short of the eave. The fan still sounds like it is working, but the moisture is going into the roof instead of outside.

Common Questions

Exhaust Fan FAQ

Why does mould keep coming back in my bathroom after I clean it?

Because cleaning removes the mould but not the moisture that grew it. Mould needs damp surfaces, and a bathroom that stays damp for hours after a shower will grow it back on the same ceiling every time. The usual cause is the fan. Either it is too small for the room, or it is running for two minutes and switching off with the light while the steam is still there, or it is not actually moving the air outside.

Fix the ventilation and the mould stops returning, because the surfaces dry before anything can take hold. If your fan is more than about ten years old, or you have never heard it move much air, that is the first thing worth checking.

Where should a bathroom exhaust fan vent to?

Outside. Through the eave, the soffit or a roof vent, into open air. A surprising number of fans on the Northern Beaches are ducted no further than the roof cavity, or have no duct attached at all, which simply moves the moisture from the bathroom into the roof space above it. That is where it condenses on the underside of the roof and on the timber, and over time it damages insulation and framing rather than the ceiling you were worried about.

Every fan we install is ducted through to outside air and sealed at both ends. If yours currently vents into the roof, we can duct it out properly without replacing the fan itself in most cases.

Can you replace an exhaust fan without damaging the ceiling?

Usually yes. Most replacements go straight into the existing cutout, so nothing needs patching. Where the new fan is a different size, or the old one was undersized for the room and needs to go up a size, there may be a small amount of ceiling work, and we will tell you that at the quote rather than after we have opened it up.

We silicone the surround, clean up and take the old unit away. If you are also having downlights or a heat lamp done at the same time it is worth mentioning, because doing both in one visit is cheaper than two trips.

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