A lot of San Diego galleys and condo kitchens put the range on a wall that backs a bedroom, a closet, or a hallway. There is no outside face right behind the burners. The hood still has to send heat, grease, and moisture somewhere. “We’ll figure out the vent” after the cabinets arrive is how a hood ends up recirculating when you thought it was ducted.
Modern Kitchen San Diego does not install hoods. An independent remodeler, and the inspector on the permit, have to agree on the path. This page does not state a CFM number or a code section.
Three places the duct can go
Through an interior cabinet, then up or sideways, until it reaches an outside wall or the roof. That steals a cabinet and needs a chase you can live with. A soffit that already runs over the cabinets is sometimes the hiding place. Sometimes the soffit is a structural beam or a plumbing drop and it is not available. Someone has to look.
Straight up through the roof when the kitchen is on the top floor. That is a roof penetration, a flashing detail, and a question about who warranties the roof. In a condo, the roof is often not yours to open. The building’s alteration packet decides it, not the hood brochure.
Out a side wall if a short run can reach an exterior. The exit has to land where the building allows a vent cap. HOAs and condo boards often care about the street face and about a cap over a neighbor’s patio. Read that rule before you fall in love with a hood that only works ducted.
What a recirculating hood does not do
A recirculating hood pulls air through a filter and blows it back into the kitchen. It can reduce some grease odor. It does not remove moisture from a pot of pasta, and it does not replace a duct to the outside. If your windows already fog when you boil water, say that to the remodeler. A charcoal filter is not the same fix.
Filters need a replacement habit. Put that in the conversation when someone calls the recirculating hood “the same thing, just easier.”
Makeup air is a question, not a slogan
A hood that blows a lot of air outside pulls that air from somewhere. In a tight newer house or a condo with sealed windows, the remodeler and the inspector may want a makeup-air path. In a leaky older bungalow the house may already inhale through its gaps, which is its own comfort problem. You do not diagnose that from a product page. You ask the people who will sign the permit.
Cabinets, the hood, and the measure
The hood width, the cabinet height, and the duct size have to be chosen together. A deep upper cabinet can block a duct that needed to rise behind it. A microwave hood combo is a different box than a chimney hood, and it may not accept the duct you hoped to reuse.
At the measure, ask the remodeler to point at the actual path with a hand, not a maybe. If they cannot, the bid should say the vent path is still unknown and what that does to the cabinet order. Ordering boxes before the path is known is how you pay to rebuild a cabinet run.
If this is your project
Call (858) 400-4913 and say the city plus the fact that the range is not on an exterior wall. We try to match an independent remodeler. Your contract is with them. Check the license at cslb.ca.gov before you sign.