I mention in that post back then that I thought I may put an air vent over the hole to be able to access that pipe bib in the future if needed. I then tried it, and was very happy with the results. Here is a picture of what that vent looks like. Here is a link to that post. My dad had a few floods in the past month. He had surgery and didn't heal well. He fell in the bathroom and on his way down, he hit the toilet and the back tank portion of this toilet started to leak into the bathroom below it. Due to him being wounded, we put a bucket down there to catch the water until we could make sure my dad was ok and due to the time that passed before we could get to figuring out what was causing the flooding, there was a huge mess.
A few days after that flooding, I realized that I didn't take out the wet drywall and it had started to mold. I took all the drywall out and put fans in the walls to dry out what I could of the remaining drywall. I also put an ozonater in the room to kill off the mold. I had already dried out the carpets where the water had come out through the walls, but with all the craziness of my dad's injuries and wounds, I just spaced the drywall.
My dad had a friend that he thought could fix the drywall but he was supposed to come a few weeks back He didn't come due to some health issues. My brother called asking if there was something he could do. I told him that the bathroom ceiling needed fixing as it had been a month since the flood and I had been working non stop and didn't have the supplies needed to fix it.
He came and was cutting the drywall to fix the holes and I suggested that we make a trap door in case the toilet ever flooded again or the tub overflowed or any other water issues happened. He was going to make it in the center due to the wood support but that would have been straddling the shower wall so I suggested that we place the "vent" over the shower so that if there ever was more flooding, the water would flow to where it could get out and if it flooded through the hole, it would just fall into the shower and down the drain!
My brother went and purchased a vent cover and my dad suggested that we put plastic up under all the pipes and raise it up a little off the drywall so that the plastic guides the water to the shower stall. Even if the drywall under the vent got wet, we could easily cut a small piece to fit under the vent again.
My brother mudded and attached the new drywall. I sanded the mud and did some touch up mudding / spackling and sanded that down.
I then painted the ceiling with some paint / primer that we bought and then was able to paint the wall and ceiling with the paint they had for that room. It dried a bit darker than what was on the wall, but I feathered it into the old paint using a paintbrush, so it didn't look all that bad once everything was dry. I screwed the vent into the drywall and support wood and made the vent angle towards the shower so that if it did flood, the water would be pushed towards the shower center. I hope they never have any flooding again, but if they do, I think we have taken every precaution to avoid having the mess we did with it going down the wall and flooding the carpet in their family room and ruining the paint and drywall in the ceiling.
I think it looks great, and no one would know that there really isn't a vent there.
Just make sure that you actually use some drywall under the vent so that you don't have spiders and things coming in through the fake vent from the inside of the walls etc. It is easy to cut a piece of drywall to fit and makes the room airtight as in the winter, cold air could also come in through the fake vent if you didn't have that drywall secured in place under the vent.
Feel free to ask any questions you may have. Have a Blessed Day!
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