Although the images and text below may not seem like the job was too much of a hassle, it really was.   It took about two solid evenings of work invovling myself, my dad, and Angela; and a lot of patience on their part.  Thanks.    If I were to do the job again, I would plan a bit better by knocking out the exhaust duct hole prior to installing the base cabs and all the finish work around.  It made the area tight to work in and forced me to make installation adjustments that really were not needed other than to accommodate my tool access.

Some of the many tools needed…  The bottom tool is a Milwaukee 9 amp heavy duty hammer drill used to make pilot holes in the drywall and brick (http://www.amazon.com/Milwaukee-5380-21-2-Inch-9-AMP-Hammer/dp/B000MYC91W/ref=sr_1_1?s=hi&ie=UTF8&qid=1402883295&sr=1-1&keywords=Milwaukee+5380-81).  The big boy on top is a Bosch SDS Max Combination Hammer used to demo the exterior brick (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0020ML69K/ref=wms_ohs_product?ie=UTF8&psc=1)

First I marked the exact position of the exhaust duct and made pilot holes in the corners.  Next we roto-zipped the rectangle out.

With the drywall section removed, we moved onto cutting away the unfaced R-19 insulation and followed by the 2 inches of spray foam.   That leaves x2 brick wyes to demo.   This was done using a very long 1/2″ masonry bit to make pilot holes all the way through the wall.  Once the bit punched through to the exterior, the Bosch SDS took care of removing the brick sections.

The toughest part of this operation was making sure the rectangular duct from inside to out was level and fit without destroying more of the masonry work than necessary.  Here my dad is resetting some of the brick knocked loose.  Pointing followed.   We could have purchased a very large coring bit (6 inch OD) for a cylindrical duct at around $300.  I opted not to because of limited use and cost but with several other holes needed to be made in the basement for an exhaust fan and possibly a direct vent for new water heater, i still may pick one up.

We let the masonry situp over night by installing the duct in the opening to ensure the brick did not fall out of place.  Also, note the pencil marks on underside of the cabinet.  Here, spacers were installed and this location is where the bottom of the hood is secured to the cab.

Once the masonry work was all set, I installed the duct.   First I spray foamed around the duct behind the drywall via the gaps that are now caulked.  Once fixed in place, I used some white painters caulkt to seal out any air and to keep the duct firmly fixed in place.

The hood baffle to prevent back-drafting is installed and air gaps around it were covered with HVAC aluminum tape.

All set and ready to be lifted into place…  The next part took a long time, required patience, and made me dehydrated from sweating so much.  Physical or mental effort?  I am not sure which…  We had to lift the hood up into the cabinet opening while fitting the hood baffle into the duct.  All the while we had to ensure our screw hole locations, seen on the top of the hood, were able to be mated with the pre-threaded screws we set in the cabinet.  The screws were set because a using any type of drill was not possible within such a confined space.   I would guesstimate we spent nearly 2 hours simply trying to get everything aligned and secured.

Finally installed!   All in all we have a perfect fit and visually the hood is flush with the front of the cab faces and sits in between the sides of the glass cabs within about 1/16″ each side.   And it works.  Pulls out 400 CFM on speed setting three and has a built in light1   Not bad for venting the house of cooked fish smell or to get rid of really bad dog (Leo) gas…