Sharing a bath and kitchen vent

Question:  We have an older home, that never had a bathroom vent or kitchen stove top vent. We are about to start remodeling the bathroom first. The bathroom & kitchen share a wall between them. Is there any reason we can\'t vent both into the same duct work? This would save alot of time, money, & we would only have to make one hole in the exterior wall. Thank you in advance for your reply. Peggy

Jake's Answer:  Peggy, I would not recommend you doing this.  The reason for my concern is the possibility of getting a back draft through one of the vents and an exchange of oders occurring.  I guess if you installed some sort of back draft blocking device in each duct prior to them joining up you could get away with it.  There are some whole house ventilation systems you could look into that might work as well. You can check out some ideas on ventilation at www.panasonic.com or google "whole house ventilation".