Where? I’ll guess US, but I can’t imagine that every state is the same.
I’ll side bet with Doug K. Having both seems rare. Having a fan is more common than having a window as a good deal of residential bathrooms I can recall are somewhere in the middle of the house. But neither seems somewhat common. New construction to 30-40 years old, nothing century(ies) old.
Granted, I live in the least humid state, but I don’t have a window (impossible due to location) or a fan and I normally shower with the door open/cracked.
Among largish cities, Denver (don’t remember where OP is) is actually one of the driest.
This was 1982 - I see we now have “International Building Codes” and large metropolitan areas have their own; apparently, NC has very different kinds of wood, plumbing, etc. and need their own rules.
I’m guessing many of these are at the behest of builders and labor unions to keep outsiders out of their markets.
I once heard that steel was not allowed in residences in OR - a big timber producer. I suspect that kind of thinking lies behind all the “we’re special” codes.
A few years ago my teenaged son started taking really long showers at least once a day, at which point we realized that whoever last painted the bathroom (right before we moved in, I suspect) used the wrong paint. We actually have to remove mildew on account of these showers. (No vent/fan, but there are windows. Of course, that doesn’t help in the winter.)
Also, statistically dry old Denver hasn’t been all that dry lately.
So to answer the OP, a bathroom ought to be able to handle the steam of showers. Yet sometimes, they don’t.
My master bath has a non-openable window. The toilet is in a separate little room, complete with it’s own door to close it off. There is a mechanical fan in the toilet room. There is no fan in the rest of the bathroom, where the shower, tub, and sinks are.
Does code specify if there should be a fan in the bigger section?
That question depends entirely on which city, county, state/province, and country the bathroom is in. And on what date the bathroom was built. Absent that info, any answer is pure guesswork.
I’ll give you four out of five as valid The year isn’t too interesting, because I’m curious about current code, not the code when it was built. The post I was quoting spoke of the standard building code, which, as I understood it, is the basis for most of the codes in the US. I was hoping that spoke to the general question, since I’m not too concerned about the specifics…just wondering about the underlying concepts.
But if it’s that variable, I’ll ask my local GC next time I talk to him.
I can’t think of a single house I’ve been in that had an exhaust fan. That’s more of a hotel feature. If most houses get by without an exhaust fan in the bathroom, yours will probably be okay without running it.
The year isn’t too interesting, because I’m curious about current code, not the code when it was built. The post I was quoting spoke of the standard building code, which, as I understood it, is the basis for most of the codes in the US. I was hoping that spoke to the general question, since I’m not too concerned about the specifics…just wondering about the underlying concepts.