Dryer vent disaster

[gregintenn]

It’s difficult to love your fellow man when you see chit like this.

Edited January 8, 2023 by gregintenn

[Erik88]

14 minutes ago, FUJIMO said:

I gotcha. So abandoning the existing outside hole and running parallel with the floor joists, the nearest place to make a new outside hole is still 10- 12' from the hole in the floor ?

Correct. The wall with that window in my picture is probably the same distance and I would have to drill through brick on that side. 

13 minutes ago, gregintenn said:

It’s difficult to love your fellow man when you see chit like this.

No kidding. The previous owners had the siding replaced in 2015. I'm guessing that is when the existing vent was "misplaced".

[jpx2rk]

Look to see (if possible) that a joist brace is not in the way as this could prevent you from really determining if the "holes" line up or not.  

I usually clean the dryer vent that was installed in the crawl space in my house, and vents to the outside wall.  The path of my 4" round tubing takes a 90* turn  around a corner of the foundation blocks.  In turn I have to approach the 4" tubing from both ends when cleaning.  I also use some 1" pvc pipe to extend my reach with the brush I use, and use almost 20 feet of pvc pipe to reach the 90* bend in addition to the 12 feet of fiberglass tubing that attaches to the brush.   I use an electric leaf blower to clear the loose lint out after running the brush from both ends.  

Try pushing inserting some 1" pvc pipe thru the exterior hole and see if you can get more pvc pipe in the path of the vent tubing than what you actually measure it to be or close.  Might find a brace or truly determine the holes don't line up as you currently think.  

[McGarrett]

I just pm’d you contact info for a company I had used successfully in the Knoxville area

[Erik88]

Just got my first estimate. This company wants to run 4" flex tube all the way out. They will cut out and repair sheetrock for $1,250 OTD.  I asked about 4" hard pipe and he said that would be substantially harder and more expensive. 

I was under the impression it's not ideal to run flex tube that far. What does TGO think?

I have another company coming at 0900 tomorrow. 

 

[Snaveba]

I agree with @jpx2rk . If you have a shop vac, connect it to a 10 stick of 2” pvc and run it in from the outside. That will let you suck out a lot is the lint and such and you might see better. You might then be able to see the broom handle. 

Another idea, go out side at night and look through the exit vent while shining a bright flashlight down from the laundry room and see if you can see the glow. 

[jpx2rk]

Flex tube will sag if it is not resting on a hard surface over time, and will become brittle as well.  Mom started complaining that her dryer was working as well as it had, so I crawled under the house to see what was up.  Mom had the flex tube under the floor/in the crawl space for 28 yrs, never cleaned out.  (My bad) The majority of the length of the flex tubing was pretty well full of lint as a couple of the original straps holding the tubing up broke over time, and the lint started building up in the flex tubing where it started sagging from the broken hanger straps, which basically blocked the dryer vent over time, good reason for the dryer not be functioning properly.  

When I crawled under the house, saw what had happened with the support straps/hangers, and tried to disconnect the flex tubing to clean it out.  The flex tubing just crumbled in my hands, so we had metal tubing installed in the same path, but with adequate hangers/supports.  Metal tubing makes it much easier to clean the vent tubing out on a periodic basis.  

Edited January 9, 2023 by jpx2rk

[tacops]

My neighbor asked me to look at his dryer vent because his clothes weren't getting dry.  He gave me a blank look when I asked where his exhaust was and had he cleaned it.  I crawled into his crawlspace and found that the builder had run 4 " flex tube from below the laundry room to the back wall of his foundation. (Almost 20 Ft.).  It had formed condensation in the tube causing it to sag from the water collection, which in turn caught all the lint, causing more accumulation of weight until fully blocked.  I ripped out this flex tube and installed a PVC vent pipe.  No more sagging and his clothes dried really fast.

[monkeylizard]

PVC's not a good choice. https://homeinspectioninsider.com/pvc-for-dryer-vent/

It's a code violation in most places that have building codes. YMMV.

Rigid aluminum is the way to go.

Edited January 10, 2023 by monkeylizard

[Snaveba]

I’m wasn’t meaning to use PVC as the vent pipe, just to be a long vacuum attachment to get all the dust, cobwebs and lint out of the way and to see how clear the run is to the laundry room. 

[Erik88]

2 minutes ago, monkeylizard said:

PVC's not a good choice. https://homeinspectioninsider.com/pvc-for-dryer-vent/

It's a code violation in most places that have building codes. YMMV.

Rigid aluminum is the way to go.

I had already been told to avoid PVC because it's not rated for the heat. 

 

[monkeylizard]

I was replying to @tacops who said he installed PVC vent pipe for his neighbor's dryer. Not a great idea.

@Snaveba I understood what you meant with the 2" as a stick for the shop vac to clean out the ceiling cavity. Good plan.

Edited January 10, 2023 by monkeylizard

[Erik88]

If rigid aluminum will be too difficult I wonder if semi-rigid flex would be a decent compromise. 

 

 

 

 

[Snaveba]

If once the area between the floors is cleaner, and if there is a clear run, you might be able to open the hole on the outside of the house just enough to start feeding ridged pipe into the space, using the 2” pvc as a guide. 

you might even somehow finagle the 90deg onto the end. But that may have to be a hole cut in the basement ceiling. You can 

[gregintenn]

15 hours ago, Erik88 said:

If rigid aluminum will be too difficult I wonder if semi-rigid flex would be a decent compromise. 

 

 

 

 

It's what I used. Worked great for the last 20 years. While it is flexible, it is only so flexible. They make elbows and connectors for it.

Edited January 10, 2023 by gregintenn

[Erik88]

I had a 2nd company out this morning. He actually encouraged me to tackle this myself but he's still going to provide a quote.  I think I'm going to open up the ceiling that way I can try to clean out years worth of flammable lint. I can hang new sheetrock but I'm not going to attempt to mud it myself. I know it won't turn out right. 

The 2nd guy agreed running flex tube(the cheap kind) the whole run is a bad idea. He's going to price it as rigid pipe most of the way. 

[RED333]

4 minutes ago, Erik88 said:

I can hang new sheetrock but I'm not going to attempt to mud it myself. I know it won't turn out right. 

Smart man, I can not finish the stuff.

[Hozzie]

38 minutes ago, Erik88 said:

I had a 2nd company out this morning. He actually encouraged me to tackle this myself but he's still going to provide a quote.  I think I'm going to open up the ceiling that way I can try to clean out years worth of flammable lint. I can hang new sheetrock but I'm not going to attempt to mud it myself. I know it won't turn out right. 

The 2nd guy agreed running flex tube(the cheap kind) the whole run is a bad idea. He's going to price it as rigid pipe most of the way. 

Sounds like a decent guy as it really isn't that hard of job to be honest.  I also think you could do it yourself.  No better time to learn something new.  Even mudding that small amount wouldn't be terrible.  The sanding is the worst part.

[tacops]

3 hours ago, Erik88 said:

I can hang new sheetrock but I'm not going to attempt to mud it myself. I know it won't turn out right. 

I decided there are two things in life that I am not good at and never will be...finishing drywall and golf.  Oh yeah, dryer vent installation, make that three things

[jpx2rk]

1 hour ago, tacops said:

I decided there are two things in life that I am not good at and never will be...finishing drywall and golf.  Oh yeah, dryer vent installation, make that three things

Practice makes perfect????  I've heard that all my life but not a big believer in it either.  LOL

[615Guns]

I've had problems where birds keep pecking out the vent cover and try to build nests in the vent, definitely keeping an eye on it

[superduty]

44 minutes ago, 615Guns said:

I've had problems where birds keep pecking out the vent cover and try to build nests in the vent, definitely keeping an eye on it

You can get a magnetic dryer vent cover - the vent door closes and stays shut when the dryer is off, the opens up when it is on. 

[gregintenn]

Drywall ain’t hard. You’ll be hard pressed to screw up anything not easily fixed.

[CaneyRiverDog]

On 1/8/2023 at 9:37 AM, Erik88 said:

We hired the inspector, not the seller. He did catch other issues like I mentioned. It's well known that a home inspector will never catch every issue. I lived here 1.5 years before figuring this out. It's a 32 year old house so if this is my worst problem I'll take it. I'll get it fixed and move on. 

I'm going to get a few estimates from Heat and Air companies before ripping out the ceiling. They may have a solution. 

If its been like that for 30 yrs I would just put it back..lol Inspector didnt think it was bad enough to report..

Mine didn't check the heat cause it was august when I bought my house. Didnt have any heat come winter,,,,,

[tercel89]

When my wife and I were dating in in 1996 I was at her moms house one day and noticed the dryer in the garage. I saw that the vent pipe was running into the foundation wall but instead of venting it outside , it was vented into the CRAWL SPACE !!!! I went and looked underneath the carwl space and the lint inside was unreal. The entire underneath of her house/crawl space was coated in lint and looked like the land of cotton candy ! I told her mom and she said that it was fine and that the hot air help her pipes from freezing. I told her it was a fire hazzard but she ignored me. Well 2 years ago I was helping her new husband put in new pipes under the house. We had to nail up some hangers to hang the drain pipes at an angle. I went to nail a nail into the floor joints/studs and before I even used the hammer , just me touching the wood with my hand , my finger went through a joist the whole way ! That moisture had softened the wood badly.  Like it was made of balsa wood !!!! I dont know how the whole floor still holds up to this day. All that hot air and moisture has been venting under the house for more than 25 years ! UNREAL !!! Her new husband was PISSED and we fixed it. Just unreal how some people think. 

Edited January 13, 2023 by tercel89