anybody ran their own dryer vent?

bigwaylon

bigwaylon

Well-Known Member
Joined
Mar 22, 2005
Location
Charlotte
anybody ran their own dryer vent? I need a 4-1/4" masonry hole saw!!

house we moved into at the end of last year had the washer in the kitchen and the dryer out in the storage room...I decided that wasn't gonna work, so we bought stackable (full size) units to put in the kitchen...

got power run, but never installed a vent...cause when we bought the dryer, and were talking to the sales person, they pointed out the ~$15 kit that is essentially a dryer hose that attaches to a small bucket...

you keep water in the bucket, which traps most of the lint, and the air escapes out through vents in the top...

as you could imagine, the area gets a nice layer of lint on it, and the humidity in the kitchen gets quite high...

is there anything special to running a vent outside?

as simple as going to Home Depot, buying something to go on each side of the wall, and a vent, and cutting a hole in the wall?

Thanks.
Greg
 
the dryer out in the storage room did it have a vent or did it have the 15 dollar apt lint trap?

if it had its own trap you just drill a hole 4" in your floor behind the dryer and preferabbly use the metal ducting through the floor with a short peice of flex hose to the dryer and then run flex hose to the old dryer vent and wala your done. other wise same procedure except you will have to drill a 4" hole in your outside wall and install a dryer exahust cover and attach the 4" flex hose to it

hope this helps greg

brandon
 
yep, ethe fun part is cutting the 4" hole in the wall. Home Depot/Lowe's will have the parts you put on either side of it, I think you can even buy a kit w/ everything you need.

One suggestion though, on the outside part, be sure it has a flap or something to keep the elements (AKA critters) out when teh dryer isn't blowing.
 
RatLabGuy said:
One suggestion though, on the outside part, be sure it has a flap or something to keep the elements (AKA critters) out when teh dryer isn't blowing.
Click to expand...

we had that issue at our last house...but it was the vent for the bathroom fan...

had birds get in, build a nest, and then a baby bird die...NASTY stench...

won't let that happen again...

Mark...I might give you a call after I swing by the store to see what my options are...

one of the other problems is that the deck is on the other side of the exterior wall next to the dryer...so I may run some duct work through the overhang on the edge of the roof to get the vent away from the deck...

thanks for the help so far!!

Greg
 
Can you get under the deck? If so, that would be a good place for the vent. You deff. don't want to just have it dump under the house in the crawl space. even though you have a lint trap on the dryer, lint still gets through. This will create a huge fire hazard under the house.
 
there's ~24" of clearance under the deck...

the only real way to get under it would be go straight through the floor in the kitchen, into the crawlspace, then through the brick foundation and dump under the deck...

Greg
 
I did it at my house - did not have a dryer when I moved in, and I didn't want to use a clothes line. :)

Find the studs, cut the hole in the wall between studs, as directly in line with the dryer output as possible. I bought the duct kit (with flap) at Lowes or Home Depot first. Then used a sawzall to cut the hole, caulked around the outside, and was done.

The hardest parts were making sure I missed the studs, and then also making sure the hole I cut outside lined up with the hole I cut in the drywall inside.
 
OK...finally gonna get around to doing this...was at Home Depot looking for something else, and saw the "kits" that had the aluminum tubing to go through the wall, plus the outside vent, plus the flex hose and all clamps...

now, all I have to do is cut the hole in the wall...

problem is, whether I go above the deck or below the deck (through the crawlspace) I have to go through brick...

I looked for hole saws at HD, and they didn't have any masonry/brick hole saws...

Stopped by Grainger, and they had them in the catalog...for around $500!!!


obviously contractors, etc, do this all the time on new home builds, right?

anybody work in an industry where you have one available to loan/rent/etc?

I need a 4-1/4" hole saw to cut through brick...PM or post up if you can help.

Thanks.
Greg
 
You ain't gonna find a "hole saw" that size to cut masonry without giving up a testicle or 2!

What I've done in this situation is to cut the hole on the inside (usually sheetrock) to gain access to the brick, then drill a single "pilot" hole (with hammerdrill & small masonry bit) all the way thru the brick in the interior hole. Now, go outside and mark your 4.5" hole (using the above "pilot hole" as reference) on the brick with a pencil. Using the same masonry bit/hammerdrill, start drilling along the pencil marks every 1/2"-3/4"... this will give you a cleaner edge when you hammer/chisel the chunks *inside* the circle...

Sounds a bit Neanderthal, but the "flapper" flange will cover your hacking and seal fine with a little silicone...
 
Caver Dave said:
You ain't gonna find a "hole saw" that size to cut masonry without giving up a testicle or 2!
What I've done in this situation is to cut the hole on the inside (usually sheetrock) to gain access to the brick, then drill a single "pilot" hole (with hammerdrill & small masonry bit) all the way thru the brick in the interior hole. Now, go outside and mark your 4.5" hole (using the above "pilot hole" as reference) on the brick with a pencil. Using the same masonry bit/hammerdrill, start drilling along the pencil marks every 1/2"-3/4"... this will give you a cleaner edge when you hammer/chisel the chunks *inside* the circle...
Sounds a bit Neanderthal, but the "flapper" flange will cover your hacking and seal fine with a little silicone...
Click to expand...

Ditto on this methid. It's pretty much the only option.
I had to add one in our house. Went through the foundation (cinderblock), then no less than 2(!) layers of brick.
Hammerdrill is the way to go. Or, an impact chisel, this is what I used on the cinderblock and it went very fast. Basically you make a big circle out of about 16 small ones, like a perforrated circle. The (patiently!) knock out all the little spaces between the holes. In the end you will have a giant dusty mess, a tired arm, and a nasty looking hole.

Oh - wear a mask.
 
Greg you could rent a core drill with a diamond hole saw but it will cost you some pretty good change. The methods listed above or just using a masonry chisel and a hammer work quite well in just a few minutes. Go under the deck if possible. You'll appreciate not having the lint on the deck all the time. See you soon.
John
 
Or you could dump into crwl space and then install a lint trap like would be used in an apt.

Then just clean it a few times a year
 
thanks for the input...I'll figure something out this week...

is it "safe" to go straight through the floor (vertical) instead of through the wall (horizontal)?

I could go straight through the floor, then have it vent under the deck, make something to go in one of the crawlspace vents to hold the dryer vent, so I wouldn't have to go through brick at all...

Greg
 
it is safe, but the straighter the better
 
Just be surue that all teh bends are long and general, so 90 degrees etc, kinda like grey water lines.
not really for teh sake of air flow, but rather all the leftover lint etc that's in it. Yes in theory the dryer catches it, but in reality, no it won't. You don't want it collecting anywhere. This is (supposedly) the #1 cause of house fires.
 
I know the dryer doesn't catch it...as evidence by the lint in the inside trap and all over the shelf...

I didn't look while at the store...but do they make pre-bent 90's? just so I don't use the flex hose that could crush? I'd rather use a stiff 90 off the dryer, and another under the crawlspace, and straight shots for the rest of it...

Greg
 
Greg, they make elbows that are adjustable from 90 degrees to about any angle less than 90. If you can go through the floor and make a 90 degree bend to a foundation vent under the deck, that sounds great. Might consider using hard duct though as the lint does not tend to collect near as bad as in flex duct.
Hurry up and get this dryer vent finished so you can get the heap ready for Harlan.;)
 
foreman1063 said:
Hurry up and get this dryer vent finished so you can get the heap ready for Harlan.;)
Click to expand...


ugghh...

it's one of those weeks/months...

one of those that make me want to drag the TJ onto the trailer (since the brand new battery is dead), get it hooked up to the tow rig (which wouldn't be fun since the tow rig isn't drivable), and put a For Sale sign on the whole shooting match...


Greg
 
bigwaylon said:
thanks for the input...I'll figure something out this week...
is it "safe" to go straight through the floor (vertical) instead of through the wall (horizontal)?
I could go straight through the floor, then have it vent under the deck, make something to go in one of the crawlspace vents to hold the dryer vent, so I wouldn't have to go through brick at all...
Greg
Click to expand...

down and out is safe but up is never safe.
 
foreman1063 said:
Is the Jeep and tow rig gonna be ready in two weeks?
Click to expand...


I sure hope so...

assuming StudNuts gets the turbo ready tomorrow, the tow rig ought to be running by the end of the weekend...then I hope to take one day off next week to get the Jeep up and running...

we'll see...

Greg
 
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