Dryer vent thru concrete steps

john620

I just purchased a home and was cleaning up when I noticed my dryer vent had an excessive amount of lint. So I started taking the vent pipe apart in the basement and just about the entire pipe was full of backed up lint...I am talking about 15ft of vent pipe (I can't believe the place didn't burn down for the old owner).

The pipe goes thru the rim joist at the back of the house and then into poured concrete steps and then a 90 degree turn out the side of the steps (parallel with the back of the house). The problem is...the vent pipe was placed in the concrete steps, the rest of the concrete was poured on top and the pipe buckled under the weight. So at the 90 degree turn there is about a .5" x .25" hole, instead of the 4" which the pipe was originally!! There is about 1 foot of vent from the rim joist to the turn.

So I had two thoughts for a fix...one get a hammer drill with a foot long chisel and start widening the hole...or two just plug this hole and redirect the pipe away from the steps. Is there any chance option one might actually work? Any other ideas, thoughts, recommendations??

Thanks for the help.

Hardway

http://www.appliance411.com/faq/dryer-vent-length.shtml

jklingel

Amazing, and a serious problem. If chiseling or a re-route will not work, an option is to get a condensing dryer. That would sure be the easiest, though not necessarily the cheapest.

bob22

Pick a new route. Anything has to be easier than blowing through a concrete set of steps IMO.

john620

I think the new route is the best option also. One more question then...

The floor joists are "silent floor" so they are the I-beam style. I did some research on the manufacturers site and they mention the maximum hole allowance is about 3" (depending on the joist size). My vent is 4" diameter. Can I make my vent a smaller diameter?

The only other place I could run the vent is up the wall, over head, through a two car garage and out the side wall...but it would all be exposed venting because right above the laundry room and garage is the master bedroom.

canoes

I'm about to move my dryer to basement and the contractor had to check on code for duct length. I also googled and found this from a couple years ago.

http://www.inspectionnews.net/home_i...aust-vent.html

Sounds like diameter depends on dryer? Length is per code though.