Our house used to have a three car garage. One of the bays was converted by the previous owner to living space and a laundry room. The dryer duct actually runs embedded in the concrete floor. The duct comes up out of the concrete near an exterior wall where I use a short length of flexible duct to connect up to the outside vent.
Prepping the walls for a paint job I found a hole in the drywall behind the duct. Surprisingly, it was quite damp. I pulled off some drywall and found some nice moldy insulation, rotting wood, mold and *lots* of small red ants (not carpenter ants -- also non-aggressive).
Image 1 shows the duct work with some drywall removed. You can see the general rot inside the wall.
Image 2 is a head on shot of the general rot.
Image 3 show the duct and wet insulation removed. Mold is visible on the wood.
Image 4 shows the exterior wall in the adjacent room.
Mose likely, the drier vent is leaking moist air into the wall. I've removed a bunch more drywall and it's just the insulation and wood that is close to the vent that is affected. Just a few feet up the wall all is well. That seems to rule out a leaky roof. The soil on the exterior wall is damp. We have a stucco exterior. The soil is a bit closer to the stucco than it should be but doesn't actually contact anything except the foundation. We have large overhangs and gutters so splashing is not an issue. I went in to the crawlspace below and could not find any damp wood or ants. It looks OK.
That seems to leave the drier vent as the most likely possibility. I wouldn't even bother asking for another opinion except that I know the previous owners had a problem in the same location due to a leaking roof. The patch job doesn't look professional but I can't find any leaks in the attic crawl space nor is any insulation more than a few feet from the dryer duct wet.
Here's the catch... I'm not able to find a leak in the dryer duct that might be causing this. You can see in image 1 that that I put a reducer in the duct that comes up from the concrete floor and attach the flexible duct. When installing the reducer, I sealed the inside with metal duct tape and caulked the exterior where the duct meets the concrete. If this is a duct leak, this is the likely spot. Obviously I'm not properly sealing the duct. How do I go about doing this properly? Should I use a different sealer than metal duct tape on the inside of the reducer?
Thank you much!
Prepping the walls for a paint job I found a hole in the drywall behind the duct. Surprisingly, it was quite damp. I pulled off some drywall and found some nice moldy insulation, rotting wood, mold and *lots* of small red ants (not carpenter ants -- also non-aggressive).
Image 1 shows the duct work with some drywall removed. You can see the general rot inside the wall.
Image 2 is a head on shot of the general rot.
Image 3 show the duct and wet insulation removed. Mold is visible on the wood.
Image 4 shows the exterior wall in the adjacent room.
Mose likely, the drier vent is leaking moist air into the wall. I've removed a bunch more drywall and it's just the insulation and wood that is close to the vent that is affected. Just a few feet up the wall all is well. That seems to rule out a leaky roof. The soil on the exterior wall is damp. We have a stucco exterior. The soil is a bit closer to the stucco than it should be but doesn't actually contact anything except the foundation. We have large overhangs and gutters so splashing is not an issue. I went in to the crawlspace below and could not find any damp wood or ants. It looks OK.
That seems to leave the drier vent as the most likely possibility. I wouldn't even bother asking for another opinion except that I know the previous owners had a problem in the same location due to a leaking roof. The patch job doesn't look professional but I can't find any leaks in the attic crawl space nor is any insulation more than a few feet from the dryer duct wet.
Here's the catch... I'm not able to find a leak in the dryer duct that might be causing this. You can see in image 1 that that I put a reducer in the duct that comes up from the concrete floor and attach the flexible duct. When installing the reducer, I sealed the inside with metal duct tape and caulked the exterior where the duct meets the concrete. If this is a duct leak, this is the likely spot. Obviously I'm not properly sealing the duct. How do I go about doing this properly? Should I use a different sealer than metal duct tape on the inside of the reducer?
Thank you much!