Lint Wash
OK, so lint isn't the most exciting subject in town. It is, however, something home owners should think about when making changes in their home and for proper maintenance of the duct. See this great blog below by James who explains how problems can occur.
The laundry is one home feature that has moved up the importance of location ladder over the years. I make this observation by what I have seen through my years of inspecting Connecticut homes. With older homes, the laundry is almost always in the basement, as homes get newer the laundry is often on the one of the living levels. The kitchen seemed popular for a time, now near the bedrooms appears to be preferred.
If the home is older or the laundry happens to be in the traditional location of the basement, people will often have it moved on up. So it would appear was the case in a home I inspected not long ago.
As I was inspecting the exterior the lint wash on the siding first caught my attention. The dryer duct I saw was vented through the soffit. It was also a little worse for wear missing most of the louvers. Which begs the first question, how are the louvers supposed to close when they point down towards the ground? Secondly nothing should be vented through the soffit, especially when there are attic vents installed. The soffit vents around the dryer duct are filled with lint.
The other problem is the duct has been run through a wall into the attic. This breaches the fire protection of the wall and creates a chimney directly to the attic. Speaking of fire hazards, what about cleaning the duct? The vent was on the back of a two story home on a hill. It's a long way up to get at the duct.
What was really mind boggling about this whole set up was the duct could have been run directly out the laundry room wall. A straight shot just and just a few feet away. All the effort spent to put in the dryer duct wrong and create a potential hazard could have been so very easily avoided.
That is the most perplexing thing of all, the great effort spent to do it all wrong.
James Quarello
Connecticut Licensed Home Inspector
2010 - 2011 SNEC-ASHI President
NRSB #8SS0022
JRV Home Inspection Services, LLC
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