hello there –
brand spankin’ new to this forum and relatively new to this buisness of working on homes so feel free to beat up on me a little if i start to sound like a knucklehead. i’ve been a welder for most of my adult life and due to certain policies and practices of certain unnamed people in the White House i’ve been having trouble finding work (always fun to blame republicans for my troubles). So i’ve been making furniture and doing small repair and remodeling jobs to get by. Same old sob story i guess except that i actually enjoy it. The little lady’s been pretty cool about the whole thing and i want to get a washer and dryer on the second floor of our brick georgian for her. My problem is that i don’t want to poke through the masonry for the dryer vent and going through the roof seems like a nightmare waiting to happen. Can anyone think of a reason why i shouldn’t just vent into the unfinished attic? I live in Chicago so it gets really hot and really cold.
Replies
xd1. Too much moisture laden air exhausting in that attic. Would look like some ice scene if you did it in the winter. Would certainly contribute to ice damming with the periodic warmth stuck up there. Bad idea.
welcome to breaktime.
Remodeling Contractor just outside the Glass City.
Quittin' Time
That damn ice! Thanks for responding so quickly. i don't exactly have the sawzall in my hands at the moment but i sure appreciate your response. You guys seem to be pretty zippy around here. So essentially what you're telling me is i've got to bite the bullet (or brick) and go through the wall? The location is asthetically horrible.
no.. go thru the roof.. what kind of shingles do you have on the roof ?
putting a roof vent in for your dryer is the best and easiest solution..... might take you all of two hours to install the vent and patch the shinglesMike Smith Rhode Island : Design / Build / Repair / Restore
I agree he should vent through the roof with it, but it might take him more like four hours.
I mean, after all, he is a welder so that plasma torch might take awhile to get the hole cut, and then there's all that ice he'll have to melt to put the fire out.
;-)
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Back in the seventies with the first "energy crisis" a lot of people thought they would save money by venting into the house and a few vented into the attic. I was a roofing specialist back then and I regularly got calls to check out "roof leak"s the turned out to be from the moisture being dumped back into the house condensing. The attics with dryer vents into them generally would make a good scene for a Freddie come back horror movie with strands of interesting looking mold strands dancing with one another.
Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!
had one of those two years ago.. except they vented direct to the crawl space.. what a mess... most amazing cobweb formations i had ever seenMike Smith Rhode Island : Design / Build / Repair / Restore
except they vented direct to the crawl space.. what a mess... most amazing cobweb formations i had ever seen
I see that fairly often, a lot of times when the vent has come unfastened.
I've tried taking pics but have never gotten the horror movie effect you get with the flashlight
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Hey xd, we race to try and answer the questions, winner gets beer at the fests held yearly. Really a good deal if you get up early and answer a question from the west coasters. Better yet, be in australia, it's tomorrow there. Good place to ask who wins the superbowl.
Make sure you frequent this joint. We have plenty of room for a full time welder. The few we have here are old and stuck in their ways.........stick one of those smiling things here.Remodeling Contractor just outside the Glass City.
Quittin' Time
I'll second Cal on this one or would it be 3 rd. or 4th. Bad idea is right, another point to consider is the condense water running out of the building rather than back toward the dryer. Many years ago I vented a dryer up to the attic then horizontally 25 ft to the outside gable. At the time I thought venting a dryer was like venting a stove, pitch upward. Bad idea as in the winter the condensed water ran backward toward the dryer and soaked the floor in the laundry room. Keep in mind that even when the dryer isn't running it is still venting a small amount of moist air, think chimne effect, that will form water in the pipe. I fixed the problem by pitching the attic run down toward the outside however that still left the condensate in the vertical pipe to deal with. We finally managed to relocate the vent to run in the floor cavity under the dryer and pitching toward the outside. Maybe Chicago doesn't get that cold but up here all moist air turns into water or ice. Big mess, big problem, nothing like doing a simple retrofit for a friend and turning it into a 3 day burner of a project.
Thanks for your input. I think i'm gonna go through the wall. The dryer would be positioned against the wall so the duct would only run about 1 ft, also if i put the vent low near the floor i think the hot air venting(chimney effect) when it's not running would be minimal and any condensation would drip out. Also, if it's low enough, a tree i have out there will visually cover it in 3 or 4 years. If it doesn't look like it will work i guess i'll just leave it in the basement. The old gal could use the exercise. know what i mean? thanks everybody!
Bad idea. If you think of all the moisture in a sopping wet load of clothes, that will all go into your attic. It will condense out on everything, because every surface will be cooler than the exhaust from the dryer. You will have moldy wood in no time.
If there is a window in the laundry area, you can replace part of the window with a blank panel and cut a dryer vent through there. How easy depends on the window style.
"always fun to blame republicans for my troubles"
You'll find plenty of that in the tavern.
Honestly, I'd rather go through the brick than through the roof. But that's personal preference.
Either way is much, much better than going into the attic.
Welcome to the forum.
Today I dialed a wrong number... The other person said, "Hello?"
"I said, "Hello, could I speak to Joey?"... "
They said, "Uh... I don't think so... he's only 2 months old."
"I said, "I'll hold."
If uou have a soffit on your home you might try going up into th eattic abd venting the dry into the soffit. Of course you have to cut a hol ein the soffit and cover it with screening or vent cover. If not...roof!
>>If uou have a soffit on your home you might try going up into th eattic abd venting the dry into the soffit.
Some folks advise against that, arguing that the damp air will be/could be pulled back into the attic through nearby soffit vents.
I've seen a few (and a few bathrooms) vented that way, but I haven't seen evidence of the damp air actually being pulled into the attic, myself, but I would be hesitant to do it on my house.
_______________________
Tool Donations Sought
I'm matching tool donors to a church mission to Haiti - we're shipping a bus converted to a medical facility in (now it looks like) April and can fill it with clothes, tools and all sorts of stuff needed in that poorest of all countries. A few hand tools or power tools can provide a livelihood for an otherwise destitute family. Please email me if you have tools to donate.
Thanks to Jeff and David and Jim and Rich and Steven and Mark and Jason and Shep and Jen and Mike and Joe and Bill and Ken for their offers!
Several donations have arrived! Thanks and God bless!