Help: My Dryer Venting Under the Floor Is Not Connected

Dryer Venting

• Your dryer doesn’t just heat clothing until it bakes dry; it also pulls moisture out of fabric to reduce the amount of time it takes for clothes to dry. Moist air and lint blowout of an exhaust vent at the back of your dryer. That vent should be connected to ductwork that leads to a vent on the exterior of your house, where wet air can be harmlessly dispersed into the outside air. Ideally, the dryer will be located on an exterior wall and vented directly outside. If you have a laundry room on the second floor, then the exhaust venting ductwork usually runs under your flooring through a room or two until it reaches the exterior vent.

Signs

• If the dryer venting under your floor is not connected, the dryer is just blowing lint and hot wet air into the floor. You might experience problems like increased humidity in the laundry room. Your dryer might take longer to dry clothing, forcing you to run a load more than once before fabric really feels dry. On the first floor, you might discover a spreading moisture stain on the ceiling beneath the laundry room.

Issues

• Increased humidity in your laundry room can open the door to mold growth. If you have to run loads through the dryer more than once, not only can the increased drying wear on your clothes, but it can also raise your energy use and costs. A moisture stain in your ceiling is unsightly, but that’s the least of the problems associated with it. Water damage can necessitate replacing the drywall in the ceiling, but you could also need to replace water-damaged boards and other structures in the second-level flooring.

Solutions

• Connecting the vent ductwork will improve your dryer’s function and prevent damage to your home. Because faulty ductwork can be a fire hazard, have a professional install it and make sure the connections are solid and correctly supported all the way to the exterior vent. Use all metal ductwork to protect against heat damage and lint buildup within the venting, which means you’ll have less maintenance work to do in the future.