How to install a dryer vent:
1. Cut a hole in the wall where you want the vent. Check.2. Drill through the other side of the wall, then go outside to find out where your hole is.
3. Fail to find hole.
4. Drill a hole from the outside at the measured point you expect the inside hole to be. Go inside to check where you came out.
5. Fail to find hole.
6. After much headscratching, realize that the wall is two layers thick - remember how the carriage house was built in 1909 of brick? And how its walls are therefore about a foot thick? The structure of this wooden wall, which replaced a garage-door thing, is plywood - insulation - more plywood - more insulation - third layer of plywood.
7. Go to Menards and buy a keyhole saw to cut out the hole in the middle layer of plywood.
8. Discover that the studs on the two layers don't line up. Now what are the odds that the more-or-less random spot I chose for my dryer vent should be precisely centered on a stud on the other side? See the hole I drilled?9. Cut another damn hole three inches to the right. Plan to buy a little cover panel for this one.
10. Success! I can finally drill a hole from the outside that I can see on the inside. So cut out the hole on the outside.
11. Don't forget to lay a bead of caulk under the vent hood on the outside before fastening it to the wall.
12. Bask in the glory of your finished dryer vent!
Sorry, I'm sitting here laughing. I'm very happy my vent just runs through the wall to the outside!
ReplyDeleteMake sure you cover it well enough so the squirrels can't get in. Nuts in your dryer make a heck of a racket.
ReplyDeleteIt has a little flap inside that hood that falls shut when no air is coming out of the dryer. Plus the downwards opening is only about an inch wide - maybe some kind of midget squirrel would find it attractive.
ReplyDeleteNuts in the dryer, though - did that actually happen to you? Funny!
It happened to my mother's dryer, but I was there. She almost never uses it, but once when I was visiting, I wanted to dry the clothes I'd just washed so that I could pack them. Put them in the dryer, turn it on--noise like the dryer is tearing itself to pieces! Stop the dryer. Maybe there was a coin in my pocket that fell out and is bouncing around? (But wouldn't the clothes pad it?) Take all the clothes out, start the empty dryer again--noise like the dryer is tearing itself to pieces! Stop the dryer, give up, hang clothes on racks. The next week (after the holiday), call for repair. Repairman comes, opens dryer--nuts pour out from around the drum! In-freaking-sane.
ReplyDeleteWe (the condos) had birds making nests in that bit between the flap and the outer angled cover and had to put grids on the outside. Of course, that means that we have to have the dryer vents cleaned more often because more fibers get caught (in my case, a lot more cat hair).
ReplyDelete