Thread: Dryer venting

An apartment complex we manage has the venting from 2 back to back apartments just running into each other with no additional venting. We would like to correct this . Any suggestions. Dryers are in closets under the stairs about 12 feet from the outside walls. There is no basement and there are the stairs right above and then rooms upstairs.

Similar Threads:

• 3-wire dryer receptacle outlet
• dryer vent
• Dryer Vent Next To Condensing Coil
• Combustion air venting location
• Gas Dryer in Bathroom

Can you get to the under stair area and does that lead to the exterior wall?

Wait, wait...the dryers literally just vent into each other? How has that not loaded one side or the other up with lint and burned the place down yet? Wouldn't the renters get a little upset at the free, moist heat they get whenever their neighbor does laundry?

I'd say they need separate runs to the exterior, and I'd do the run with solid pipe from the hookup on out, not that flex hose crap that collects lint and becomes a fire hazard. But like Jerry said, is that feasible?

Pics, please...this I gotta see.

Originally Posted by Greg Weaver

Wait, wait...the dryers literally just vent into each other? How has that not loaded one side or the other up with lint and burned the place down yet? Wouldn't the renters get a little upset at the free, moist heat they get whenever their neighbor does laundry?

I think they mean that both go into one vent, at least that is the way I took it because who would exhaust one directly into the other. With the two connected into one vent it may seem like they are directly to each other and no where else because the air is still going to blow back into the other dryer as the easy way to go before going down a long duct run. But ... you may be right on what they meant ... ???

Goes directly from one dryer to the other. Crazy, huh? Did cause some kind of repair needed to one of the new steam dryers of one of the renters. Unfortunately the stairs in both meet on the interior wall. To get from where the dryer is to an exterior wall, the shortest distance is across the dinette about 12 feet. Considering running the vent inside the closet over to the interior wall and building a box up from the floor and side wall and running the venting through that. Building is cinderblock construction and I think the dividing wall is cinderblock

"Who would exhaust one dryer to another"

I give thanks regularly for those who strive to keep me with inspection work.

Each should be individually vented. Can you go around the stairs to the roof somehow?
Another possibility I've seen is interior venting solutions, they sell them at Home Depot and other places. I don't know if they meet the code requirements though. Maybe someone else knows.


Expert Mobile & Manufactured Home Inspections O.C. & San Diego Co.

Originally Posted by Greg Filian

Another possibility I've seen is interior venting solutions, they sell them at Home Depot and other places. I don't know if they meet the code requirements though. Maybe someone else knows.

No, that won't work. People avoid cleaning them and they cause trouble in every way imaginable.

A steam dryer definitely needs its own vent to outside.
Find an HVAC installer with years of experience who will design an efficient solution, using smooth-walled metal vent pipes.

Originally Posted by Greg Filian

Another possibility I've seen is interior venting solutions, they sell them at Home Depot and other places. I don't know if they meet the code requirements though. Maybe someone else knows.

Nope, those things don't meet code.

The dryer exhaust is required to go to the outdoors (unless the dryer is a condensing type dryer).

Thanks for the suggestions. Plan to vent both to the outside.