Yes, I have been absent for the last few weeks and wish I wasn't! I don't know how many of you have dryers and the vents for them, but I have a scary story here! I usually clean my dryer vent and keep some of the lint for tinder but a couple weeks ago, the tinder was gone! I had just bought a brush to make cleaning the vent easier but before I could use it, the vent went up in flames! As it did, it burned up the wall, across the ceiling and spread. I have been trying to rebuild my house since then. I have a Big hole in the back of my house thanks to the Fine Firemen of my County! I have sheetrock and 2x4's burned to a crisp. I have preps, food and a couple guns, all fried and some canned goods in question. I have been spending 16-18 hrs a day either working on cleaning up, repairing or doing odd jobs to make extra money to pay for this. Yes, insurance will cover most, but how long it will take to get the money is anyone's guess and I can't wait! Being partially disabled doesn't help matters either but I can't let that get in the way, at least not much! Moral of the story----Check and Clean your Dryer Vents! I will rebuild my house, better. I will rebuild my preps, again. I will rebuild, period!
Dryer Vent Emergency!!!
- Thread starter simpleman
- Start date
Help Support Homesteading & Country Living Forum:
- Joined
- Aug 25, 2020
- Messages
- 857
I worked in appliance repair and installation .... ALWAYS USE METAL VENT !!!! Don't use anything else.
Theres 2900 drier fires each year . Mostly from plastic and that tin foil crap
Theres 2900 drier fires each year . Mostly from plastic and that tin foil crap
Sorry to hear of your bad luck brother, I have seen that here myself. We clean a bunch of vents every year in an older community here, I purchased a vent cleaning kit from a local supply house that has your rotary extendable brush and a 4inch cap with a shop vac attachment on it. Chuck the brush up in your cordless drill and turn on the shop vac and in just a few minutes you are good. Again sorry you are going thru this now of all times, keep your head up and you will recover.
When rebuilding, use Type X drywall (fire rated), smooth metal vent, and make sure you follow codes for bends in the vent. Also, when framing around the venting in the ext wall, use blocking around the hole to keep any future fire spread to a minimum. So, above and below the venting, use the same size framing and put a board horizontally above and below it. That way, there is not much oxygen in the wall. Make sure you have a good vent cap on the outside. I use a block on top of the ext siding to give it more space away from the siding.
Great post. Sorry it happened to you. Good luck, and don't take any **** from the ins company. YOU get bids for repairs from the best in town. If they balk at all, ask them if you need to hire a public adjuster and attorney. Watch them cooperate.
Great post. Sorry it happened to you. Good luck, and don't take any **** from the ins company. YOU get bids for repairs from the best in town. If they balk at all, ask them if you need to hire a public adjuster and attorney. Watch them cooperate.
Sorry to hear of your misfortune
Thanks for the info, it was the tin foil stuff leading to the wall, but up in the wall and ceiling was metal. I think it is a piss poor job by the builder making it run UP the wall then across the ceiling/floor to the outside! I can't see the dryer blowing all the lint Up the wall then 12 feet across to the outside! I could be wrong but I did need to clean it often.
It was electric, prefer gas but the room is not set up for gas, may be now though! The firemen believe it may have been something in the dryer, being dried, and had metal causing sparks to get through the filter into the vent. But of course, they don't know for sure or how long it may have been festering.
Like the idea of the shop vac, sure would come in handy on this set up. I have to go by Home Depot tomorrow and will look and see what they have!
Thanks for that info also! Never thought about the fire rated drywall, I will definitely go that way! Smooth metal venting for sure also. So on the horizontal board, how far back from the wall should I go? Or just do it all the way? Yep, got to have a vent cap also and NO skimping on anything, Way to scary!
Sweet Baby Jesus, 12 FEET!?!?!?!? AAAND UP?!?!?!? Fire waiting to happen. Your venting should go straight out the ext wall as close as possible to the dryer, and I believe the code here is no more than 30" above the ground. I know some places leave you no options, but there is alot you can do mitigate risk. I'm happy to help if you have more questions.
I am talking about "fire blocking" when I say "horizontal boards". If your ext walls are 2x6, then use 2x6 and run them above and below the vent, in between the vertical framing. So, when you install your Type X over it, it is a small box inside the wall.
Does that make sense?
Attachments
Last edited:
Wow, sorry about the fire OP. I did learn something in this thread.
Actually most house fires are caused by friction. Usually by two payments rubbing together
Good morning simpleman...real sorry for your losses, glad nobody was hurt. Hope your disability will not stop your re-build. Proud to hear of your mental strength for the re-prep and re-build.
BUT! I gotta tell you that there are better tinder than lint...Get your newspaper, lay it out flat and start a 2 inch fold, fold again to 1 inch, again to half and when it gets too small to fold start rolling it into a cigar. Just about 3-4 inches from the end, insert the next sheet of newspaper and continue rolling the cigar and so on till the cigar is about an inch thick. Tie the rolled paper in about 2 inch distances from one end to the other, cut with a jigsaw, bandsaw or at the very least with a VERY sharp and strong knife. You should get about 1 1/2 to 2 inch long little paper cigars with a string in the middle and the string should have a about 3-4 inch long tail to hold on to. Melt some wax or paraffin and soak these little paper cigars in the melted wax till no bubbles come up any more, remove and allow to cool. When needed, unroll a few inches of the waxed paper and use as tinder. Burns extremely hot from the wax and even is waterproofed from the wax. Here is a pic of a finished wax cigar tinder I made.
I also take cotton face wipes / make-up removers, hold them in the ,melted wax with tweezers till they are soaked, dip them into cold water for only a second to cool them so much that I can press them flat with an old drinking glass and they won't stick to the glass. They can be cut into smaller pieces for tinder, used as one large starter, even cut to the center and stood up or as in the pic, cut in a snail form to make a emergency candle... something to play with.
Even entire rolls of cotton string for tying your packages and such dipped in wax gives you some waterproof tinder. Try everything you can think of or find...Gary
Yeah I know, a disaster waiting to happen! I firmly believe my house, or this part of it, was Not inspected! The laundry room is downstairs, in the middle of the house. The vent comes out of the dryer, into the wall then up to the ceiling. It then curves, again, to go across the ceiling/floor for about 12 feet and out the side of the house. It used the Smooth-rigid pipe in the wall and across but as the Firemen said, it was probably cooking for sometime and just caught the rafters, sheetrock, insulation or whatever on fire. I was Very Thankful for the Firemen who, after chopping and cutting my exterior wall, came back and fixed their cutting/chopping to make it where they then put some plywood, I had already had, up blocking the hole. Some even offered to come back this week, or whenever, to help rebuild and/or straighten things up. I believe a couple may have been preppers themselves! The laundry room is next to the garage and I have always thought about just running the vent straight out into the garage, may rethink that and do it. Thanks for the help and offer, I will keep this mind when rebuilding. The boards are 2 x 6 and I understand what you are talking about, Again, Thanks!
Thanks! I am Very Grateful Nobody was hurt also, it could have been A lot worse! As far as my disability stopping me, I have no choice and just push through it.
I have heard about the newspaper rolled up like that, but never about dipping it in wax. I use the lint in bug out bags and such but I am going to try what you have suggested! The lint lights easy but does burn quick! Funny you mention the cotton face wipes as I have several bags in my stuff, don't know why, but there they are! Now I have a use for them, Thanks!
The main thing I wanted to come from this post is for everybody to check their vents and Hopefully prevent this from happening to anyone else!
Thanks, the whole idea of my post is to help others and Hope this doesn't happen to anyone else!
Back from Hell again! If rebuilding is Anything like cleaning up, I want NO part in it! Cleaning all this stuff up, cleaning stuff, going through stuff, separating stuff, throwing away stuff, tripping over stuff! Then of course, there is debating on whether to keep some stuff? This has been a nightmare! The Firemen did come back and fix the back of the house they cut out! Put in an old steel door they had at the station for me! Framed it all up and put siding back up, All for Free! God Bless the Fire Department and it's People! I did keep a good supply of coffee, milk, water, Krispy Kreme doughnuts, fruits and sandwiches for them! Now comes the rebuild. At least I finally got around to cleaning the storage room out!!! LOL
