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We are at the tail end of a laundry room renovation that included installing drywall over cement walls. Our contractor swears having half the dryer’s vent opening and hose embedded in drywall is perfectly fine. We disagree. Should we fight for him to enclose the vent and hose in a recessed dryer vent box or trust his craftsmanship? Thank you!

dryer hose half embedded in drywall

dryer hose half embedded in drywall

Update here is his solution dryer vent solution

D Venditti
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    It looks like it would be almost impossible to replace the flex-hose if it clogs or rips without cutting into the drywall. For that reason alone I would insist he re-route it. – Nate S. May 15 '19 at 21:22
  • Was the vent hole pre existing or was the bore through the cement walls done during this renovation? – Kris May 16 '19 at 13:12
  • Yes, the vent hole was preexisting. We all agreed at the start that it would not be possible to move it. – D Venditti May 16 '19 at 17:09
  • I take it the wall it is half way into was added during this remodel? Or was it also a concrete wall and you have furred it with 2x4’s and then added drywall? – Kris May 17 '19 at 04:20

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While perhaps functional at present, the current arrangement does not allow for easy maintenance, which will be required after a couple years of filling with lint. It appears that it would be almost impossible to remove and replace the hose to clean it out when it clogs with lint (which WILL happen sooner or later) without cutting into the drywall. IMO that's sufficient reason to insist your contractor re-route it.

Nate S.
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  • @isherwood, surely you mean solid, smooth-walled ducts though, not the flexible ducts shown in OP's photo? The smooth-walled kind grab much less lint than the flexible kind, and if needed, you can run a snake through them without tearing them, which you can't do with the flex ones. – Nate S. May 16 '19 at 19:53
  • What I mean is that in OP's original photo, the flex-duct itself, where it attaches to the smooth duct, is halfway embedded in the wall, and thus the flex-duct can't be removed and replaced easily if the in-wall smooth duct needs to be snaked. – Nate S. May 16 '19 at 20:38
  • I didn't notice that the photos had been updated. My mistake. Unfortunately my vote is locked. – isherwood May 16 '19 at 20:56
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No, this is very amateurish work. I cannot imagine what they were thinking. They had to know, even while they were doing it, that they were cutting corners.

A proper routing of the hose and vent should have been part of the scope of work. Failing that, they should have built a recess around the hose area.

Harper - Reinstate Monica
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