Dryer Vent Repair & Replacement in Cary, NC

How we tell a repair from a full replacement

Most homeowners call us with a symptom, not a diagnosis. The dryer stopped drying, or something rattles behind the machine, or a home inspector wrote up the vent during a sale. The first thing we do is work out whether the line can be repaired in place or whether replacing it is the honest answer. Here is the logic we use, so you can follow along instead of taking it on faith.

• Repair territory. A crushed transition hose behind the dryer, a disconnected joint in an attic or crawlspace, a missing or jammed exterior hood, a section that pulled loose at a strap, or screws that were driven through the duct wall and are catching lint. These are single-point failures. We fix the point and the run is sound again.
• Replacement territory. Flexible foil or vinyl duct used for the concealed run rather than rigid metal, a line with so many bends that it exceeds the allowable length, a run that terminates into an attic, soffit, or crawlspace instead of outdoors, or metal that has corroded or been repeatedly crushed. Patching those buys weeks, not years.
• The gray zone. Older rigid runs that are intact but undersized, or a route that was never a good idea. We will price both options and explain which one we would choose in our own house.

We put a camera in the line and show you the footage. If a repair will hold, we do the repair. We are not going to sell you a full line replacement for a hose you can fix for a fraction of it. If you want the background reading first, our dryer vent repair cost guide and common dryer vent problems page cover the same ground without a sales call.

What a code-compliant dryer vent line looks like

There is a fairly short list of things a dryer exhaust line has to get right, and most of the failures we are called out to are one of these five.

• Rigid or semi-rigid metal for the concealed run. Foil accordion duct and old white vinyl duct are not acceptable inside walls, floors, or attics. They sag, they trap lint in every ridge, and vinyl is combustible.
• Length within limits. The model residential code North Carolina’s building code follows caps the exhaust duct at 35 feet, and each 90-degree elbow effectively spends about five feet of that budget. A 45-degree bend costs roughly half that.
• No screws through the duct. Joints get foil tape or clamps, never sheet-metal screws, because a screw point inside the airstream builds a lint dam.
• Termination outdoors, with a backdraft damper and no screen. Never into an attic, soffit, garage, or crawlspace. Screens and mesh caps look sensible and are exactly what packs solid with lint.
• Slope and support. The run should be supported so it does not sag, with joints oriented so lint travels with the airflow rather than catching at every seam.

The safety case for getting this right is not abstract. The U.S. Fire Administration attributes roughly 2,900 residential clothes dryer fires a year, and failure to clean is the single largest contributing factor. The agency’s more recent figure, for homes from 2018 to 2020, is 31 percent. A properly built line is also a line that stays clean longer.

After the repair

Every repair or replacement ends with the line cleaned end to end, the exterior hood checked with the dryer running, and before-and-after photos in your hands. If drying times were the original complaint, that is the moment you should notice the difference. See why a dryer takes too long to dry for the other causes worth ruling out, and how to clean a dryer vent for what you can reasonably keep on top of between visits.