Nashville Vent Cleaning Is Wise Maintenance for Fire Damage Protection

5/16/2017 (Permalink)

SERVPRO Helps Prevent Fire in Your Nashville Home with Dryer Vent Cleaning

House fires affect millions of people every year at the cost of over $500 Million. Smoke detectors have proved their value every year, saving lives and homes from total loss. Most house fires start in the kitchen, but a significant number still occur in a place most forget about once the item is installed, the dryer vent.

A dryer vent cleaning cost may seem like an avoidable charge, but it is needed to prevent fire in your Nashville home. There are over 15,000 dryer fires each year, and the accumulated property damage cost exceeds $70 Million annually. SERVPRO has the personnel and equipment needed to keep you from adding to those numbers in the coming year. This vent cleaning can also reduce the workload of your clothes dryer while lowering energy usage.

A dryer inside the house or apartment uses a metal exhaust pipe (galvanized iron or steel usually) to vent hot air to the outside of the home. The zinc-coated material is designed to handle the highest dryer setting and more, but not open flames from burning, built-up lint. Since this is an exhaust pipe and smoke seeks the easiest access, a vent fire goes undetected by the smoke detectors much longer than a fire anywhere else in the house.

If your dryer is in the garage or under a carport, the chance for a major fire is reduced, but not eliminated. The flexible vent tube may not run under the house, but it is still at risk. The buildup of lint can still ignite, destroying your dryer and the washer next to it. As the flexible, plastic pipe melts, the burning material quickly ignites drywall and other building material. Worse, there is the possible loss of a car, boat, ATV or RV that might be parked next to the dryer as well.

Our SERVPRO technicians can eliminate this threat with an inspection. We can attach an air mover which introduces high-velocity air flow into your vent for just a few minutes. If the build-up has caked against the sides of the pipe, they use a brush with a telescoping handle to scrape the sides and then reattach the air mover to blow the lint outside your home. For a flexible conduit, we detach it from the dryer and clean it outside using either an air mover or your own garden hose to wash it out.

The cost for vent cleaning is minor compared to other restoration and cleaning work. It is significantly cheaper than removing fire damaged drywall and cleaning smoke and soot covered property. If you need our services or would like an inspection, contact SERVPRO of South Nashville at (615) 331-0200.

For more information about Nashville visit:  https://www.nashville.gov