I installed a vent for our new clothes dryer on the south side of the house. The house was built in 1904 and the building techniques were different back then. When they placed a 2 by 10 on edge on the sill it was nailed to the outside framing of 2 by 4 vertical boards. The outside wood was nailed on to the 2 by 4's and they would pour plaster down into the open cavity along the base of the house. I actually think it was a fire safety thing to keep any fire at the base to spread up into the wall cavities.
I had to create this hole for my vent by going through an inside vertical board that is a full two inches thick, four inches of hard plaster, another sheeting board of one inch or more thicknes and then the exterior siding. My drill bit was not long enough to go through it all as I had not remembered the old house be that thick. I had to drill from the inside then go outside and try to meet the same hole. First try I missed it by about a half inch. Not bad for an old carpenter.
The task was completed three hours later with the use of a skill saw, reciprocating saw, saber saw, hammer, and a drill with bits that were not long enough to go through from one side to the other. It seemed like a butchered job until I finally got a big enough opening in order to be able to round it out from the outside and then smooth up the inside. It was like shaving material away from the center until I could get the aluminum vent tube completely through from the outside into the basement.
Plaster dust, saw dust and old wood dust was flying continually but I was glad I finished it. I will feel muscles that I didn't know that I had when I awake in the morning.
I promised a brown picture from my outdoor backyard and so here is my first showing. This is my viburnum. It isn't much to look at this time of the year. I pruned it back as it was getting to be to large to walk along side of it. As you can see we are really brown and dormant and very dead looking in our area.
Thanks for stopping by my post today.
4 comments:
You did a great job on the dryer vent in spite of all the difficulties!
It is really drab around here too. The only color I see are the berries on some of the bushes.
Hope you won't be too terribly sore tomorrow.
Larry, what a not so much fun way to start off the first weekend of the New Year. Bet you will be glad not to have to tackle that dryer vent for a long time!
A tough job but isn't it nice to know your house is built so solid?
You got it done! It sounds like you carried every saw you had outdoors:)
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