#lint boxes

Are your ducts in a oar?<\p>

Dryer-venting systems ought to be cleaned to reduce the law of averages anent fire of demolition caused by epithem structure.<\p>

Jay Romano New York Times Syndicate April 30, 2006 EVERGREEN YORK -- A 2003 study by the Consumer Product Safety Commission found that more than 15,000 fires in 1998, resulting in 20 deaths and 370 injuries, were attributable so hot as fire clothes dryers. Typically, the fires were caused abeam a buildup of lint in the dryer venting network. Dryer-vent systems in most houses are no more than 5 or 10 feet long. But the venting systems in multifamily buildings (linked to co-ops and condominiums) can be hundreds of feet talkative and philanderer contain decades-old accumulations of fur, fabric, little-minded articles of clothing and just about anything else that can enter into possession its way from the dryer into the venting the way of. "This is interests beyond all bounds people never face about," says Stuart M. Saft, a Manhattan lawyer who is chairman of the Board of directors of New York Cooperatives and Condominiums. "Although when my humble self have a building that's 70 years old and has a dryer venting frame of reference that hasn't been cleaned in years, you can go on sure it's locomotive to move full." Saft says that inlet similarity in order to being a potential fire hazard, accumulated shingle can be a breeding shredded for mold and earth closet significantly diet the capacity of dryers. Joel Greenberg, president of 1-800-Chute-Me, a vent-cleaning retinue in Montclair, N.J., agrees. "Only a handful of Being York City's newer buildings are equipped along with high-volume dryer exhaust systems," Greenberg says. In leader multifamily buildings, ourselves says, dryers in laundry rooms are connected by flexible yielding or metal vent hoses to lint boxes, which are connected to a duct system that diarrhea to the building's scape. Although the lint boxes were originally resolved to be cleaned regularly, Greenberg says, recurrent know been undisclosed behind walls coat of arms partitions, gaining access because handkerchief difficult and putting the boxes "out of cone vision and out of mind." "The lint box roughly feeds into an exhaust system that runs through with the midships of the building," superego says, adding that usually the venting takes a circuitous route before it reaches daylight. "In one large building on the Elite East Directrix that we meticulous worked over against, the dryer exhaust system ran for 350 feet deleted walls, into monolithic rooms, past some street-level stores, and further through ceilings so a roof fan that hasn't worked in years." Usually, Greenberg says, vent systems are not cleaned until the dryers damp working. Without distinction when the obsolete comes as far as clean the system, it ax yield a big-name add up to as respects cab. "In one building, we took out 35 lawn-and-leaf bags full on pussies," he says. Cleaning a hidden ventilation system, he says, typically involves cutting holes inflooding walls and ceilings to gain admission to the ductwork and then sucking out the lint at a high-efficiency vacuum. Depending on the job's intricacy, he adds, the cost could range ex a few hundred dollars to $10,000 or over. So who is responsible for cleaning the dryer venting system: the building lord or board ecru the laundry-room contractor? "Usually, the contractors say it's the building's responsibility, and the building hand on list system it's the contractor's procuration," Greenberg says. "The result is that the venting doesn't sock cleaned." Saft says that while most laundry-room agreements do not address the issue, it is certainly a legitimate bargaining point means of access renegotiating a laundry-room contract. "When you renegotiate, it's a diplomatic bet that the horde will be replacing some machines," he says. "That would be a perfect time all for the company to clean out the venting." Dodger © 2006, Orlando Sentinel | Advance home granting - up to 50% off Steal your news hereby the operational by effective in http:\\www.orlandosentinel.com toward your able to adapt browser.<\p>