Dryer Vent Cleaning in Fort Worth
One load of towels, two cycles, and the dryer is still warm an hour later. That's almost never the machine. It's lint packed into the duct, and in a Keller or Southlake two-story with the laundry upstairs, that duct is thirty feet of sheet metal running up through a 130 degree attic to a roof cap you've never seen.
How we do it
We pull the dryer out and disconnect it. Then a negative air vacuum goes on the open duct where the dryer connects, and it runs the whole time. The brush goes in from the far end, a rotary head on flexible rods, drill driven, worked through the full developed length of the line. Everything it breaks loose travels toward the vacuum and into the collection bag. None of it lands in your laundry room, and none of it packs into the blower housing, because the dryer is disconnected and sitting out of the way while we work. On a long roof run we follow the brush with a compressed air whip, because rods lose torque the deeper they go and caked lint at the far elbows needs more than one brush pass. Then we clean the machine side: the lint trap chute, cleared as far down toward the blower housing as a flex brush and vacuum reach, plus the transition hose behind the dryer. Joints we open go back together with foil tape, not sheet metal screws. Every screw tip inside a duct is a snag that starts the next clog, and fasteners aren't allowed to extend into the duct.
The visit, step by step
- 1
Pull the dryer and read the run
We move the machine, disconnect the transition hose, and look at what's actually there. Duct material, diameter, elbow count, and whether it terminates at a sidewall hood or a roof cap. Code caps the run at 35 feet of developed length, and every fitting eats into that: about five feet for a standard 90 degree elbow, two and a half for a 45. Plenty of homes are over that before anyone touches them, and that tells us how hard this run will be to keep clear.
- 2
Brush and vacuum the full length
Negative air vacuum on the open duct at the laundry room end, running the whole time. Rotary brush on flexible rods, spun by a drill, fed in from the termination and worked through the line. Lint travels toward the vacuum, not into the house. On long verticals we follow with a compressed air whip so the caked lint at the far elbows comes off the wall, not just the loose stuff.
- 3
Clear the termination and free the damper
Roof caps and sidewall hoods are where lint packs hardest, and where birds build. We go up to the cap on roof-terminated runs. Any screen behind the hood comes out, because code doesn't allow a screen on a dryer termination and it clogs within a season. Then we check that the backdraft damper swings all the way open and shuts flat. A hail-dented cap will hold it partway closed and quietly choke the run.
- 4
Clean the machine side
Lint trap chute first, the fine lint that got past the screen and never left the cabinet, cleared as far down as a flex brush and vacuum reach. Then the transition hose. If it's white vinyl, or crushed flat behind the dryer, we tell you. Transition duct has to be a listed single length and vinyl isn't code legal, and a kinked hose is the most common failure point in the whole system.
- 5
Reconnect and test airflow
Dryer back in place, joints foil taped, and a cycle run so we can feel the discharge at the termination and watch the flap. It should stand wide open with warm air moving steadily, not flutter.
Why it matters here
Failure to clean is the leading factor in home clothes dryer fires, per the NFPA, and a restricted duct is how it starts. Lint is fuel, and the worst of it collects inside the cabinet, close to the heat source. Short of a fire, a blocked run makes the dryer fight itself. Most residential dryers are rated to push against about 0.6 inches of water column and no more, so when the line chokes, a safety thermostat starts cutting the heat, the element cycles hot and dies early, and you pay for two cycles to do one load. Let it go far enough and the thermal fuse blows, and that one doesn't reset. The dryer won't start at all until somebody replaces the part. North Texas adds two problems on top of that. In August the run crosses an attic over 130 degrees, where nobody goes and nobody looks, and where unsupported flex duct sags into low spots that collect lint. In January that same attic is cold, humid exhaust condenses on cold metal, and the lint at the elbows packs into something closer to felt than dust. And if the dryer is gas, a duct that can't exhaust is a duct pushing combustion byproducts back into the laundry room.
Signs it's time
- ✦Clothes come out of a full cycle still damp in the seams and at the waistband.
- ✦The top of the dryer, or the whole laundry room, is hot to the touch by the end of a cycle.
- ✦A scorched smell while it runs, like an iron left face down on a shirt.
- ✦Outside, the vent flap barely lifts, or there's grey lint stuck to the siding under the hood.
- ✦The dryer quits partway through, or stops heating and picks back up once it cools. That's a safety thermostat cutting the heat, not the machine failing.
What it costs
One-time dryer vent cleaning starts at $150 and runs to $250. A short sidewall run off a first floor laundry room is the $150 job. It goes up with the length of the run, how many elbows are in it, and whether it ends at a hood we can reach from the ground or a cap on a two-story roof. On the Homestead Plan it's part of your September visit at no extra charge.
Questions
How often does a dryer vent actually need cleaning?
Once a year for most Fort Worth homes. Sooner if the laundry is upstairs and vents through the roof, if the run has three or four elbows in it, or if there's a dog in the house and a lot of bedding going through the machine. A short sidewall run off a first floor laundry room can stretch longer. The run decides it, not the calendar: length, elbow count, and where it terminates.
My lint screen is clean after every load. Isn't that enough?
No. The screen catches the coarse lint. The fine stuff goes straight past it and settles wherever the duct turns or slows down, which is why the worst buildup is almost always at the elbows and at the termination, thirty feet from the screen you've been emptying.
Our laundry is on the second floor and vents out the roof. Can you still clean it?
Yes, and that's the run that needs it most. Lint knocked loose in a vertical duct falls, so brushing up from the bottom and calling it done leaves most of it in the line. We set the vacuum at the laundry room end and work down from the cap, so gravity and suction pull the same direction, then finish with an air whip on the long verticals. It's a common layout in newer Keller, Southlake and west Fort Worth builds.
Is this included in the Homestead Plan or does it cost extra?
Included. It's part of the September visit, paired with exterior windows and screens, so it happens once a year without you booking it. Plans are priced by home size starting at $149 a month. If you're not on a plan, we'll do it as a one-time job at the price below.