Dryer Vent Inspection in San Diego, CA

What does a dryer vent inspection actually look at?

Not just the lint. An inspection maps the run first. Where does it start, where does it terminate, how many elbows in between. That count matters. Manufacturers publish an equivalent-length limit, and every 90-degree elbow eats into it. Long interior-closet runs through soffit to a roof jack in condos blow past that limit routinely. So do second-floor laundries venting straight up through the attic. When the run is too long, cleaning helps for a month. Then you are back to two and three cycles.

The termination gets checked from outside, not guessed at. Louvered exterior hoods pack solid with lint and dust. Roof-cap screens do the same. On canyon-adjacent and semi-rural East County lots, birds and rodents nest in unscreened or damaged terminations. That nest sits upstream of anything a brush from the dryer side reaches.

Behind the dryer we look for crushed foil flex. Narrow closets push the machine tight to the wall and the elbow folds flat. Vinyl and foil flex left from decades-old installs still turns up.

Attic runs get walked where access allows. Sag holds lint at the low point. Marine humidity lengthens cycles, so more lint moves through per load.

An inspection that finds a sound short lateral run through a postwar wall is a short visit. Say so, and leave.