It's important to blow air from certain rooms or appliances, like bathrooms or dryers, and nothing from the vents shown here will be blowin' in the breeze.
Let's have a contest! We'll introduce four contestants for "Most Creative Vent Blockage" and you, the voting public, will decide which is the most creative.
Our first contestant to look at is a DRYER VENT!
This dryer vent blows, well it used to blow, its air really close to the ground, about 2" or so.
That made it really difficult to clean, but at least you could get to it.
Since this homeowner built a deck right next to the house, and virtually on the ground, there is no access to the dryer vent at all!
And it's pretty crushed. The flap probably doesn't open very far now.
The tube from this outdoor point to the laundry room inside the house is a good 20' long! Good luck cleaning it from inside the house!
When the dryer is operating and you open the dryer door there is a huge puff of air into your face. That's a sure sign there is a huge clog in the system.
What would you bet that teensy clog is near the deck? I'd bet bunches it is! What do you think about Contestant One?
Contestants abound! They're lining up!
Our next contestant is a KITCHEN VENT.
You might say, "Hey, that looks a bit small to be a kitchen vent." Well, you would be right!
But it's there nonetheless!
However, this homeowner wanted another wall receptacle on a different spot on the house.
And from one receptacle he, correctly, ran a conduit to protect the cable on its way from the old receptacle to the new receptacle.
It is plumb, level, attached well, looks pretty good, and, is right against the wall.
And right against the vent flaps of the yes-it's-too-small kitchen vent too! The kitchen vent was effectively blocked. We submit Contestant Two.
And finally, let me introduce Contestant Three.
This is a BATHROOM VENT.
Contestant Three has help.
The help is the very creative use of a clothes hanger.
I can tell you that hanger is pretty strong.
And that vent flap isn't going anywhere!
To install this, of course, the homeowner took off the original grill that was there to prevent birds from getting inside.
The clothes hanger effectively does NOW what the grill use to do! And it's doing a great job!
So there you have it! Three smiling, shining Contestants, all vying for the "Most Creative Vent Blockage" title!
HOW DO YOU VOTE?
My recommendation: sometimes what is obvious needs no comment. And sometimes laughter is the best medicine. And voting is a privilege, not a right. Or it's the right privilege, or something like that. Whatever. And you can't go wrong voting here. Voting is always a Best Practice.
Jay Markanich Real Estate Inspections, LLC 
Based in Bristow, serving all of Northern Virginia.
Office (703) 330-6388 Cell (703) 585-7560
As a volunteer firefighter the one that scares me the most and therefore gets my vote is contestant # 1. Very dangerous situation there!
About 50,000 fires annually Jim, that require the fire department, come from dryer fires! I put a link to my blog about that on every inspection report when the house has a dryer!
You have to wonder how many homeowners look at vents and have no clue that they do...or what is their function.
Some homeowners don't even notice when the fan isn't working right S&D! Such is likely the case in each of these instances.
That's a hard one to determine Jay. Personally I put a ladies stocking over our vent. When the house was built the vent was just about 3 feet from the air conditioner unit. We had to clean the coils about every two years. To fix the problem we placed the stocking over the vent and no more problems. Doesn't look pretty but it works
That's a pretty good idea James! I see bearded AC units all the time!
Good morning, Jay. You venting again? Just when one thinks that they have seen it all, someone comes up with a new wrinkle.
Jay, I really enjoyed your post this morning which had a great message. Looking forward to others from you. Thanks for sharing.
Hi Jay,
I think stupidity wins out here. So I think it's a three way tie.
Have a good day in Bristow.
Best, Clint mcKie
Oh gosh Jay...it's so hard to choose. But I'm going to say number 3!
Once in a while it's good to get my yayas out Michael. I'm getting wrinkles seeing these new wrinkles.
Thanks Winston. I'm here nearly every day!
These are fun Clint. And I saw them all in just two days!
Your vote counts Suzanne! Actually it doesn't matter really - they are all pretty fun!
Jay, all three are looking pretty poor. For absolute sheer stupidity, number 2 is tops. I mean it's right there and surely shortening up the conduit a few inches was possible. Don't you think??
I guess the installer didn't want to create a curve in the line Tom! Maybe he is a linear fellow!
Watch out when the inspector starts to vent about the vents not venting
On the report I am pretty nondescript Charlie. The fun happens when the blog happens!
Number two is hilarious. Hard to fathom what some people were thinking or not.
It's important to make your work look good Jim. Nevermind the other stuff...
Jay, I like number three, A new mechanical spring loaded damper, I am sure this has been through vigorous testing.
Of course...you said there would be 4 contestants!! You just checking to see if we were paying attention???
Don - coat hangers, the other white vent blocker.
Jim - I had not noticed that! Correction made!
Dear Jay -
I think that it is a full out tie. Why? well, like a mixed metaphor, the first two are the result of "professionals" - putting in the support members without paying attention to the vent and running the poer cable over the vent. Well, they may have siad they were professionals ...
The third looks like a creative Homeowner solution to me - keep those mice out of the vent opening at all costs!
Three way tie ...
Hope you did well in the snow -
Lynn
I like your thinking Lynn! And your analysis is probably correct. We got 13" here, but just to the west they got almost 30"!