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Tumble dryers cause more avoidable damp damage than almost any other appliance, and the reason is usually that the machine was put where there was space rather than where it could be vented. In the interwar terraces around TW9 that normally means a small rear kitchen, a lean-to extension or an understairs cupboard, none of which were built with a dryer in mind.

Three machines, three different requirements

A vented dryer pushes hot, saturated air out through a hose and must discharge outside. A condenser collects the water in a reservoir or pumps it to a waste, and dumps its heat into the room. A heat pump machine does the same but runs far cooler and uses considerably less energy. The installation question is completely different in each case, and households often buy the machine first and discover the constraint afterwards. Knowing which type is going in changes where it can go.

What a vented machine needs through the wall

The duct wants to be short and as straight as possible. Every bend adds resistance, and a long flexible hose coiled behind the machine will cut drying performance and leave moisture in the run. Through a solid nine-inch wall the core is drilled with a slight fall to the outside so condensate cannot run back, sleeved, and finished with a hooded terminal that has a flap. The internal face is made good and sealed around the sleeve. On the rear elevation of these houses the duct usually has to miss a soil stack, a gas meter box or a rainwater downpipe, so the position is decided from outside as well as inside.

The condensate side of a condenser or heat pump machine

Emptying a reservoir by hand twice a load is the reason most people stop using a condenser properly. Plumbing the condensate to a waste removes that, and it is a small job if there is a trap within reach. The hose needs a continuous fall, an air break at the connection, and no low point where water can sit and smell. Where no waste is within reach, or where the connection means cutting into an existing waste run, that part of the work is a plumber's rather than a fitter's.

Why an enclosed cupboard is usually the wrong answer

A dryer in a sealed cupboard recirculates its own hot air, drying performance collapses and the machine works harder for longer. A heat pump machine in particular needs a supply of room air at its intake. If a cupboard is the only option, it needs a ventilated door or grilles at high and low level, and the machine needs clearance behind it.

Levelling, vibration and the floors in these houses

Suspended timber ground floors in interwar terraces flex, and a machine that is not level will resonate through the joists into the room above. Winding the feet down until the machine cannot be rocked by hand at any corner takes two minutes and prevents a great deal of noise. Where a floor is genuinely uneven, a load-spreading board under the machine is better than extending the feet to their limit. Anti-vibration pads help a spin cycle but they do not fix a machine standing on three feet.

What happens when it is done badly

A vent discharging into a roof void, a loft or a closed porch puts several litres of water a week into a space with no ventilation, and the result is growth on the timbers and eventually on the ceiling below. That is one of the more common causes of an unexplained damp patch, and it needs both the duct correcting and the affected area treated by a local professional once the source is removed. Lint accumulating in a poorly designed duct run is also a fire risk and an attractive nesting material, and terminals that have been blocked by a nest are a matter for trusted flea treatment in North Sheen.

Cleaning down afterwards and booking the work

Core drilling a masonry wall produces a quantity of wet slurry that will mark a kitchen floor if it is not managed, so the internal face is sheeted and the core taken with extraction and a collection tray. Where the kitchen is being finished at the same time, the final clean is handled by domestic cleaning services in North Sheen. Installation is priced on the wall construction and the duct length rather than on the appliance, and a photograph of the intended position with the rear elevation outside it answers most of the questions in advance. Comparable appliance work in the neighbouring district is covered by our Richmond team, and the fuller list of household tasks is on experienced TV wall mounting.