I am replacing my dryer exhaust vent. Here is a picture of the old one after I removed the cap.
I did my best to clean up the old caulking before adding the new tube and vent, which looks like this:
As you can see, it's not sealed very well against the brick. I'm not really sure how to go about that. I can't really just splork a bunch of caulking in there because the gaps are too big, especially in the grout lines.
The other side of the vent where the dryer hooks up is fairly well sealed, so I'm not too worried about that.
But for the outside, do I even need to worry about the sealing plastic cover against the brick? Or should I focus on sealing the metal tube, maybe with caulk or spray foam? The gaps around the tube are definitely caulkable, assuming I can take the plastic cover off the tube to get access.
Thoughts on approaches here?
FYI, I'm in Austin, TX and the dryer is located in the garage.
Best Answer
In the end I used a sealant putty called Mortite to fill in the space between the tube and the brick. I tried low expansion foam but as it expanded and dried, it squeezed the tube out of shape so that I couldn't fit the cap back on. There was really no way to caulk that area because once the cap is on, you can no longer access it.
So basically, I put the vent into the hole with the cap on, secured it to the wall on the other side to it wouldn't move, and took the cap off. Then I smooshed the putty into the cracks and placed the cap back on. Had to get some help to make it work but it wasn't too bad overall.
I also went ahead and used the putty to seal the metal collar to the wall on the other side where the dryer hose connects.
Also I used Loctite to glue a piece of broken stone back onto the wall on the right of the hole.