By Gene and Katie Hamilton

We all know it's important to clean the lint trap on the clothes dryer so that it will operate at peak efficiency, but when was the last time you pulled the dryer away from the wall, got down on our hands and knees and poked a long brush into the vent ducting to clean it? Not lately, right? The Consumer Product Safety Commission says the build-up of lint in a dryer's vent ducting is a fire waiting to happen so removing the lint is a safety measure we should all follow.

You can keep vent ducting clean with the simple installation of a wall-mounted dryer venting system that makes it easy to disconnect and clean a dryer vent. The system includes a short straight duct that slips into an in-wall or surface-mounted receiver unit and is sealed with a foam gasket. To clean, pull the dryer forward so that it separates from the wall and you have easy access to the ducting. You can hire a handyman to install the dryer vent system for $127 or buy the system for $25 and install it, saving 80 percent. You'll find vent systems, which work on gas and electric dryers, sold at hardware stores and home centers.

Don't want to get involved doing this job yourself? Click Home Advisor, a free referral service that connects homeowners with prescreened local contractors.

Tip: Vents using flexible aluminum ducting are more efficient than flexible plastic ducting, which tends to sag with age and fill with lint.

Wrapping up, given the average cost to install a dryer vent you can compare the price of a contractor’s bid with doing it yourself. For a local cost input your ZIP Code.

Improvement and Repair Cost Updated 2019

The cost and time data is generated by averaging labor and material data from annually updated cost books used by contractors and refined by the authors' experience remodeling 13 houses. They are authors of 20 home improvement books and Do It Yourself or Not, a weekly column syndicated by Tribune Content Agency. The national cost can be adjusted by ZIP Code.