Need advice on venting a dryer
 

Need some advice on venting my electric dryer to the outside of the house.

Currently it vents into the crawl space through a hole in the floor. The hole is right over the sill plate. That area is blocked from access to the crawlspace proper by a floor joist. I don't want to cut a hole in the floor joist, and weaken the floor support, as that part of the laundry room floor takes quite a beating from the washer.

It seems like the choices are to:

1. Go out the wall behind the dryer (onto the front porch).This would be the easiest and is my preference. It will be a little unsightly, but we can live with that. If I can place the hole directly behind the dryer's vent, this could be a 'straight' shot. The dryer might have to be placed on a short stand to line things up.

2. Go up into the attic and down through a new soffit vent. This looks iffy because of a tight space where the wall meets the roof rafters. Plus, I don't like the idea of going upwards a 'long' distance with the dryer exhaust.

3. Go through the roof. I don't like putting an extra hole in the roof, so this option is not desirable either. Plus, it involves going upwards a 'long' distance with the dryer exhaust.

We live in northern Alabama, so we get heat, humidity, bugs and cold.

Please take a look at the pictures and tell me what you think I should do - including any details on routing the vent, locating the hole(s), how to cut and seal the holes, whether I need to use a double walled vent pipe (where it goes through the hole(s)), etc.

Thanks for your help.

Need dryer vent advice - more pictures
 

Here are the other pictures.

Anything will be better than what you have. Mine is close to the door and lint on the sidewalk is a pain. The soffit vent won't be any better than straight out except you could add a secondary lint collecter to the soffit vent. That is what I will be doing when I get to it.

Mine is vented into the attic and there it stays. It's been like that for 32 years. I don't notice lot's of lint but I guess it's there. It's a well ventilated area so no moisture problem is apparent.