BS ductwork

[klhitman]

i have been in my house for a few years and never paid attention to the supply duct work as it looks like insulated trunk line.

well today i was putting stuff in the attic and felt cold air blowing around. upon further investigation i found some silver tape that came loose. well i went to tape it back and noticed that the duct from the air handler to the trunk-line was made out of foil faced rigid insulation. WTF who does this? anyone else have something like this? or is it just a half-*** way of making duct?

 

[rickairmedic]

That used to be ( may still be the way most duct is done in Fla. where I grew up ) . I had never eeven seen metal duct till I moved up here . There really isnt anything wrong with the glass duct other than " you cant clean it " .

Rick

 

[rgeudy]

I used to be a HVAC helper back in college, we used ductboard quite frequently. Its not bad stuff, light easy to install, just get ya some foil tape or mastic tape. Just dont get the fiberglass on ya, youll itch for 3 weeks....

 

[kartracer23]

My plenum is built out of it. I'm going to replace the humidifier and the HVAC guy told me 'you won't want to see the inside of the plenum-it will be full of mold.' I guess it will mold like crazy if you have a humidifier hooked to it.

 

[klhitman]

I used to be a HVAC helper back in college, we used ductboard quite frequently. Its not bad stuff, light easy to install, just get ya some foil tape or mastic tape. Just dont get the fiberglass on ya, youll itch for 3 weeks....

i don't have a problem with the fiberglass as i work for a hvac modifier and we deal with the insulation all the time. but i hate duct work and would rather pay some one to do it as long as it is a fair price

 

[mrobins297aaa]

In the Detroit area we used it off and on in commerical work because its cheaper than insulating the metal on the outside or lining it on the inside. I've never seen it used in houses around here probably because most residental duct around here is in the basement and is never insulated which is the big advantage of using it.

 

[Falcon67]

Most plenum's around here are build from that. The AC unit in our server room has a plenum 3' x 3' x 6' build out of that and silver tape. Works, light weight, etc. A billion time cheaper than having a tin box cut and bent up then trying to insulate that.