Replacing duct work in 1935 home

[azcanc]

Wow what an ordeal and so much has changed in products and install practices. They are earning every penny - and then some. Seems like our contract number was low for amount of crew and time.....team is doing excellent job and very happy....

 

[6768rogues]

I have an old farmhouse and had ducts installed about 25 years ago. It has worked well. The things I objected to were:
They fabricated metal boxes to go below original ornate cast iron floor registers for return air, and they were sloppy. I told them I have a break and I can make them and deduct it from the contract sum if they could not do better. They made new ones and even painted them black so they did not show.
A couple of the holes in our 100 year old hardwood floors looked like they chopped them in with a Boy Scout axe. The registers cover them, but it was sloppy.
I cleaned the cellar completely before they started. They left small self tapping screws everywhere.
They used wire to hang pipes in the cellar. I had them change it to strapping. I paid to have a professionally installed system, and holding it together with baling wire was unacceptable.
Last year I replaced the furnace and AC unit installed with the duct work 25 years ago, and hooked it up to the existing ducts from the first job.

 

[Stuart in MN]

I had mine replaced a few years back, along with the original furnace from 1913. Everything was wrapped in asbestos, so it wasn't a simple or cheap job. It's amazing how much headroom I gained in the basement, the old ducts were big round things that hung down in the way, the new ones are much smaller and tucked up in between the first floor joists. The furnace is a fraction of the size of the old one as well.

 

[Jackfre]

When I moved west the ducting was so poor I pulled it all and made a dump run with it. Installed mini-splits and a Rinnai Energysaver DV. Net to the space, zoned, and economical comfort. I would suggest that before the pay-off that you have a duct pressure test done. It is exceedingly difficult, as you have noticed, to do a really good job in those tight spaces. Current code is 6% max leakage

 

[mdr]

Last fall, I redid the duct system in our 1938 house. What a bi***.

Original house had a floor/wall heater which heated the living area of the small 1200ft^2 house. PO added on and replaced with a crawl space forced air furnace pushing air through flex duct. Last summer, while down pulling cat6 cable, found a number of the flex ducts collapsed and disconnected.

Foolishly decided to hard duct it all. It's nice and tight, but I'll never do that again. Looking back, I should have just done the main trunk in hard pipe and pulled flex to the distribution points. Live and learn.

 

[The Cobbler]

about 7 or 8 yrs ago we replaced 90% of the ductwork in my 1950 home
went from returns on the outer walls with heat in the center of the house to heat on outer walls and returns in the center of the house .
moved the location of the replacement furnace and re located a new water heater all at the same time.
house has much more even heat /cool now
guys did a great job, but the same, they left at least 100 screws on the floor