Attic Heating Ducts

An unusual or musty odor is often the first sign of mold in air ducts or in air vents.

Attic heating ducts. Sometimes air conditioned air will seep right through your ducts and become useless instead of heating and cooling your home. In the 70 s and 80 s in slab hvac ductwork was commonplace and took advantage of the relatively stable temperature of the slab at or near the ground. There will be less duct leakage. The 1 800 square foot brick ranch in climate zone 4 dates from the 1960s but the previous owner installed both a furnace and ductwork in the attic just four years ago.

Don t use standard cloth duct tape on hvac ductwork since the adhesive won t hold up to extreme temperatures. When insulating hvac ductwork use a foil faced fiberglass insulation with an r 6 or higher r value. The unconditioned space also houses his hvac system. All ducts are at risk for this type of leakage.

Ted has more than a few cobwebs in his attic. The air ducts for a central hvac systems are typically located above a home in the attic or upper crawl space or underneath a home in the space between the foundation and the floor so you don t see them unless you have cause to replace them. Use metal flex or fiber board ducts that are insulated to. When hvac ducts are installed in a vented attic in a dry climate bury the ducts in attic insulation to protect them from temperature extremes in the unconditioned attic space.

If you notice a musty or moldy smell that goes away when you are not using your air conditioning or heating if they share ducts that can narrow the cause down to mold in your hvac system. Cost of installation supplies. Install ductwork so that it is in direct contact with i e laying on the ceiling and or truss lower cords. Flex ducts themselves do not sweat however if the.

Duct leakage causes a lot of problems including less. 1 10 5 25 per foot insulated flexible duct 4 to 16 diameters used as branches or in radial duct attic systems 2 30 13 00 per foot round and oval sheet metal duct 3 to 8 diameters typically used for trunks in small homes and. Here are the itemized costs for the most common types of ductwork and supplies needed to complete installation. With newer foundation systems involving embedded rebar or tension cables making in slab hvac ductwork nearly impossible there s little other option but to move it to the attic.

The really bad news is that with old metal duct systems the only option is replacement of the ducts to stop the rain in the attic. The next most typical type of duct systems is made of flexible duct. In many cases you ll smell it before you can see it. For an added layer of protection you can apply duct mastic to the tape and duct.

However an attic in pensacola florida is likely to have a humidity level closer to 100 and the risk of condensation on ductwork would then go up quite a bit. Attic hvac systems also require shorter ducts. Here s why that is a good thing. Think about it condensation on ductwork probably isn t a big problem in phoenix arizona but why.