Video: DIY Ductwork Inspection

SAN MATEO — Host, Sarah Rutan: If you’re experiencing airflow issues in your home, take a few minutes to inspect your ductwork before calling a professional. Today we’re in San Mateo with Diamond Certified Expert Contributor Vincent Casale of Bayside Mechanical to learn more.

Diamond Certified Expert Contributor, Vincent Casale: So, we get a lot of questions at Bayside Mechanical here about airflow issues and problems within the house in some rooms. If you feel that you have inadequate airflow into certain rooms of the house, you can do a quick visual inspection on your own before you call out the professionals. So, one of the first things you can check for in the ductwork is, if it’s in your crawlspace or in the attic, you can go right to where there’s some 90-degree turns. If you’re running flex duct, and you’re running the 90-degree turn, if you don’t run it properly, and you run it too tight, you can constrict the airflow. To avoid that, a good mechanical contractor’s going to use a hard 90. They’ll run the flex duct to one end, and then they’ll continue on here. That’s going eliminate any kinking and give you 100% airflow through your 90 degree. Those calculations you did prior are still going to hold up if you use your hard 90s.

Another thing you can check for are bellies in the duct work. Again, if it’s under the house or in the attic – most times, it’s under the house – you’ll see the bellies, where there’s actually some dips in there. Ductwork should be pulled tight, should be all in a straight line, and there should be straps every five feet. So you can check that, and that’s a pretty easy one to spot on your own. Another issue that sometimes pops up are leaks in the ductwork. You can have leaks where we’re branching off into other ducts. So check those connection points. Make sure you don’t see any visual gaps. And you can feel for any air flowing through there. If you feel any air coming out, you definitely have an issue there, and you need to get it resealed. This is one point you can check.

Another point you can check would be at the register with the boot. So this is a floor register, this boot is basically under the floor, and your register’s sitting here. Check your connection point at the bottom; same ideas in the Y. One last thing you can check for is crushed ductwork. A lot of times, if people have other trades in the house, somebody can accidentally step on a piece of ductwork. And if it’s hard duct, it doesn’t pop back to form. So, if it’s hard duct and it’s stepped on, you see a footprint on it, somebody banged into it; there’s a good chance that that then needs to be replaced, as well.

So, if you come across any of these issues, you can give a professional a call. and they’ll come out and take care of it for you.

Host, Sarah Rutan: To learn more from local top rated companies, visit our Diamond Certified Expert Reports at experts.diamondcertified.org.