For nearly twenty years, I completely ignored the ductwork installed in our house.
It wasn’t a deliberate neglect.
I wasn’t simply being cheap or lazy. I simply didn’t supply the duct idea any thought. The network of pipes is almost particularly concealed inside the walls, ceilings plus crawl space. I was absolutely conscientious about having the A/C plus gas furnace professionally tested every year. I made sure to update air filters every week plus disinfect the supply plus return registers. It should have occurred to me that those registers are connected to the ventilation system. That idea is responsible for transporting the heated plus cooled air that provides comfort. It handles the air our family breathes every single afternoon. Whether we’re operating the A/C or the gas furnace, the ducts are impacting the level of performance. I didn’t start noticing the ductwork until our yearly utility bills more than doubled. At first, I accused every member of our family of messing with the thermostat. I was sure someone was cranking up the heat while I was out of the beach house or asleep. Then I realized that particular rooms of the beach house felt cold, no matter how high I adjusted the thermostat setting. I eventually contacted a licensed Heating & A/C specialist to inspect the gas furnace. He discovered that the ductwork was to blame. He inspected the duct idea plus found that nearly 30% of the heated air was leaking out through small holes plus cracks at the seams. I assumed that I’d be faced with a immense service project. I figured the contractor would need to tear down walls to access the ductwork. Instead, he tackled the problem from the inside. He sealed off the registers plus used a device to blow pressurized air into the ducts. The air contained adhesive particles that collected along all of the imperfections plus gradually sealed them.