How About a Sleeve for Your Duct?

We had a change of plans. R has decided to replace all the flexible ducts under the living room now. The ducts that needed to be replaced were four going to the living room, one by the front door, three upstairs to the master bedroom, and one upstairs to the master bath for a total of nine. All the ducts are replaced but two. The one to the living room and one to the upstairs master bedroom still need replacing. Both are difficult locations and each may take a day to complete.

Replacing some of the flexible ducts on the second floor is difficult because the trunk line for the smaller furnace is towards the front of the house and the ducts need to run up the back of the house. This results in elbows being used, which in turn results in more joints to tape and screws to be installed. I guess I should mention that the flexible ducts only go to the foundation wall, at that point it is attached to traditional sheet metal duct.

This house has two furnaces. The larger furnace handles the lower level and the smaller furnace takes care of the second floor. Both have their own programmable thermostat.

We are also using this time to insulate the ducts with a sleeve of insulation that gives us an R factor of 6. Each piece is 5 feet long and cost about 6 bucks. The insulated sleeve comes with a thin reflective outer sleeve that covers the fiberglass insulation. R secures the sleeve in place with several nylon ties and then uses the aluminum furnace tape (not duct tape) to seal the reflective sleeve to the sheet metal.

We have noticed several things since making these improvements. First, the crawl space is getting cooler because of less heated air leaking from unattached ducts and untaped joints. Second, the furnace is not cycling as frequently as it was before the improvements. Both of these observations are good indicators that we are going in the right direction.

I am required to stay close while R is under the house in case he needs tools or supplies. The few times I have ventured elsewhere, I am summons back with a "where in the %^&* were you? I don't want to be under here all day. Get me @#$% and also bring me a diet Coke." So needless to say, I haven't been accomplishing much while R has been under the house.

I did though manage to installed 2 copper hangers to support the pipe running to the the outside faucet on the front of the house.First make sure you buy the correct size for your copper pipe. Remove one screw and loosen the other screw. Slip the hanger over the pipe.Tighten the screws but leave them a little loose. Rotate the hanger so that you can nail to a floor joist. Tighten screws until snug. NOW, nail to floor joist.

Notice in the photo below one of the old rusty wires that were supporting the pipe. These were removed, as were several cobwebs.
The junk pile continues to grow and we now have three full trash cans of junk. R says there is plenty more where that came from.Well R says it's time to go back under the house.FYI...total number of trips to Home Depot so far.....7.