Advice for beginners: I've been installing heating systems in new homes for over 25 years and I just recently bought a pair of attachable uni-shears for my drill because of all my arthritis, carpel-tunnel, tennis elbow, golfer's elbow and bursitis. I'm pushing 50yrs old and I'm practically crippled by cutting thousands of miles of sheet metal by hand. I also bought that circular cutting tool but can't get the hang of it and getting burrs. I've mastered cutting metal without burrs but the pain in my wrist these days is killing me. I always worked piece pay and the older you get the less money you make. Pick the right employer that allows progression and seniority without bias or you will end up like me. I make less money today as an experienced journeyman than I did in my 20's as an apprentice. The piece pay hardly went up over the years and definitely not in par with inflation. Try to work for an hourly rate where you can.

I don't think I have ever seen such a detailed duct and HVAC video on KZfaq before. Great details, great video. 👍🏾

I am an everyday person without any experience with hvac. I love watching your videos for fun. They are so informative. I now feel motivated to invest a lot of effort into making sure we have a good hvac system whenever we decide to build our own house.

I've been preparing to install new ductwork in my house. Your in-depth explanation will save me so many pitfalls along the way! Thank you so much for taking the time to make this video.

Very well done. Your presentation technique, personality and subject matter knowledge is unmatched on KZfaq.

I came across your video Colbert and I want to appreciate your talent. You and Grace are truly a blessing to our generation. Thanks for choosing this part to help make our world a better place! Congratulations and God's blessings in all your endeavors!

I’ve been an Sheetmetal worker for over 20yrs.. and I love your explanations, and your sincerity about your discovery process. You’re not pretending to be a professional installer. Very cool brother, very cool.

Listen I am new to learning house renovations and wanted to learn the process of hvac ducting and from watching your videos I must say this is the most well explained video I have ever seen excellent work and allowing people to follow your progress

Thank you. Just a home owner researching some HVAC information and I'm so glad to have watched the entire video. So much great information. Again, thank for sharing your knowledge. Subscribed and will watch more vids .

Mate, never were truer words spoken than 'everything that's worth having is difficult to do.' I just stumbled across your videos, but I appreciate your dedication to learning how to do something, and then doing that job properly and testing and quantifying. Cheap, quick and nasty short term stuff (whether it be a product or an installation job) needs to become a thing of the past, for the sake of the planet basically.

Wow. I'm installing a hvac system in my rental and this has been by far the most detailed and enjoyable video. I feel like so many questions I had have now been answered and on top of that i just learned so much extra stuff. Great video and thank you so much for your time and effort to make this informational video.

You are a great teacher who knows the points and explained them well. Thank you for your time and efforts

I am DIYing some ductwork and this is very thorough and helpful. I have watched several videos of him and I think this guy’s great. Thanks for the upload

Thank you for your views on flex duct. As an hvac contractor,i use flex-duct very sparingly only for the final few feet of runs for sound purposes. Yes,flex duct will breakdown. I,ve torn out many duct systems where the old flex would simply crumble. Hard duct is expensive and time consuming and your customer needs to know this. A well educated customer is your best customer.

I really love the Malco tools that I have used. Thanks for showing the drill powered hole cutter. I hadn't seen that tool before and it looks like it works better than a hole saw.

@HomePerformance: I'm so sorry that you got injured. I've found that Physical Therapy (PT) has been super helpful for, in my case, eliminating back pain because I strengthened my muscles before it got bad. I also learned to lift with my knees rather than my back.

Awesome doing the work yourself and using quality tools for the job!!

Used a lot of duct sealant on that connection. Flex is good in certain situations and it holds up pretty well. The snips they have other red ones that’s righty snips. Crimp tool is mandatory. System looks good. Doing duct work without the right tools is a nightmare.

I really like the video and what you are doing and showing "working really hard to get the good things!!!". You have the knowledge and the experience to speak and doing what you are doing. It is, however, a bit harder to retrofit an old house with very little wiggle room. I hope you'll have a video on improve an existing old house ductwork. I love the idea of saying goodbye to flex duct. After seeing mice biting and making home inside a leftover flex in the garage, I decided to replace all newer flex return ducts in the attic with metal ones. It's a dauting task but like you said "good things" doesn't come easy. I would recommend you get a better drill. M12 is a more compact and light weight to lug around in tight spaces than this bulky cheapo one :).

Hi Corbett, great timing I am just reviewing my strategy for HVAC for my self build. Thanks for the great info. The question I have is if the HVAC is planned around a variable compressor ( not 2 stage) you could get away with a smaller dehumidifier and only use it on the fresh air?

I respect that 100 year house mindset. I'm working on a 500 year house design and wow, it's not easy to find the right materials and systems!

Thanks for being well-spoken and comprehensive! Much more useful than the more ubiquitous "quick and cute" youtube strategy. Keep it up.

I had a lot of fun watching your luxury system. Thanks for sharing

If you where to look down the flex duct you would see that where each of those straps are it creates a bump inside the duct. SO even taunt it has bumps internally. Its actually just the weight of the ductwork and the fact that the strap is only 1" to 2"s wide. But you can take a piece of card board from a box or whatever and cut it 12"ish wide, slide it between the duct and the strap. The cardboard then gives the strap a much wider "belly" for the ductwork and the "bump" is removed.....Not that you need it in your situation. Just a little trick that can be used sometimes when I see ducts that have bad "bumps" from strapping....Awesome video man.

What an excellent video. Very detailed, informative, and enjoyable.

Thank you for the video as I learned a lot. I am placing parts of my HVAC system, with this video providing a great overview and specifics for what I am up against.

I love that you patiently explain the process of the tools I’d like to find a this is how you do it video 😆 lol love the mastic it’s so good and it lasts for ever stays flexible and it easy to see if you need to add more to seal from cracking etc

Three things you need to live: 1. food 2. Water 3. Air. When we get healthy we change our eating habits and start eating healthy and drink filtered water. We add water filters like R.O. systems. We never really think about the air, even though we need air to breath but also it surrounds us so that we are comfortable. This makes so much sense to work hard on bringing the home full of clean fresh air. So we can breath better and be healthy, so we can feel comfortable and after it's all said and done, we actually save money by being efficient. Thanks for the video

top notch video mate, amazing info, feeling better prepared to take on my own hvac

Wow! This is a fantastic video. As a homeowner/builder, I appreciate it!

I enjoyed the video. I’m a hvac tech with my local school system for the past two years. I just graduated votech school and want to potentially be licensed at some point. The draw back is that there are just something’s we just don’t do and contract out. So my only exposure is KZfaq. Other options are to leave and work somewhere that I can expand my knowledge which I do consider.

Enjoyed that video. You provuded So much detail and rationale that a diyer or typical homeowner can undersrsnd and makes a lot of sense.

Damn. I am in the process of planning a new construction. I hope I can find a an HVAC designer locally that seems as knowledgeable as you. I plan on doing the installation myself but I’m out of my depth on design stuff. Thanks for the knowledge, dude. Awesome.

Great information! i am installing a new downdraft range and need to extend the current in-wall duct (3.25" x 10") about 10 inches to install a 5" start collar so i can connect it the downdraft range. Is it possible to do this without tearing out the entire system? it seems like it would be difficult to do leaving current duct in place. Thanks for any advice!

I admire your care and attention to detail to make sure everything is done as it should. HVAC installer here everyone just seems to be lazy and use rules of thumbs for everything. Nowadays everything is rushed instead of focusing on doing it right.

Thank you, you are very proper! I love proper work. Do it right even if difficult

Excellent video. Watched start to finish. Our duct work is original to the house, is all flex, has sider boxes, and dusts the house a lot. Unfortunately, most of the build shown is undoable (reasonably) in our case as we have a short attic space to work with (crests are 5 ft down spine of 2400sq/ft ranch style home) and I'd imagine to pull this off, the roof would have to come off. I've crawled around up there and everything is difficult, running CAT6, electrical, added insulation etc. Costs for a contractor to do this I'd imagine would approach what we payed for the house back in 2005. Still, I learned a lot and appreciate all the info. On new builds this is a great step-by-step almost tutorial. I wish there was a way to incorporate it into our 1967 built south Texas ranch. Our electric bills touch $500 this summer with the thermostat @ 78F. Brutal. Good luck with your business and channel.

Fantastic video - you have a great way of explaining things

Thanks for the great explanation in here. A quick question for @Home Performance though. Around 35:20 when you're discussing the dampers in the ducting, I see that you have a hole in the ducting where the "arm" of the damper sticks through and is stabilized on the side that doesn't have the handle. That seems like a decently large hole that isn't sealed. IS there a later step (not shown) where you cover that or seal it in some way?

I am so thankful for you doing this breakdown!

What company or program did you use to determine the duct size and lengths?

Fantastic work and great explanation.

Great video, and involving Bryan Orr is a no Brainer!

This was very enjoyable and knowledgeable video. Well done!

I’m learning so much. Thanks for your knowledge. 😍

Great video. Not sure exactly how I stumbled on you (probably your eighth video of yours I've binged watched). I think from one of Matt Risinger's video as a you tube suggestion. I'm a full time building consultant that does rental rehabs and new construction. Only general suggestion I would add that applies to new construction or substantial rehab (gut jobs) is to start with big to small on ducting, piping, hoses or electrical. Ifthe duct work started first, some of the head aches would have not been there and would have been completed a little quicker with a few less connections. But again, sometimes timing other contractors gets in the way of scheduling my own stuff, which is probably the case here. Great work!!!Great explanation!!!! Gonna to check out your other videos. Always keep learning.

Have you experienced any issues with putting mastic on the inside of the duct? I'm planning to do the same on my redo, but am interested in any lessons learned. The only downside I can see thus far is too much mastic just makes you spend more money on mastic and I'm ok with that.

Thank you for the statement about dust! Our house is like living in the dust bowl. I happened to push too hard on a return and the grill fell off. It was completely open to joist and wall studs. What a mess.

Oh god! I've had my air return grills ALL covered. 4 level split home, and every single one has had a piece of furniture in front of it Damn, I learned something important Thank you!

Such a great informative video. Thanks for sharing!

Awesome video! You are very good at explaining things. And it's nothing like hearing from someone who is doing the actual work on their own home. You didn't mention the worst part of flex duct. It can't be cleaned! Dust will get in, then any moisture gets in and mold will grow. Any holes in that wimpy plastic, and the fiberglass fills with mold. There are so many moldy HVAC ducts around. (Not in your house of course because you've designed and built it to prevent that!) But what is that black "heavier duty flex" you showed? I've never seen that.

Great job Corbett! It takes a fair amount of skill to install a duct system well. Respect.

Absolutely fantastic video, thank you

Thank you so much for all of this! Trying to learn how to do my own!

I am building a audio and video studio. With a saloon. This was very helpful. Thank you.

Nicely done, sir.

Learned a lot and enjoyed this video thanks

How did you go about finding. And choosing your system designer?

What is the spring clamps called at 16:24 and where do I get them?

I was debating what I should do vs have done by a pro. This is super helpful. Sounds like you are working with a pro who is willing to help you were you need help. That's super lucky, I hope I find someone like that. At the moment, I'm contemplating buying the $300 install tool for Fantech HRVs instead of spending more on a pro to do it. That being said, I want a prop to install the coolant lines for my Heat pump it's a hard balance to strike and pros don't like when you take the easy work away from them.

Holy moly....miraculously well done. Thank you!

Wow. I live in a 111 yr old house and these modern houses and systems seem so complicated. Part of me wonders if we've overengineered and complicated things to the point where house designs are now like Mercedes engines where they are over tweaked for minor efficiency gains but at the cost of things like simplicity, cost efficiency, and serviceability. Older homes had many ways to increase comfort like very high ceilings to manage rising heat, simple ceiling fans, etc. Desire for pretty open design and a focus on central heating and air has made us build our homes into a pretty singular niche. Old russian houses were build around maintaining heat through a huge thermal mass, a giant stone fireplace with all rooms built around it. I'm not saying this "passive house" super efficient design is bad necessarily, but it does seem ultra complicated and tailored to mostly upper income level populations. Not everyone is an information sponge like us folks that suck youtube up for knowledge every day. I can't imagine the average person being able to service or maintain systems like these and even maybe half of HVAC service contractors. There's just a lot of considerations and extreme skill level involved that I dunno, I do feel like the simplicity and cost efficiency of a system and solution is just as important as the specs and ratings. Sorry long rambling thought train needed to dump a load. Not criticizing on the actual video or content.

That flex will last for 20 +years if properly installed and in a conditioned space also just a tip, use wider support straps to hold up that flex, not plumbing strap. There is nylon strap to support flex and if my memory serves 2 to 3 inches wide. But, very good job with a challenging install.👍

Great video. I respect your attention to the details. Curious to one central return, can you explain?

Great video..... truly shows me all I don't know and how doing something right the first time is key.... know anyone in Bend OR that you would suggest? Thanks

Excellent video. Did you do one for wrapping the duct? I can’t find it. Did you use insulation or reflective bubble wrap?

So this is phenomenal - thank you! I am building an ICF house with ICF flat roof in South Florida. Walls are 12 feet tall on the inside and no attic. I am planning to install sheet metal duct that is right below the ceiling, inside the house. My understanding is that I don't need to seal all the duct joints because the duct is inside the cooled area. If some cold air escapes before it hits the register it is not a big deal. Is my reasoning proper?

My dad had the first geothermal house in his rural part of the pacific northwest. It has been fairly flawless except that several automated dampers have failed and gotten stuck over the years. Annoying but not terrible to fix as long as they are accessible.

What do you think about UV lights that go in the duct work or by the air handler?

I love the way you describe and approached the 100 year life span of items

I have installed ducted heat pump for ground level open lounge/ family room 80 square meters 10 kv daikin system with 3 x 200 diffuser and have return on upper level ceiling is this right or I need return from ground level too . In morning when out side 5 degrees c inside 14 I set 23 and it takes 3 hours to reach 23 and expect to heat in 1 hour am I right

Personally I prefer to put return ducts in the bedrooms so the doors can be shut for fire safety while sleeping and the rooms can be conditioned while the doors are shut. I suppose you could use jump ducts to accomplish that but it's not what I would do. I'd also make the filter grill 4 inches deep from the start. You could always add spacers for thinner filters.

When in stalling vents around a home is it best to install it above a window or across?

Pretty sad that a good job is considered nonstandard, but I suppose that’s what an inflationary fiat monetary system incentivizes. Keep up the good work Corbett, love the wealth of knowledge you share.

Great video man I loved it. I hate to see when people use 10ft flex and tape instead of duct sealer, also I would love to know where are you located and if you do jobs?

Thanks, great video! Any specific reasons why you decided to use the ERV instead of the ultraaire central dehumidifier for fresh air? I am in florida and considering this setup for my new house, do i really need an ERV as well or just the dehumidifier will do?

What brand 6” starter collar with damper and scoop do you use?

I noticed the return grille is basically on the floor. How’s your baseboard molding going to work?

This is an incredibly helpful video. Thank you! Quick question: What kind of flex duct would you recommend for the difficult fitting situations and where would you recommend getting it?

I hear air whistling on the return register when starting the system, can you please let me know what could cause this? Thanks in advance

What is that black flex duct called? I can't get anything to come up with a Google search

Curious about your opinion on aeroseal vs conventional seam mastic?

Thank you for all the work you put into this channel. Nice to see the numbers that fix the problems. Have a question about just the one return. What about when the system is running and a couple or all the bedroom doors are closed. Doesn’t this cause problems? Grace and peace Slick

Fantastic video. Will share with a friend who's planning a self-build. Curious, why is the video unlisted? Seemingly I was only able to find it through the playlist. (BTW, your ducting is beautifully installed, joyous crawl space to work in).

Have you tried the newer type of flex that is made from like a nylon & adds more insulation they are a bit more rigid & exspensive but im curious how they work??

Where do I purchase the drill mounted adjustable hole cutter?

Did you do Central Vac? (looked like an inlet beside your return air) How do you deal with the pressure change when in use? (assuming your canister is outside the conditioned envelope)

Very interesting. Good stuff.

i got a 4ton for 1300sqft thats 350ft per ton in southern Nevada easy 115 degree days, i aim to get 1600cfm and my filter is 20x20x1 side by side for a total of 20x40 filter return. i currently use the honeywell HD merv 11 filters but i think ill start using the 3m 1200 merv 11 because of the more surface area on the filter to help decrease static pressure if that doesnt help ill try to use 4in filter

Hi , do you have to cover the ducts with insulation?

What was the determined friction rate based on TEL?

Thank you very much for this video!

You are a very good instructor. My background/education is in Mechanical Engineering Thermo and fluid mechanics. I used to be able to design a system but I don't have my ASRAE handbook anymore so I if you have some sources for instruction, etc. I would like to know. I bought a house with a f**ked up system that uses all flex duct. I am going to replace it with galvanized steel but I suspect that the 10 inch supply lines (corrugated flex crap) are 10 inch because of the poor flow characteristics. I really like your instruction style. What is the black flex duct you used to isolate the machinery sounds? It look like industrial flex duct made from impregnated cloth with wire sandwiched between the layers. If that is what you are using it will probably last more than 20 years. That is some very tough stuff. I am in Houston, TX.

Did I read somewhere else you used chemlink m1 as the duct airtightness mastic?

I apologize if this question is listed elsewhere but at 350 comments.. anyways, have you run into noise issues with the rigid duct? I know guys like Matt Risinger use flex the last 15 feet but I agree with your efforts for the '100 year home'. I've considered lining the rigid duct with acoustic foam or other medium density foam. The question I have for you is, would using this foam introduce 'bad stuff' into the home whether by off gassing with hot air exposure (my review of literature days stable at 400F) or creating a surface for mold to accumulate (behind any condensation). I can't find data on this. Thoughts? Thank you kindly

Great video. I wish you had added a simple drawing (like you did with your plumbing) and walked through it with the inputs and outputs of each piece of equipment. I thinking I get most of it but where did you place the Hepa filter in the system?

The only video out of many that you’ve done that shows soooome how to (not enough). Most of the content on this channel is waxing lyrical. I need to know how to install the stuff.

My understanding was that the supply side ran on static pressure. What is the mechanics involved in using a scoop if the system is pressurized properly?

Nice duct work!!

question, do I need to insulate the metal ducts?