Thanks a lot for the compliment, Philip! Good to know when I’m still in the land of reasonable practice with builders.

Damn, James, thanks for the praise!

Thanks man

@@HomePerformance no thank you. Awesome videos and great knowledge bombs dropped on every one!

Thanks so much, Jeff! You made my day.

Aw thanks for the high five, Jesse! We’re rooting for your build!

Awesome, Brett, keep pushing it!

Thanks JC!

Like a BOSS, T.

Thanks for following us, Tony! And thanks for the tip- I’ll check it out.

That's why having a calculated duct design is critical.

J B in reality A good builder walks through with mechanical guy and frames walls bigger before the place is built to allow for the correct size of duct. I do that most jobs. It’s very easy for them to make some 2x8 party walls for us.

@@AdayintheLifeofsmith I agree "a good builder" will, the average builder allows the interior designer to make all the calls.

It’s nice to have some murderous insects on your team. You don’t need a redundant security system.

@@HomePerformance lol: RELEASE THE MURDER HORNETS!!!

I found its #6.

Rock on Wayne, good luck

Nice tip, but the mastic instructions specifically call for a 2” wide stripe

Is there a safe alternative to mastic you’d recommend?

@@Weesson No, just that the precautions are important. If they say to wear gloves, they should be chemical resistant gloves. If they say to use in a well ventilated area, it probably means using a respirator unless you are outside. The consumer safety instructions give you a good idea what you need to do, but they never tell you the side effects that can happen if you don't follow the instructions. This leads to complacency when working with chemicals.

MSDS is the same things as SDS. SDS is just the newer acronym.

That’s not an EXTERNAL pressure test. Your number will be higher, making it harder to pass. Good luck if you can make it work.

@@HomePerformance don't understand what you mean. If you take the limit out of the furance and install your pressure tube in that hole you will be in the airstream of the furance between the heat exchanger cells and some people call that tube a peato tube. Or you can drill a hole in the cabinet but need to be very careful this is what I opt to remove limit

@@HomePerformance are we talking about the same thing total static pressure on the system

Because it’s designed and installed correctly. If you hear sounds from your ducts, they’re moving too fast, meaning: 1. The pressure is way too high 2. The system is way too powerful 3. The ducts are way too unprotected

@@HomePerformance Thanks for the reply. In my master bedroom, I have two floor registers. One is completely quiet and the other one has a very annoying tapping sound similar to this kzfaq.info/get/bejne/bcyifL2fspqUloU.html. From what I can tell, the sound is coming from the 90 degree boot below the register, more precisely from the changes in temperature of that metal boot. If I block that duct and there is no hot or cold air heating that boot, then there is no sound. I don't have any insulation on any of my ducts. Any recommendations?

@sucutash bet it’s over a garage, crawlspace, or cantilever. The duct needs to be insulated on the outside- it’s the enclosure’s fault, not the HVAC.

Thanks for watching, Mike- our siding is Thermory. Search our channrl for the word, we have a whole giant vid just about it.

Good to know- tried magnets, but they weren’t as strong as the one in the bit.

As someone who has been doing commercial fabrication and installation of duct system for over 30 years. I have to say your attention to detail and work is impressive to say the least. If you're looking to remove metal from a screw chucks, thumb gum works the best. Also if you run into an issue that requires something to be custom fabricated Ductworkforsale.com would be glad to be of assistance. Simply give us a shout and we will ship it out.

Thumb Gum is great for removing metal bit out of magnetic drive tips.

Thanks Chris! Thumb gum- that’s a new one on me, I’ll look for it. Keep rockin.

@@HomePerformance You forgot my name since you left Illinois, it's Doug suggested Thumb Gum. Lmao!🤣

Yes, they are required for each home in most states (Manual J, D, and S), and your HVAC installers may be able to do it themselves, but it means sitting at a computer for hours and frankly that’s not exciting to a lot of them.

Hi Matthew- stay tuned, I’ll update you in a video very soon.

Tape prevents the seams from cracking over time

Thanks! I don’t- curtains and blinds aren’t smooth enough for max effect

Condensation mitigation. If the return air is 75 deg F and 50% rh (hard to keep this low) the dewpoint will be around 55 deg F. Typical A/C cools the air to around 55 in the ductwork, so there’s the possibility of them getting wet on the outside within the walls.

@@HomePerformance Thank you.

Mastic is more permanent- most tapes degrade over time

fabmastic

Thanks, Stephen! Yes, tape can work for awhile, but it tends to deteriorate faster. Try mastic tape.

Sure, it works fine for that. Fire away.

Haha- I hear you. Believe me. I’m working on bringing Nerd Town to you. Everywhere. Stay tuned.

Fiberglass tape yes. Aluminum tape is unreliable long-term, I’ve seen tons of it peel right off after enough years go by.

This is the last time these ducts will be installed for 100 years in this house. I’m leaving it to my children, and I hope, our grandchildren. Why wouldn’t I do it 100% correctly?

I bet you won’t

Do you mean duct tape? No, the one thing that duct tape should not be used on is air ducts.

When you’re the boss, Jon, you get to decide how ‘old-school’ to be and what corners to cut. Another great way to get fired is thinking there’s one best way to do things in all scenarios. Be adaptable.

How do you seal ductwork?

@Baise Duezcke Exactly.

Yes ma’am

No one has ever mentioned it, but thank you

A central return system only has one return.

thank you

Pen pineapple apple pen

I have developed a healthy fear of water leaks through a lot of experience. Hence, I didn't consider it.

The problem with those is they won't work properly in a high performance home. The heat demands are so small that the floor temperature differential from the heating system would also be small.

Interesting point, Ben

It’s also important to have forced air duct work from a air filtration standpoint. I mean how much filtration can you get from a Hrv/erv.

@@AdayintheLifeofsmith yeah that's why you have the two separate duct systems, with dedicated for erv :)

Ok

@@HomePerformance sir you have vacancy please

Sorry Dinesh, I don’t have any employees. Best of luck.

So you really put mastic on with your hand?

@@HomePerformance Wearing two pairs of good nitrile gloves yes. I duct seal as part of a Duct cleaning business. I see the ducts only a few years old that the coatings have sheared due to the dimensional changes in heated and cooled metal moving. If applied nickel thick, that is the thickness of a nickel, even the cheap stuff won’t shear in the same way. You’re basically just creating a thicker gasket that has more chance of moving any flexing with the ductwork and not shearing at Joints. Even pricy mastic is fairly cheap and it goes a long ways towards longevity apply enough of it to make it worth the effort of applying. Contacting us all tested blower door test one still brand new not often 10 20 30 years down the line which they almost never pass even if they were sealed up the spec in the first place. Personally I’m a one and done kind of person,I don’t like coming back to do the same thing ever if avoidable.

I get it. My point is you can paint nickel thickness with a brush, no need to smoosh it between your fingers, that’s all.

No idea what you were looking for, but I’ve issued a full refund for your payment. Thanks so much for your business.

I think I’d just consult with a physicist if I needed more fluid dynamics info.

@@HomePerformance Aerospace engineer.

Have you ever been tested on your duct tightness, Mike? It’s state code in most places across the country by now.

@@HomePerformance yeah that's how I came to the idea of designing the system at a lower static to create less areas for potential leaks, the guys in the field aren't always gonna get the pookie on the best so I decided to try to find a way to design with that in mind.... I'm not saying that you won't get a mech inspector that has a thing about pookied pipe seams, because I've had one of those too , and I'm sure not saying that it is always possible to run larger duct especially when you get into your 4 and 5 ton systems to keep keep your static extremely low due to architectural constraints... I was just giving you another piece of information that you might find interesting.... A nice unintended consequence of this has been you never get any complaints about the air noise out of large central returns.

Thanks for clarifying, Mike- I get where you’re going, and in a perfect world duct testing target pressures would adapt to your install design. But the system will still have to seal against 0.1” wc in every part of the system as it stands now.

what the hell

Hahaha

@@HomePerformance Why are you laughing? He is right. As an HVAC contractor,i would have a stern talk with my guy,s doing that kind of work regardless if it is to be concealed. Thx.

You guys, its job is to seal. It DOES NOT MATTER what it looks like in the crawlspace. We need people focused on the real goals, not on a beauty pageant.

@@HomePerformance I specialize in residential duct design and installation for high-end homes. I appreciate what you are saying but when i work for the builder/customer,i find that total perfection is the best practice so my price is justified. This holds true during the inspection process as well. This tells the inspector that he is dealing with a qualified contractor. Thx. and good luck with your home.

That’s great, William, as long as you understand I specialize in testing high end homes, and the amount of them that look great but are actually mediocre is astounding.

What is the better modern alternative?