Poorly installed ducting is the single biggest energy waster in buildings. You can lose 50% or more of your energy through heat that is wasted into your crawl space. We have found that it is senseless to install flexible ducting in crawl spaces because of the high failure rate. Failure is commonly due to rodents or poor installation practices. Also as flex duct gets older it gets brittle and breaks.

For the last several years we have changed to all steel piping with fibered mastic to seal all joints. Duct tape is not used anymore since it just falls off in time. We then wrap the ducting with 3 “foil back insulation sealed at all foil back joints with metal tape. This seems to keep the rodents at bay.

We believe the health issue rodents present is the most important consideration. One should consider the risk of disease from rodents gaining entry, defecating and sometime dying in unprotected duct systems. I can’t tell you how many times we have removed rodents from flex duct systems in crawl spaces. We take this great heath risk very seriously.

We are very proud of the way we install ducted systems and expect the system to last the lifetime of the building.

Thus we suggest that ducting be the priority.

We propose to take out the flexible pipe and replace with rigid steel piping. We will also make any duct design changes necessary for proper air flow.

All old insulation will be taken out and disposed of.  Then all joints will be sealed with a fibered mastic and all ducting to be wrapped with 3 inch foil back insulation.

Upgrading to steel piping can result in up to 50% savings in your heat bill. Give us a call to talk about your options!