HELP! My air ducts are falling apart!

HELP! My air ducts are falling apart!

The title of this post comes from the title of an email that arrived this afternoon while I was at an inspection. The person is unknown to me but found my home inspection ActiveRain blog somewhere out there on the Internet and is seeking help.

She attached a couple of pictures for me of the air ducts in a home she just bought. Regrettably I don't know what city she is in, and I don't know if she had a home inspection, but here are the two pictures she sent:

I have many hundreds of similar-looking pictures, so I was easily able to help this person.

Air ducts with gray, usually deteriorating, plastic are usually from the late 1970s to as recent as the very early 1990s. There are many varieties of the gray plastic ducts, but you'll usually find that they all end in FLEX:

1. CAL-FLEX
2. GLASS-FLEX
3. VALUFLEX
4. END-FLEX

I think you get the message.

Some of these air ducts are susceptible to heat, and if you've ever been in an attic during the summer, you know that attics get hot.

Others are susceptible to ultraviolet rays from sunlight. These are fun to find because the only deterioration is near gable vents, turbine vents, and dormer (static) vents. So it's not unusual to find spots of deterioration the same size as whatever vent is letting the sunlight into the attic. Square vent? Square deterioration! Round vent? Round deterioration!

Small spots of deterioration generally can be repaired using duct tape. However, if the deterioration is more significant, like that shown in this lady's two pictures, it's critical to have a heating and cooling professional (HVAC contractor) come out and look at the air ducts. Depending on how long the deterioation has been present, the fiberglass insulation might have separated, permitting condensation to form inside the air duct itself and bringing on other problems related to indoor air quality.

Along with having your heating and cooling system inspected annually, make sure that your service professional also inspects the air ducts, whether they be in the attic, foundation crawl space, or floors and walls. Modern technology also allows heating and cooling professionals to do video scanning of the interior of air ducts, which I recommend having done every two or three years unless you are having health problems or smell unusual odors whenever you use the heating or cooling system. Then have it done immediately, and then annually to ensure that the problem has been corrected.

Try RusselRayPhotos.com for inexpensive, royalty-free photos.

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