I am having my dream house built in New England. I was wondering what you experts think of the new instllation in the rough stage. I hired a general contractor with a good reputation and was wondering if everything looks good. This it the attic portion of a hydro system.I will accept all comments.
Yea, does look good. Wrapped metal instead of ductboard & flex. Air handler is hung, not sitting on the deck. The stack in the wall with high & low openings? Returns or supplies?
The duct in the wall I beleive are returns they told me. I have supplies in the ceiling about 5' from the gable end walls in this bonus room above the garage.This room has about 10 ceiling height.
Looks like someone pays attention to detail. Im not a big fan of running flex when steel would do but if its sized properly it shouldnt be a big problem. Nice looking water lines and drainage. you might see if he can install a cleanable trap (I forget the name at this late hour). Im sure someone willp say it here soon.
I saw that too on the (Im hoping its a return). Loos like the low wall is a little high but whos to judge that? I suppose thats one way of doing it. Hey if a sofa goes there, at least it will still work through the top.
Do your service guy a favor and have the catwalk installed so he can get around the unit without clibing over it (will crush ducts).
I'm not a pro, but i did install a metal ducts a little bit, i think it needs a rubber boot around a plenum to prevent unwanted noise/vibration, and i think isn't good to run flex ducts on long runs. (this is just mine opinion)
Looks good, but if the plenums aren't insulated on the interior they should wrap them like they did the duct. Don't count on the insulators to cover them and if your getting blow in done the unit would pretty much be covered in cellulose before the plenums were covered adequately. The easiest way to tell if the plenums are insulated on the interior is to look for the dimples from the pins that hold in the insulation. If they just glued them in they should have pins or the adhesive will come loose and the insulation will plug up the duct work.
I saw the inside of the plenums when they dropped the unit off before installation.I saw what looked like nails with clips holding a black type of insulation inside.
As far as a cat walk goes the attic will have blown in insulation. There is a sheet of plywood raised right in front of the unit. A set of pull down stairs are going to be installed next to the unit. (Next to my jacket in one photo.
The contractor told me there will be no noise. The unit and duct are suspended.
I will mention about the trap clean out.
Is the flexible duct going to be a problem? He tells me he does alot of these systems and said I won't hear it run.
Nice job, but you may want to insulate the primary drain. Don't know if it's code in New England or not but the last thig you want is for that thing to start sweating in the heat of summer. Good way to ruin a pretty ceiling.
Looks good. I like to hang my flex duct every 4-5 feet, but what they did there looks like there isn't enough sag between the hangers to cause any problems.
The air changes directions enough time to isolate from any noise from the blower, and the flex duct will isolate from mechanical vibrations, so you shouldn't get any objectionable noise if the ductwork is sized properly to keep the air velocities below 600 fpm.
I like the way systems with trunk lines look, you never see them down here though. Its all radial duct systems with flex duct here. Works the same if it is sized properly, just doesn't look even 1/4 as good.
If more government is the answer, then it's a really stupid question.
Reply With Quote
