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Agreed on the importance of the return ducts. My basement had massive leaks in the return. I think this likely makes for an inefficient home. Effectively pressurizing upper floors, and creating a vacuum in the basement. This means basement air has to come from other places (like pulled in through rim joist leaks and whatnot).
What’s up with that crimped end camp with the two elbows. Where they making an animal of some sort. This guy seems like a straight sheister. They are really applying duct sealer “pookie” with their hands. Looks like a child finger painting. Grab a brush and do it right. This is not the way…….
A lot of these projects are BS. One of them “greenified” and made the building more tight - you would think based on their PR - but actually they left an exterior door unsealed and it was blowing cold air inside all winter and nobody cared. A lot of this is just marketing to sell their project.
these are all lies perpetrated by the progressive socialist politicians to impoverish the working class. why dont the progressive socialists go to china and india and tell them to reduce their carbon foot print? that's where most emissions come from. i hope all co-ops get together and not pay a dime in fines and not downgrade their heating systems to the local law 97 madness.
I have a square/rectangular return air duct in my attic and I believe that it's sucking attic dust/fiberglass insulation particles into our home and causing our allergies to become inflamed. It's around 15' - 20' in length and not something I feel comfortable pulling out to tape. The main reason why is I dread trying to refit it back to everything that it is attached to as it has a few intakes that it's attached to. The duct sits between two joists that run alongside it so I cannot get mastic or tape on the sides and bottom. Can I just cover the venting w/ plywood, attaching it from joist to joist so it stops sucking in fiberglass insulation particles and dust? I figure I could put some type of gasket sealer between the plywood and joists to prevent air from getting vacuumed in.
Hello, I am going to be helping with a hempcrete house in Montana, can you help me with any contacts for experienced hempcrete builders in my neck of the woods?
The mastic sealant shown, it’s not easy to buy. HVAC supply stores won’t sell it to home owners in Fresno, California. So this video is mute. Does anyone have a buying strategy for this ul rated mastic? Thanks
Thank you all, very informative. I have a question regarding timber frame. Are there any issues with the spruce timber frame warping due to moisture transferring through the wall? Some builders in Hungary claim there is an issue and either use hard wood which is prohibitively expensive or what they call HTS structure.
As much as moisture might transfer through the wall to the frame it will also transfer through the wall and away from the frame. So the short answer is no on the warping and any frame (softwood or hardwood) will move depending on how green/dried upon installation, how much moisture loading there is inside the spaces (cooking, hot tubs, large dogs) and how spaces are heated ( traditional vs wood stoves). I have an unrendered (unplastered) hempcrete wall that has been sitting outside for three years on a piece of regular (non pressure treated) plywood. This wall gets rain, snow plowed up against it… and the plywood looks like the day it was built because the hempcrete continually wicks moisture away and stabilizes the plywood as well as the exposed end frame. Repeated moisture testing verifies this stabilization.
@@tomrossmassler8213 What about the moisture that go inside of wall, during the under zero temperature... is there a risk please ? Thanks a lot for your answers
Any plaster meeting a differing substrate should be properly taped and/or flashed. Most of the products available to the US stucco industry or high performance green building industry are not appropriate. Sourcing the right materials is key 475 supply, rothoblass, etc…
I saw some using a fiber type of tape like drywall tape to make a stronger bond. My question is how do I seal a leak on the bottom that is not accessible from the outside? Should I take the box apart and seal it from the inside?
His first response was the damp application is faster than webbing. The results are the same. If you don't have the equipment for damp application, then dense pack behind webbing is the choice.
This was great. Like Jesper, I have been doing a little at a time but started off doing it the wrong way. So I ended up in analysis paralysis around if I should tear everything off and start over. Rip off the vinyl siding that went up so far, replace the double-pane windows with triple. But not cost effective, daunting to start over. So I think I'm leaning towards just pulling the siding off, adding CI (was leaning towards mineral wool - expensive), and trimming them out as innie windows. Then add some kind of interior storm that pops into a deeper window bay as a result of adding couple more inches to the interior with horizontal battens and Intello. I don't think the chainsaw retrofit is a practical thing for one person to do. Hoping to win the lottery! A thing I've been starting to look into is recycled EPS. So EPS that would otherwise go into a landfill. I guess it might be cost effective but unsure if there's any way of telling if it's been treated with borates.
@@Nestavan The point is there are other plant based insulators. and this is not a dumb comment just a note that while it does not have all of the properties of shiv it does have a large amount of silicon in the husks that just dont break down
@@stevepailet8258 if you want to compare a plant insulation which DOES NOT BURN, resistant to Mold and mildew and pests, including flood damage, by all means
this wasn’t the 1st .. (or 2nd) time i’ve watched Alex Sparrow presentations.....and i must say that this one was pretty good, namely due to the Questions & themes raised after the presentations. so thank you all , hope you’ll make part 2 available here on YT. cheers from Portugal
I am sealing all the ducts of a 9 ton system in my attic in Houston. It’s a lot of work but I cannot believe all the air holes the HVAC people left. They should lose their license for doing such poor work. I’m tapping all the joints heavily and then applying a thick coat of mastic. Then R8 duct wrap.
@@bellsback a huge difference. Not that i purchased a 1975 house so the leaks were massive and the insulation was mostly vanished. I also changed out and air sealed over 50 can lights and all the AC duct return boxes.
@@bellsback I purchased the recessed lights for being buried under insulation, then caulked them with fire foam all around. The body of these are air sealed so you just have to seal around the base.
@@MrCbrehaut This may be my issue! New HVAC installed 3 months ago and ever since the install my indoor air quality is horrible. Today I found several small screw holes in my ducts near the furnace. Holes in the return too. And I feel air leaking in the duct attached above the coil. I asked the HVAC tech about the air leak and he said it was no big deal. Huh. BS, methinks.
