Sealing Ducts From the Inside w/ Sean Harris

Sean Harris with Positive Energy and Aeroseal Austin sat down with me at the humid climate conference and talked about how to seal ducts from the inside with Aeroseal. We regularly see air leakage by poor connections, especially when we deal with flex ducts.

When a house comes under negative pressure, it draws a bunch of air in from the outdoors or unconditioned spaces. Unfortunately, that air can be very low-quality in humid climates. The humid air can be even worse if it comes from an unconditioned space where you have leaky supply ducts. So, we can prevent that nasty attic air from coming in if we seal ducts from the inside out.

Aeroseal goes inside the ducts and is a good sealant that can be compared to Fix-A-Flat for a car tire. When pressurized air leaks from the duct, Aeroseal makes its way to the leak and expands over it. Aeroseal doesn't coat the ductwork; it merely travels to leaks and seals them up. Aeroseal looks like a mist and can seep out of leaks. So, as an extra measure of caution, be prepared to protect a customer's belongings in an attic or crawlspace.

However, sealing ducts requires a holistic approach. We need to perform quite a few tests to get an idea of the building envelope and duct design before we consider ways to seal or replace the ductwork. Sean enjoys paying attention to duct sizing and understands that sealing ducts could make a customer's comfort issues even worse in an oversized duct system.

So, Aeroseal is a great product for leaky ducts of a good size. Aeroseal is a long-lasting solution for duct leaks, but it is not a magical fix-all product.

 

 

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