report from the attic of beads4me.....
The house has a 5 ton roof mounted package unit. Each room has 10 by 10 four way registers, double registers in some rooms. Very little air flow and almost no throw from any of the registers. anometer registered 0 cfm 2 to 3 feet away from the supply registers. Return system is a 20 by 30 and a 12 by 20 in an attached converted garage all run with 14 inch flex duct. No sealing was done on the register pans and there were already dust trails inside, past the filter. There is also a detached laundry room in the garage, with a supply line duct, but no return, so home is under negative pressure every time the hvac system runs.
a look at the duct work found the standard Phoenix flex duct hack installation. The package unit feeds the house with about a foot of 18 inch flex into a 24 by 24 plenum. From the plenum, four 14 inch flex ducts leave, each of the ducts then splits and splits again and in a couple of places, splits again, down to 6 inch flex for the bathroom and laundry. The house is very long and the attic very short in height. The flex duct liner was not screwed to the takeoffs, in fact, the liner was not even zip-tied to the takeoffs and sheet metal wye's. Ul181 flex tape is the only thing holding the liner to the sheet metal. The insulation was also not zip-tied, it was only taped. Note that the tape was not "rubbed on" the installers appeared to use the tape to compress the liner and let friction hold it all together, as a couple of the joints I looked at had no tape covering the edge of the liner and connecting to the sheet metal. In other words, the connections were floating. None of the Flex ducts were pulled tight, none were properly strapped. In addition, where the registers were installed all insulation surrounding them was removed between 1 and 2 feet away. In my opinion, too much flex duct was used, there was no real design for the ductwork and the installation was really really bad.
Also, a good dozen or more pot lights had been installed and they had the insulation moved away from them. There was one, where I could look down and see the kitchen floor below!!! Electical work was also shoddy as I could not find a single junction box with a single romex clamp installed.
The good part is that the homeowners are a really nice couple and they are taking steps with the registrar of contractors to have the problems reviewed and the responsible parties made to correct the issues. Additionally, all of the issues can be fixed, with a good hvac person, some time and some money.
and for those of you who are wondering... My pepsi was there waiting for me and when I finished it was a really sweet payment!!!!
The homeowner will be posting some pics soon...