How to Air Seal Return Air Duct - DIY Duct Sealing | HVAC Duct Sealing DIY | Air Duct Sealing DIY

In this video, Michael Church will show you how to improve your energy efficiency and furnace filter by air sealing a cold air return. Air Duct Cleaning Costs - Air duct cleaning can cost hundreds of dollars so the better air sealed your air conditioning system, the better your furnace filter works and the less air duct cleaning is needed.
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[@Cliflyri]

Great input! Thank you for making this video. Having removed an old return air grille, it's amazing just how much dust and air was sneaking in between the face of the filter grille and the ceiling drywall. While that spray foam around the inner flange should stop that, a little caulk around the outside edge where it meets the ceiling is probably good insurance as well.

[@beverlysill]

This was very informative. Had no idea what that area was supposed to look like but now I know why mine is a nightmare!

[@jerseyjim9092]

Good advice. Installers generally don't do this well if at all.

[@nightmareperdomo1313]

Professional job 👍👍👍👍

[@sunnyd6019]

I need to do this, my attic smell is coming into my house for past 4 weeks. When I run the AC I can smell that hot attic stink coming out of the vents. Assuming an air leak on return side somewhere. So now the process of elimination to see if at R/A opening, duct, or unit. Sadly my AC unit is hung in attic so there could be a door leak going on etc. Cheers on vid.

[@1ronhall]

Hi Mike, are these two products still on your advised list, or have you updated with new? Thanks, great videos!!

[@heyitsrick01]

Had a "professional" company install an entirely new hvac system... OMG what a nighmare. All the sealing that you showed how it SHOULD BE... They did NOTHING. al those little tabs no mastic on the inside & if you go into the attic & look where the flex duct attaches if you lift up the tape a bit you can see light from below... OBVIOUSLY not sealed from the attic end either... HORRIBLE so called professional hvac company in Phoenix AZ... THANKS for posting... This is my proof of what SHOULD be done & how it's done properly...

[@CrawlSpaceNinja]

Sorry to hear about your experience.

[@Krazie-Ivan]

...which service & tech did you have? i'm also in Phx & might need to replace my HVAC - would be good to avoid your "service" provider.

[@rafaeliscoa1990]

Hi Rick I live here in phx too and I did same thing plus all the a/c ducts grill and oulets and ligths arround windows doors top to barun .base boar .under the kitchen sink any faucet .the diferent is big .

[@skudoodle25]

Thanks for the info Our contractor didn't clean or remove dirt and mold from old unit which was right where the bottom of the air handler is located. Also he did not seal anything at all. So all dirt and such from the last 30 years was being sucked up into new unit.

[@CrawlSpaceNinja]

I am so sorry to hear that, thank you for sharing.

[@terriupton7006]

We've lived in our 90 year old home for 10 years. When I mentioned tgat our house was very dusty to the HVAC guy, he immediately went to look at the air return. We have tongue and groove knotty pine walls. The air return space was just an open cavity that was pulling air from inside the wall cavity, the crawl space and the chimney space. We closed it in with 2×4's last year. Now I'm going to seal it up with spray foam and duct butter! Thank you so much for your videos. They are a huge help, so the average person knows when a job has been done correctly. Any advice on sealing the floor registers?

[@joeldallas1794]

exact same sitation at one of my houses i was working on. pulling air in from the attic!

[@michaelbuono9826]

Didn’t realize that mastic is flexible. Good to know

[@sepertude]

Are you sure applying poly foam and mastic from inside of duct is not against code?

[@jamescc2010]

My floor return air in the kitchen just goes back to furnace unit, being filtered, and has no metal duct, just a large box area. Need to seal anything there.

[@Falcon408]

Thank you for the video. Not much information on this. I am going to seal my return air duct, and line the box with foam board to add an insulation barrier.

[@CrawlSpaceNinja]

Glad it helped. Thanks for watching

[@beverlysill]

So. question for you...my return air duct is in a wall cavity. There's no box or anything - the air is being pulled from the room, through the vent, across the open wall cavity, into a 16" roughly square hole cut into some sheet metal. There's a top plate on the wall at the ceiling, just above the hole, so the cavity isn't wide open to the attic, but it's not sealed or anything. There was also NO filter in there, nor any rail for one to sit on. You can imagine what it looked like...dust for days all over the duct walls. I vacuumed it out as far as I could reach. I'm replacing the old screw-on vent cover with one that holds a filter. My question is, how would you recommend sealing up the wall cavity? Duct board? Then foam and mastic? There's a stud in the middle of the opening, too, which complicates things a bit.

[@MrCuervo22779]

Any thoughts on her question from anyone? I too discovered a similar design tonight.

[@MrCuervo22779]

Just out of curiosity...how does adding insulation to a plenum help in the Houston area? Temps last summer were around 102-105 for a few days. Will it help keep the air cooler and what kind of insulation do you recommend?

[@CrawlSpaceNinja]

insulating should keep air cooler and air sealing will help too. We see attic ducts with poor insulation deliver warmer air than crawl space ducts with poor insulation in the same home. Since attic is hotter it is robbing the cool before it makes it to the register. Thanks for watching.

[@RuralMethod]

I don't see a video of yours talking about conditioned air supply for unvented crawl space. Code here in middle Tennessee calls for either continuous mechanical exhaust ventilation or conditioned air supply with a pathway to the common area via duct or transfer grill

[@CrawlSpaceNinja]

we will try to make a video about this.

[@macky8123]

If possible can the main trunk line be cleaned in the attic and if so pleas show video

[@CrawlSpaceNinja]

We currently dont have a video for that but we will work on it.

[@KetoJames]

I'm going to try this. When it very cold with the filter out we can feel a cold draft come from the return going to the HVAC in the attic. Will this help or is it something else?

[@CrawlSpaceNinja]

Hard to say. We suggest having an expert take a look in person!

[@DCcoleman]

Hey Michael Is there a foil tape or foil mastic tape I could use to seal my panned ductwork? Thks

[@CrawlSpaceNinja]

this one should work, its waterproof - amzn.to/3ZB8LUy

[@DrTorbjorn]

Do you have to clean the return before adding mastic? If yes what’s the best way to do that? Thanks

[@CrawlSpaceNinja]

I would if it is really dirty, I have seen people use a good shop vacuum for this.

[@pristell9]

Mines is leaking water, should I do the same? Thank

[@CrawlSpaceNinja]

We'd recommend having a licensed HVAC technician come and take a look first. That could be a condensation line issue.

[@Carlos.USA88]

is the foam safe to put there, wont you be breathing that stuff ?

[@CrawlSpaceNinja]

We use a green guard rated foam with 1 hour off gas but if you are chemical sensitive you could look into other products that don't off gas but I'm not sure they are easy to find. Thanks for watching.

[@diaperdood1]

Is it ok to use mastic inside the duct?

[@jerseyjim9092]

It's absolutely ok.

[@CrawlSpaceNinja]

Yes!

[@samuelg3586]

Unsealed return air is a massive problem I find on many homes. Paying extra attention on sealing the air return is more important than the supply in my opinion.

[@perritochihuahua2094]

57 bucks gun sale at 89 wow 😞

[@Heffbomb]

1:51 hahaha

[@CrawlSpaceNinja]

Air sealing the HVAC return air grille is a great way to cut down on dust. Make sure you use the World's Best Furnace Filter to stop dust from entering the return. goo.gl/W579MH

[@user-iw8fh1hu1l]

That stuff smells horrible ive had headaches after they installed my new unit Im actually sick

[@CrawlSpaceNinja]

I am so sorry to hear that. Thank you for sharing your experience.

[@boss350z5]

But does it take glock mags though? 😜