I never gave much thought to the ductwork in my house.
- I knew that it was used to transport the heat and air conditioning from the furnace or AC unit throughout the house.
I didn’t think there was any way for my ductwork to fail. I had it cleaned every two to three years, but I didn’t pay much attention to how or why the ductwork was inspected. When I began to have a lack of airflow, I thought it had something to do with than fans in the furnace and AC unit. Now that I think about it, I didn’t have a lot of knowledge about how the HVAC worked. Had I paid attention, I would have known that lack of airflow could also be because my ductwork. When the HVAC technician arrived to check things out, he went for the ductwork first. He explained to my husband and I that many times, it could be a small hole or crack in the ductwork that will cause the airflow problem. When there is a crack or a hole, the heat or AC is pulled through the hole which creates a vacuum. This takes all the heat and air conditioning that should be going through the house, and pulls it out through that hole and into the basement or in the walls. I thought I was going to have a tremendous expense replacing the ductwork, but it took about an hour to clean the ductwork and repair the holes. I learned a lot about HVAC systems and ductwork, just from that one visit.