Indoor air quality
Air duct replacement in the Tri-Cities
When flex duct is crushed, torn or too small for the system, A-One sizes a new supply and return run, hangs it with sealed joints and tests it before the crew leaves.
Chapter 01
Ducts are past saving when the damage is in the duct, not the joints
Some duct systems can be sealed and cleaned. Others cannot. Flex duct crushed under attic storage, kinked at a corner or chewed by rodents will never carry its share of air, however well it is sealed. Metal trunks that have pulled apart, or runs that were undersized when the house was built, choke the blower and leave the far rooms behind the thermostat.
Tri-Cities attics make it worse. Summer heat bakes the outer jacket of old flex duct until it turns brittle and flakes, and the insulation inside slumps so the duct sags. When a tech finds a return that has dropped off its boot and is drawing attic air into the system, replacement is the honest answer, because no patch brings back a duct that has stopped being a duct.
A furnace and coil installed in an attic with the duct run behind them and A-One service stickers on the cabinet
The new run is sized to the system before any duct is hung
Replacement starts with a plan, not a roll of flex. The tech measures the rooms, checks the size of the furnace or air handler and its blower, and sizes each supply branch and the return so the air has room to move. A static pressure reading across the system tells you whether the ducts are choking the equipment, and it is worth taking before the old run comes out.
Then the old run comes out and the new one goes in: new trunks, plenums and boots, insulated flex or rigid duct on short, straight runs, every joint sealed with mastic and every hanger spaced so the duct cannot sag. Register grilles are set to match each room's supply. In dusty country the return also gets a filter rack that seals around the filter.
Chapter 03
Duct leakage testing shows whether the new run holds
Once the ducts are in, the crew tests them. A duct leakage test pressurises the system with a calibrated fan and measures how much air escapes through the joints, boots and plenum connections. If a new run leaks, that is a workmanship problem, and the test finds it while the attic is still open and a brush of mastic can fix it.
After that the tech checks airflow at each register and confirms the static pressure sits where the equipment was designed to run. Then watch the far bedroom through the first hot week. In a Pasco or Kennewick summer it is the room that tells the truth, and with the ducts sized and sealed, any room that still lags is a job for the balancing dampers.
A-One tests the finished duct run before the crew leaves. 2-Year Warranty on all service parts, with an optional 10 Year warranty on parts and labor.
Indoor Air QualitySince 1980
More from the A-One Indoor Air Quality crew
A-One sizes the system to the house, checks the ducts and installs Amana, Daikin or Goodman equipment. A-One is also a Lennox Premier Dealer.
A-One sizes a heat pump or furnace to the house, checks the ducts and installs it with a tested line set and gas connections. Ask about rebates and financing.
A-One finds where conditioned air escapes with duct leakage testing, repairs what sealant cannot bridge, and seals the rest from the inside as an Aeroseal certified dealer.