Duct Direct delivered all the pieces for the ductwork on Thursday. All fittings are custom made and cannot be returned so there’s a lot of risk if my design for the ducts isn’t correct.


We installed the main supply plenum and stack, the motorized zoning dampers, some of the round supply pipes, the return air filter and the return air plenum.


The rectangular ducts are connected with a clever system called Slip & Drive. Each piece to be connected has two fins on opposing sides and two folds on the other sides. S shaped steel connectors slip on the fins of both ducts which leaves the folds facing each other with a small gap. A C shaped steel connector is then driven over the folds, securing the pieces together.

The three pictures above show the supply duct stack from the basement (connecting to the AC coil) all the way up to the ceiling of the second floor. The supply ducts for each floor connect to the main stack, which then tapers off to a smaller cross section to keep the airflow balanced. There’s a motorized damper inserted into the rectangular duct right after each tap, which allows airflow control to various zones.

Everything was going well until the shit hit the fan on Sunday after lunch.


I screwed up the measurements for the return air plenum so we had to adjust it to fit. We spent 4 1/2 hours measuring, cutting, connecting, sealing, cleaning... A total nightmare and worthy of a guest appearance on Renovation Realities. We were borderline dysfunctional sometimes aimlessly running around like chickens without a head. Heat and high humidity are killer on the brain.


Everything fit together in the end but it was supremely frustrating. We’ll get the AC hooked up this week (so I hope) with the rudimentary duct work because we desperately need less humidity in the house for acceptable comfort.