Duct Sealing in Houston, TX

Duct sealing in Houston homes

One room never cools. The attic smells like the air from your vents. Dust lands on furniture days after cleaning. Those symptoms usually mean leakage, not a weak system. Supply air escapes into the attic. Return leaks pull hot attic air back in. The equipment runs longer and dehumidifies less.

Where the leaks sit depends on the build era. Flex duct from the 1980s onward tears at collar connections and pulls loose at boots. Sags between supports collect dust in the low spots. Attic storage and foot traffic crush runs flat. Older rectangular trunks with internal fiberglass liner shed fibers once the liner erodes. Return plenums built into stud bays or platform returns are a separate problem entirely. They breathe attic air through framing gaps.

Sealing means mastic and mesh at seams. Also at boots and plenum joints. Foil tape where mastic will not hold. Tape alone on a torn flex collar fails again.

Condensate dripping from uninsulated plenum seams gets addressed before anything is sealed shut. Same with mold on returns near the air handler.

Some ducts should not be sealed. Original under-slab runs in 1950s ranches collect water and sediment. Roots get in too. Those get abandoned or replaced instead.