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My house is chronically dusty. I spotted three open ducts in our dirt crawl space and am thinking that is a bad thing? There should not be opened ducts in the crawl space right? I was planning on crawling down there and covering them but it's a pretty tight fit and I am pregnant so a little worried I am not supposed to be down there. My thinking is that central air with a nice air filtration system and covering those ducts will help with the dust issue. What do you all think?
Looks like an open duct to me-
And then there's all the corrosion on the bottom of the trunkline because it's sitting on the ground (probably completely gone).
So, you've got bigger problems than just an open duct. Also, if that's the supply trunkline it's not insulated. Nor are the connections sealed/mastic.
What you need to do is call a HVAC contractor and see what else is wrong- getting it corrected or replaced.
Just a crawl space should not be dusty if it is closed off to the outside. However the vents could be blowing on the dirt and kicking up dust when the fan runs. Might check for that. And there could be outside vents for the crawlspace - outside dust could blow into the crawlspace and then get into the vents/house from that.
But it can be good/bad to have open vents to the outside in a crawlspace. That can keep the humidity down. I close mine off in the winter, but open them in the summer.
And there may be a reason for those vents open in the crawlspace? Maybe it gets very cold where you live and water pipes in the crawlspace have frozen in the past? Or maybe the floor gets to be very cold above that?
Also it looks like the bottom of that duct is rusting where it is touching the ground. Air might be leaking from there as well.
I would get advice from a plumber type person in your area (as to water pipes potentially freezing). Or take pictures of that to where you would get a building permit in your area (city/county/state office). Ask to speak with a building inspector and ask if there would be any reason for that. They would be familiar with local problems and weather conditions - and what other people have done in the area.
They may say "Oh everybody does that around here because of such and so reason." Or may say "there is no reason to do that."
Some of this stuff is a "local thing". That is not done in my area, but maybe you live in Alaska? So ask the "locals".
Well if you're blowing air from in the house to the outside of the house you're putting your home in a negative pressure situation so every crack and crevice in your home will be pulling outside air in which does all sorts of crazy things like stir up the construction debris from inside walls to pollen from outside the home.
Thanks for the responses. We just got this house in April and not sure why our inspector did not tell us about any of this. I was standing right there when he went in the crawl space. Just annoyed with all of this. We will be having all new duct work done. I live in Michigan and winter is coming so it needs to be done ASAP.
Thanks for the responses. We just got this house in April and not sure why our inspector did not tell us about any of this. I was standing right there when he went in the crawl space. Just annoyed with all of this. We will be having all new duct work done. I live in Michigan and winter is coming so it needs to be done ASAP.
Because we are not all created equal, and many inspectors should be a in a different line of work.
I agree with the consensus, have an HVAC contractor evaluate and repair that setup. The repairs will likely pay for themselves in energy savings.
Is there any recourse if an inspector is this incompetent? The OP lost the opportunity to have the seller repair the problem or adjust the sales price.
I also wonder what else he saw that he did not feel was worth mentioning!
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