Bought a furnace for 3k ft cottage which I have constructed. I baulked at the contractors pricing for ductwork(double the cost of furnace ) . Contractor will install and hook up furnace and has drawn up a duct design with register locations and duct sizing. Looking for reference material, web or otherwise on abc's of ductwork installation for DIY ers
Oh man, brace yourself: this should be interesting... not too many DIYs 'round here--many HVAC pros, though, and I expect the swearing to begin in aprox. 1 hour... : )
Peace, Dan
PS. Buy all three tin snips (yellow, green, red) and some nice, thick suede gloves...
Ductwork is nothing more than some cheap tubes to blow air through. It is real easy to do and doesn't need to be fancy. You can do it yourself--go to lowes and get a 500 ft box of the 4" plastic flexible dryer duct and about 4 rolls of duct tape. After you do the first one, the rest get much easier. You can easily make adjustments afterwards if it doesn't seem right.
What type of thermostat are you planning to use? Most folks skimp on the thermostat, which is at the heart of 90% of most problems with HVAC systems.
Good luck. You're about to find out why the duct work costs double the furnace. And he actually gave you a heck of a deal if it was only going to be double.
3,000 ft cottage and cry>Bought a furnace for 3k ft cottage which I have constructed. I baulked
luckily for you, you got more money than brains. over the life of the system, doing this yourself will end up costing you at least 5x what your contractor wants
By the time you add it all up, including cost of tools and the hassles of dealing with sheetmetal you might find it's not such a bargain to DIY. Not that you can't save yourself a fair amount of money, but it won't come without a LOT of work and repeated trips to the HVAC supply store.
What, not enough work to keep them too busy to stay off the internet?
I lived next door to the most insane rehabbers I'd ever come across. They rebuilt this house from the foundation up and they did most of the work themselves--complete demo, taking it up a 2nd level framing, levelling beams, did all their own drywalling/mudding, windows, doing the siding themselves, and since they work full time at other jobs and being active with their 2 kids, it's taken them over a year...in fact they're still working on it. It takes a lot for them to get someone else in to do something since they're control freaks. They're also cheap bastards, only willing to pay a little for hired labor in.
Anyway, ductwork and HVAC were among the very few things they opted to pay someone else to do. This may lend additional weight to the chorus of folks saying this job may really not be something you'll enjoy doing. :-)
The shingles, rough plumbing, and I think rough electrical were the only other places they got side jobbers in to assist.
-- Todd H.
Take a look at:
Consider having a sheet metal shop build the ducts for which you then install.
rrrralph wrote:
You baulked at a fair price.
He knows your using his info but not his sevices on the duct work?
And when the contractor is finished, you'll have pics to take to show the integrity and professional install of the system. Tight fitting joints, properly insulated so it doesn't drip condensate onto the drywall, etc.
And when you are finished it may look more like it was put together by drunken Lumberjacks. Or at the very best a first time do-it-yourselfer. And the average is somewhere in between.
There are/were trade schools just for tin knockers, with 4 year apprenticeship programs, journeyman, master, the whole cigar. What I'm saying is this is skill that is practice oriented rather than information/knowledge oriented. A book will be way better than any web based info.
-zero
if you going to tackle something like this get a sheet metal shop to make the complex bends, return/supply air plenums and avoid the flexible stuff unless it's very close to a register
Perhaps a lot of the ductwork should have been installed while the rehab was in progress.
The ductwork has to be done properly or it will cost you a ton, in many areas, over the years.
- udarrell
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