Ductboard

DennisDe

MY HVAC person has told me that 80-90% of all new residential construction has ductboard trunk line installations ..I was told that metal is used only at customer requests. Is this an accurate statement. I may have to consider the ductboard installation if this is an accurate statement due to cost. It would be ductboard with flex run offs.... split/system trane XR90 direct vent 60btu furnace with matching condensing unit. What type of longevity can I see with ductboard. Lastly is one ductboard product better than another?

Weezbo

hello.....

I cannot speak for duct board being the primary material of choice....i'd vote for the "tin".

Bud_14

Not accurate

I think it is not accurate, I'm thinking many may choose this route with the skyrocketing cost of metal. But have yet heard (in the midwest) of anyone promoting DuctBoard as a standard product. I do beleive it will become an option to try to save money in the near future.

Bud
TheSheetMetalShop.Com

JB_2

duct board

stay with metal, sky rocking prices of metal has driven everything up.but if you want longevity,metal wrapped with 2" min. insulation is the way. IMO. jb

Jeff Lawrence_24

well

If it were me, I'd go metal all the way.

I'm not much of a ductboard/flex person anyway. When I re-piped my house, I used one peice of flex, about 6 feet long. After about 6 months of looking at it, I took the flex out and went back with round pipe.

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Fred Robinson

Ductboard

There are lots of good reasons for using metal,the chief reason is less restiction. If you go with metal have ALL joints sealed with mastic.

Mason

ductboard vs metal

OK, forget the fact that I own the largest sheet metal shop in four counties and am a little prejudice. Let me start by saying that in all the years that I have been in this trade I have seen only one contractor that installed ductboard even close to what the manufacturers spec. Did all of you know that they say you are supposed to glue your joints and spray a sealant on any cut edge?? Anyhow, if you go into a house that has had a ductboard system for any length of time and lightly push on the ductboard you will find it to be "spongy". This is due to the degredation of the duct surface caused by friction from high velocity air. My fear is that if the fiberglass fibers are no longer in the ductboard, where are they?? If asbestos dust is bad for you, how about fiberglass??

Mason

Murph'_5

in my moms home we used hose

we got radiant hose from the shop for the floors but it makes moms feet sweatty.billy

jim lockard

My dogs house

Would never see anything but metal duct. We pull out a lot of Duck-Bored with mold and all kinda gross stuff growing in there, stuff your family will be breathing. J. Lockard

Paul Mitchell

Metal vs board

Lose this guy...Not that ductboard is bad but we only use metal. Tape holds ductboard together.....

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Constantin

I'm just a Homeowner

However, the thought of Ductboard in my home would frighten me. Have a look over at HVAC-Talk on the many horror stories folks have had with ductboard. Simply put, the stuff does not stay together, spreads fibers, etc.

The places where it sees the most application, IIRC, is tract housing where a builder screws every last nickel out of the subcontractors (if he pays them at all). You get what you pay for... and ductboard systems cannot be cleaned properly later on the way that metal duct can. Never mind the sealing issues that all those seams entail.

Flexible tubing is very popular in AC-hackland. Just point your browser to the Wall of Shame over at HVAC-Talk to see some installations gone really bad. This is not to say that quality installs cannot be achieved using flexible systems, however longevity and air flow resistance questions pop up in my mind.

From what little I can tell, your heating contractor is proposing to mate a good furnace/AC system to a cheapo air handling system. I'd ask for another quote with a metal system. Then consider the long-term value the AC/heating system will represent to your house. Cheers!