I see that this is the first post in September. That is because the contractor was away on a family vacation last week and so the work just started up again today with placement of the blue duct. Today they installed the trunk that will serve the great room (Picture 1). This runs from the plenum – the box shape at the top of the picture that will sit below one of the two air handlers – and continues under the stem wall dividing the back of the house from the great room.
Picture 2 shows how, after running under the stem wall, the trunk splits. The lower, still unconnected, half will be a run that will serve two vents near the south wall of the great room. The upper half, which is shown in Picture 3, will serve vents in the north and west walls of the great room.
Picture 4 is a closeup of one of the joints where the size of the duct is reduced. One thing that makes blue duct work is that it is made of seamless, extruded material. But this makes the joints the weak links. In this photo, you can see that the connections are sealed by foil-faced material held in place by a special adhesive. The resulting joint is then reinforced and protected by the plastic sleeves that are tightened with a series of screws on the outside.
Tomorrow they hope to finish the
