Question for Florida HVAC guys

rlfox24

Do you ever use steel ductwork for residential. I have noticed that everything is duct board and flex pipe. Talk to me Polar / AC Man

AC Man

I do nothing! I am a service contractor, no new construction. With that said, metal is typically only used in commercial. Back in the day it was used in residential.Some used metal pipe in the 80's don't see it any more on a regular build. Rectangular metal goes back to the 60's generally on residential. Most has become water logged insulation and replaced by now.

Polar

Im with AC man on this one. Only person at my firm that knows duct work is myself, and I dont let too many know that!

rlfox24

Thanks guys. I'm in Ohio and everything here is metal but I have a lot of friends in Florida and I noticed everything is duct board. I was just curious.

gandrfab

Polar wrote: »

Im with AC man on this one. Only person at my firm that knows duct work is myself, and I dont let too many know that!

Your secret is safe.

coldair

we use metal for Commercial and high end houses. It's the only duct you can really clean

AC Man

Polar wrote: »

Only person at my firm that knows duct work is myself, and I dont let too many know that!

No self respecting service tech will admit to knowing how to do duct work, otherwise they may get nominated to do just that. :grin

Nickhoog

We do a lot of new construction. High end homes are my niche, they usually go with duct board trunk lines and flex take-offs, Lesser priced homes will be entirely flex with mixing boxes(some call them) but I design those style differently than most and have great success with air distribution.

In commercial we do use metal, sometimes, and metal is the only duct that truly be cleaned.

Heatwave

AC Man wrote: »

I do nothing! I am a service contractor, no new construction. With that said, metal is typically only used in commercial. Back in the day it was used in residential.Some used metal pipe in the 80's don't see it any more on a regular build. Rectangular metal goes back to the 60's generally on residential. Most has become water logged insulation and replaced by now.

Yea but ! Shouldn't you guys tell this man that if possible, and if you are building a REAL HOME to last. You should use metal duct, sealed properly... If large enough it should have proper cross breaking in it, S-Channel and the works with Metal tape, insulation and so on. You want as little resistance as possible. The crap they run in Florida and most places has one benefit, for the installer and corp. making it. It slaps together quickly and thus helps them to install a unit with duct quickly...
The days of doing things right are gone...

conchydong

Heatwave wrote: »

Yea but ! Shouldn't you guys tell this man that if possible, and if you are building a REAL HOME to last. You should use metal duct, sealed properly... If large enough it should have proper cross breaking in it, S-Channel and the works with Metal tape, insulation and so on. You want as little resistance as possible. The crap they run in Florida and most places has one benefit, for the installer and corp. making it. It slaps together quickly and thus helps them to install a unit with duct quickly...
The days of doing things right are gone...

True but most older Florida homes have about 3' clearance in the attic and crawling through there with 110+ temps isn't fun. Even the Messicans don't want to do it.

Turner River Terror

You can Die up there..
I'm never going more than 20 ft. again in the attic. If I can't see the opening I'm turning around.

oaks

The truss systems in Florida homes, being up to hurricane wind loads, leave little room to allow for a metal duct system to run through them without 4,000 offsets everywhere. Ain't no one got time for that....

AC Man

Heatwave wrote: »

Yea but ! Shouldn't you guys tell this man that if possible, and if you are building a REAL HOME to last. You should use metal duct, sealed properly... If large enough it should have proper cross breaking in it, S-Channel and the works with Metal tape, insulation and so on. You want as little resistance as possible. The crap they run in Florida and most places has one benefit, for the installer and corp. making it. It slaps together quickly and thus helps them to install a unit with duct quickly...
The days of doing things right are gone...

We have tore out many water logged metal duct exterior wrapped duct from the old days. It doesn't live in 145 degree humid attics. I have no dog in this fight as I do not do new construction, but duct board and flex is in 99% of new Florida homes. I will agree that a lot of homes including high end are a disaster of flex and mixing boxes. It is a crying shame due to design.

I think in the north with basements and different building codes you see metal more often than not.Everywhere in the country has different codes and designs.

My brother is a commercial building A/C Contractor, They also do custom homes to 45,000 sq ft. Most all they do is metal, some metal on custom homes. We both built new homes and used duct board and flex, and money was not a factor,