Ductwork Replacement and New Duct Installation in Ypsilanti and Southeast Michigan

Most ductwork can be repaired. Some of it cannot, and knowing the difference is where we start. A trunk line that has rusted through from forty years of basement humidity, a system of panned joist returns in a 1950s ranch that leaks at every joist and cannot be sealed from below, attic flex duct that has collapsed and been patched so many times there is more tape than duct, or a house that was built with ductwork sized for a furnace half the size of what it has now: those are replacement jobs. So is a pre-war two-story in Ypsilanti or Ann Arbor that has a gravity furnace's octopus ducts still in the basement, or a 1920s bungalow where central air is being added for the first time and the existing ducts cannot carry cooling airflow. Temprasure designs and installs replacement ductwork across Washtenaw and western Wayne County, and the estimate is free.

Design is the part most contractors skip and the part that decides whether the new ducts work. We run a Manual J load calculation on the house to know how much heating and cooling each room needs, then a Manual D duct design that sizes the trunk, each branch and the return system to deliver that air at a static pressure the blower can handle. The result is a drawing with duct sizes, not a guess based on what was there. A room over the garage gets a run sized for its load, not a six-inch branch like every other bedroom. A second floor gets a return on the second floor. The filter cabinet is sized so a four-inch media filter does not choke the system. This is the difference between a replacement that fixes the hot upstairs and one that moves the problem around.

Materials matter in a Michigan basement. We build trunk lines and main returns from galvanized sheet metal, sealed at every joint with mastic, and hung with proper strap so they do not sag into the path of the next plumber. Branch runs are rigid metal where they are accessible and insulated flex only where a rigid run cannot go, kept short and straight and supported every few feet. Runs through an attic or crawlspace are insulated to current code so supply air does not arrive heated in July and chilled in January. Boots are sealed to the subfloor and registers sized to deliver air without whistling. Returns are real ducts, not joist bays, and there is one on every floor that has bedrooms.

The job takes a few days in most houses and is disruptive in the basement for that time. We coordinate it with any equipment replacement when both are needed, since a new furnace and new ducts installed together are commissioned as one system, and we schedule around the household's needs. Where a finished basement ceiling has to be opened, we tell you exactly where before the estimate is signed. When the job is done, we measure static pressure and airflow at every register and give you the numbers next to the design targets.

We also tell people when full replacement is more than they need. A system with a sound trunk and a few bad branches is a repair job with a new return, and we quote it that way. Replacement is for the houses where the ducts are the reason the house has never been comfortable and sealing will not change that.