Soaked ducts

[Jerry Lozier]

2006 home, vacant / bank owned (they had to dewinterize for inspection)

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About 1/2 the subfloor flex ducts were saturated with water to the point one had pulled away (broke strap hangers) from main supply duct. No staining/ sediment marks on foundation or ducts indicating flooding. Inside of main supply duct was dry, though appears to be a stain (no stains noted at main duct seams or insulation).

trying to figure out how they got that much water in some of the vents unless previous owner (who lost house) dumped 5 gal of water down the floor vents. The worse one for saturation was an upstairs floor vent. No other damage indicating a pissed off owner.

any other ideas??

[Terence McCann]

Is this a slab house with in the slab ducts?

[Jerry Lozier]

Is this a slab house with in the slab ducts?

raised foundation/ crawlspace, most of the ducts are at least 24" off grade/ vapor barrier

[Jim Katen]

The house had some minor flooding at some point. The lack of stains doesn't mean anything. Once water gets between the outer and inner layers of flex duct, it can stay there for years.

[Tom Raymond]

Yuck! One more reason to stick with radiant.

[hausdok]

Hi,

Yeah, I agree with Jim; they've had a leak of some sort. Perhaps a sink overflowed or a pipe in an exterior wall wasn't insulated properly and burst. Whatever it was, they aren't likely to be too forthcoming about it.

Lots of times they bring an air duct under a bath vanity, leave it flush with the floor surface and simply screw a register over an opening at the toe kick - essentially making the entire area under the cabinet a register boot. If a line freezes and bursts in an exterior wall of the bath the water simply drains under the cabinet, into the duct and flows downhill to the crawlspace and fills the main supply plenum up until there is enough water that the weight and pressure causes one of the ducts to break or push off it's stubout.

They'll have to replace all of the flex ducting. It will never dry out.

ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!!

Mike

[Jerry Lozier]

Makes sense

thanks...Jerry

[Jerry Lozier]

Lots of times they bring an air duct under a bath vanity, leave it flush with the floor surface and simply screw a register over an opening at the toe kick - essentially making the entire area under the cabinet a register boot. If a line freezes and bursts in an exterior wall of the bath the water simply drains under the cabinet, into the duct and flows downhill to the crawlspace and fills the main supply plenum up until there is enough water that the weight and pressure causes one of the ducts to break or push off it's stubout.

Mike

Followup:

good to hang out at TIJ college....

seen exactly what Mike described here twice in a month...

this last one: bathroom vanity spigots turned off at wall, turned them on and noticed significant leak..... shut them off,

checked toe kick register: no heat or air flow

Although nothing real visible as far as damage (stained bottom in vanity)told client wouldn't be surprised leak had flooded vanity plenum and water had flooded duct or weight had pulled duct down

Sure nuff while I was getting on my gear for crawlspace inspection client stuck his head down there and there was

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duct so full of water air could not pass.

Told me I was prophetic.... nah just hanging out with guys that share their knowledge

My dad use to say 'if you're gunna walk through a mine field... follow and learn"

Jerry

[David Meiland]

Customers of mine had a dishwasher supply hose burst and put water on the kitchen floor. Somehow it made a path directly to the nearest floor register, so damage to the wood flooring was minimal but quite a bit of the ductwork under the floor got wet. New ducts and a refinished floor and there's no sign of what happened.