Cleaning Up HVAC Ducts

admin — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 17:56:26 +0000

As you can see the metal hvac ducts ran down the middle of the basement ceiling (actually off to the side a bit). They hung loosely, about two inches from the drywall ceiling.

Basement Ceiling Ducts

Given that headroom is high value in a low ceiling basement, I needed to address this wasted verticle space. The plan was to remove the drywall directly above the ducts, which was part of ripping down all the ceiling drywall. Then I would bend and re-drill the metal supports so the duct is snug up against the ceiling joists.

Finally, some wood trim is installed to clean up the look and cover where the supports are screwed into the joists. During finishing I used rustoleum metal primer (clean with degreaser first) on the ducts and painted them ceiling white.

It should be noted that when you try to remove drywall from above the ducts without taking down the whole duct, it makes it very difficult to rip out the drywall nails/screws over the duct. I had to get every last one out in order to push the ductwork snug up against the joists.

Gap between duct and ceiling drywall

Duct Snug up Against Joists and Trimmed

Ceiling Duct Primed

I thoroughly cleaned the duct with a grease cutting cleaner (409 commercial) before priming. I will use the same ceiling white paint for duct trim and the duct as used on the ceiling, helping make the duct dissapear.

Prior to raising the duct, it hung slighly lower than the support beam next to it.

Duct and Support Beam

From the angle it still looks lower but it actually dead even with the beam.

Basement HVAC Duct Complete

My Basement Renovation » painting ducts

Cleaning Up HVAC Ducts