Greater Lansing
Duct sealing
Energy Star puts the loss through gaps in ductwork at up to a fifth of the air your system heats. Nothing about it looks broken — the furnace runs, the vents blow, and the only clue is one room that never warms up and a bill that seems high for the house.
What is actually wrong
Energy Star puts the loss through cracks and holes in ductwork at up to 20% of the conditioned air. That is a fifth of what you pay to heat, delivered to a basement, a crawl space or the inside of a wall instead of to the room it was meant for.
It is the fault people never suspect, because nothing looks broken. The furnace runs, the vents blow, and the only symptom is a room at the end of a run that never quite gets warm and a bill that seems high for the house.
The usual culprits are joints that were never sealed, a disconnected branch lying in a crawl space, and cloth duct tape — which despite the name dries out, loses its grip and falls off the joint within a few years.
Where this stops
When it is not a handyman job
This is at the top of the page rather than the bottom because getting it wrong costs you a wasted visit. Insured, and no contractor license is claimed or implied — the Michigan residential builder license is not held.
- THIS IS A NEW SERVICE. The records carry one job that touched ductwork and no duct sealing jobs.
- Furnaces, heat pumps and air conditioning are licensed mechanical work and are not taken on. Sealing the ductwork is not the same as working on the equipment, and where the fault turns out to be the equipment it goes to a licensed heating contractor.
- Duct CLEANING is a different service and is not offered. Sealing stops air escaping; it is not a cleaning or an air-quality treatment.
- Replacing or redesigning a duct system, adding returns or re-sizing runs is design work and is referred.
- Duct inside finished walls and ceilings cannot be sealed without opening them up, and that is said before the job rather than discovered during it.
The work itself
What actually gets done
Finding the leaks: joints, boots where the duct meets the floor or ceiling, the plenum, and branches that have come apart entirely.
Sealing with mastic and foil tape rather than cloth duct tape, which is the material that fails and the reason many of these joints are open in the first place.
Re-connecting and supporting runs that have separated or are sagging.
Sealing the boots where the duct meets the room, which is a common leak straight into a floor cavity.
Insulating duct that runs through unconditioned space, where sealing alone still leaves you heating a crawl space.
This work sits inside Air Sealing, which carries the invoiced price bands for the trade with the sample size printed beside every figure.
What it costs
There is no price list for this, and here is what actually decides the number.
The same three words describe a twenty-minute job and a two-day one. Rather than publish a figure that is wrong for one of them, here is what moves it — so you can work out roughly which end of it you are at before anybody comes out.
How much of the run is reachable. Exposed basement ductwork is straightforward; duct inside finished walls and ceilings mostly is not.
How many joints and boots there are, which is a function of the layout rather than the size of the house.
Whether anything has come apart and needs re-making rather than sealing.
Whether duct in an unheated space needs insulating as well as sealing.
How to get a real number
Somebody comes out, looks at it properly, and you get a fixed price in writing with the work set out line by line and the exclusions written down as plainly as the inclusions. Coming out to do that is not charged for, and neither is working out what is wrong. If something is found once a wall or a floor is open, it is priced as a written change order and you decide before the work carries on rather than after it is billed. Materials are supplied at cost with the receipt attached, first-time customers get 10% off labor, and labor carries a one-year craftsmanship warranty.
If this is happening right now
What to do in the next five minutes, and what happens when you ring.
Before anybody arrives
- Go to the room that is never warm and check the vent is actually blowing, not just open. A branch that has come apart delivers nothing at all.
- Look at the exposed duct in the basement for silver cloth tape that has gone brittle or come away. That is the most common failed seal there is.
- Follow the duct and see whether any of it disappears into a crawl space or an unheated garage, which is where insulation matters as much as sealing.
- Hold a hand near the joints while the furnace runs. A joint you can feel blowing is a joint that has been blowing all winter.
Call the business line
(517) 505-7135Answered Monday to Friday, 08:00 to 18:00. There is no out-of-hours line and this page is not going to invent one — outside those hours, leave a message with the address and what is happening, and it is picked up in the morning.
On the call you get asked what is happening, what else in the building is affected, and whether it is still getting worse. That is how it gets decided whether this is our job at all — and if it is not, you get told that on the phone rather than after somebody has driven out.
- No trip charge
- No call-out fee or minimum
- No diagnostic fee
- No charge for a return visit
True across all 84 written quotes this company has issued. Most contractors in this market charge to turn up.
Or send the detailsWhen the right answer is not this company
- You can smell gas
- Leave the building and call the utility from outside. Not us, and not later.
- Water you cannot stop
- Your main shut-off first, then a licensed plumber. Every minute of this one costs money.
- Sewage backing up, or several fixtures at once
- A licensed plumber with a camera. That is the shared line, not a fixture, and a cable down one sink will not touch it.
- Sparking, scorching or a burning smell at an outlet or a panel
- Breaker off, and a licensed electrician. Electrical work here is repair and like-for-like replacement, and this is neither.
- No heat, or heating and cooling equipment that has failed
- A licensed mechanical contractor. That trade is not offered here at all, and knowing that in one phone call is worth more than a visit.
Questions people actually ask
How much am I actually losing through leaky ducts?
Energy Star puts it at up to 20% of the air your system conditions. How much of that applies to your house depends on how much duct runs through unheated space and how many joints have failed, and that is answerable by looking rather than by guessing.
Is duct tape the right thing to seal ducts with?
No, despite the name. Cloth duct tape dries out, the adhesive lets go and it falls off the joint within a few years, which is why so many joints are open. Mastic and foil tape are what stay stuck.
Do you clean ducts as well?
No. Cleaning and sealing are different services with different purposes, and only sealing is offered here. Sealing stops conditioned air escaping into places you are not trying to heat; it is not an air-quality treatment.
One room is always cold. Is it the ducts?
It is one of the three usual answers, along with a blocked or closed damper and insufficient insulation in that room. A branch that has come apart in a crawl space delivers nothing at all to the room above it, and that is worth ruling out before anybody talks about a bigger furnace.
Book a duct assessment
Go to the room that is never warm and check whether the vent is actually blowing rather than just open — a branch that has come apart in a crawl space delivers nothing at all. Then look at the exposed duct in the basement for silver cloth tape gone brittle or hanging off, which is the commonest failed seal there is. Say whether any of the run disappears into a crawl space or an unheated garage. Coming out is free and there is no trip charge.