Installing ductwork is disruptive in a specific and predictable way, and knowing the sequence makes it much easier to plan around. Here is how a job runs.
Before the day: the survey
Nothing gets quoted from a floor plan. We measure the space the new run will serve, check what the existing system can carry, look at the route, and identify where support has to land and what has to be opened.
Two things get settled here that people often expect to settle later:
- Whether the existing system has capacity. Adding a branch to a system that is already at its limit makes the new room mediocre and the existing rooms worse. If that is the situation, you should hear it before you spend anything.
- Where the air will leave the new space. A supply with no return path produces a room that never reaches temperature. The return is planned at the same time as the supply, not afterwards.
Day one: protection and layout
Floors along the route get covered, corners get guarded, and the work area gets set up. Then the run is laid out physically: hangers and straps go in at proper intervals before any duct is hung, so nothing ends up resting on a joist edge or sagging between them.
This is the least visible part of the job and it determines how the system performs for the next twenty years.
Hanging and connecting
Rigid where rigid belongs, flex properly stretched where it does not. Connections are mechanically fastened rather than pushed together and hoped for.
This is the noisy phase. Cutting sheet metal, drilling into joists and fixing hangers are all loud, and if anyone in the house is working from home, this is the part to schedule around.
Sealing, before anything is closed in
Every joint gets mastic and mechanical fasteners while it can still be reached, and it gets photographed. A seam that will be behind insulation and drywall tomorrow has to be right today.
If your installer is not sealing before the insulation goes on, stop and ask when they intend to.
Making good
If ceilings or walls had to be opened, closing them up is its own scope. Ask at quoting time whether it is included, who does it, and to what standard: patched and ready to paint, or finished and painted. It is a common source of end-of-job disagreement and it is entirely avoidable by asking early.
Balancing and handover
The new registers are checked against the rest of the system, dampers are adjusted, and you get the photograph set of what is now behind the finishes.
The handover conversation should cover which room the new run serves, what to expect from it, and anything we found on the way that you should know about.
How long it takes
- A single branch to one room, open access: usually a day.
- A branch requiring finished ceilings to be opened: two days plus making good.
- A full replacement across a house: several days, and it should be sequenced so the system is not down overnight in winter.
We give you the expected window when we quote, and we tell you which days are noisy and which need the space clear.
Working with other trades
We are frequently the duct crew on somebody else’s project. That works well as long as the sequencing is agreed: the ductwork has to be in, sealed and photographed before insulation and drywall, and the equipment side has to be settled before the branches are sized.
Tell us who is doing the equipment and when the drywall is scheduled, and we will fit around it.
What we need from you
- Clear access to the work areas, including the attic hatch or crawlspace entry.
- Somewhere to stage material.
- Somewhere to park close enough to carry duct.
- Pets kept away from open access points, which matters more than people expect with attic hatches and crawlspace doors.
The question worth asking at the end
Ask to see the photographs of the sealed joints before the insulation went on. If they exist, the work was done in the right order. If they do not, you have no way of knowing.
The installation service page covers the rest, and the design vocabulary that makes a quote easier to judge is here.
