Things Found in Peoples Houses
The homeowners knew that something was wrong with the comfort of their upstairs rooms. One room was fine but the other rooms never were. We were performing a duct blaster test and couldn't get a reading so we knew that there was going to be a duct off somewhere. We crawled behind the air handler and found this piece that had completely fallen off and had never been installed correctly. Even with this attached, the system tested with 68% leakage and we found several small leaks in the system. Over the years they had spent a lot of money heating and cooling the attic and not the house.
This this a different system that was so bad we couldn't get a reading on it either. This is a return line in the crawlspace, so some of the air returning to the air handler is coming from the house and some of the air is coming from the crawl space. Right below this is a lot of old plumbing. If the plumbing leak,s mold will immediately start growing and some of the mold will be pulled into the house.
The sheet metal box is part of the air handler and looks old; it was probably reused after a system upgrade. The edges are sealed with what is probably an asbestos tape that hasn't been used in many years. The duct tape holding the flex duct to the air handler is just wrong. Tape only lasts a few years then the heat dries up the adhesive and the leaks start. This should have been done with mastic.
Cobwebs are always a sign that there is an air leak. Spiders like to build where there is a draft so they can catch more flies. Once we turned on the blower door these cob webs really started moving from the excessive wind coming through the holes.
So why is the bathtub always cold? This is from an older house but is a common problem. The crawl space is open to the outside and the tub has a big hole under it. The plumbers cut out a large hole so they can work and no one cared to closed it up.
Same problem with a newer house. The whole backside of the shower tub was left exposed. This needs more insulation and sheathing to create and air barrier then bath time will be more pleasant.
We usually find a lot of air leaks underneath sinks. This one had been replaced and one of the old holes was left open so there was a lot of air coming in and out of these holes. They need to have spray foam applied around the holes.
The opening in this air handler is where the filter goes. Anyone lose a tupperware container?
You never know what you're going to find or see. This probably fell in from upstairs when one of the registers was removed.
A thermal image of a door to a crawlspace. You can see the cold air coming around the edges and the difference in temperature due to the thickness of the wood door. Weather stripping will help the edges and gluing a piece of foam board to the back side of the door will greatly improve the insulation value of the door and make a big difference with the comfort of the room.
Attic hatches always leak around the edges. Weather stripping and sometimes adding latches to hold the door closed are needed.
Whole house fans leak a lot of air when they are not being used and bring in a lot of dust and pollutants from the outside when they are being used. Very few have slats that close and seal so these are really just large openings where conditioned air can move easily in and out of the house. We usually decommission the fan and seal these from the attic side and insulate over them. There is a very noticeable difference once these are removed and the hole is repaired.
This is a plumbing chase for a gas fireplace and was a huge hole in the attic that was also open at the bottom allowing large amounts of air to move in and out of the house.We used sheet metal and high temp caulk to seal this hole up.
This is another plumbing chase for a chimney exhaust flue and it was also allowing massive amounts of air to move freely in and out of this house. This one was much more work to fix.
This is a plumbing vent for an upstairs bathroom and there was just a small gap around the pipe. All of the discolored area is debris that was trapped in the fiberglass as it acts as a filter when air coming in and out of the house passes through it.
Another plumbing chase left open in the attic and in the house.
This is an attic door that needs a door sweep. You could easily feel the hot air coming out from under the door.
It is common to find insulation that is less than the R-30 recommended or insulation that has settled but I think they ran out of insulation that day and forgot to come back and finish the job.
Water damage from a leaky ice maker water line. An air leak around the plumbing vent and mold. Also, no insulation in the floor. This should have R-19 batts or a better solution would be a few inches of spray foam which would air seal, insulate and be a more permanent solution.
Missing insulation, probably removed by a dog. Leaky seams. No insulation in the floor and a vapor barrier would make a big difference.
Ever wonder what's inside the fins of the condensing coil in your yard?. The aluminum fins have oxidized and left the copper coils exposed. This will affect the units ability to exchange heat. This unit has exceeded it's life expectancy and will need to be replaced soon.