Since I'm still waiting on pistons to be made, major automotive work is on hold so the project this summer has been fixing the HVAC ducting in my house (which also feeds the garage and so this thread thereby fits here ).

The big problems are with the air supply to the furnace; the return-air ducts from the house were never connected to the furnace... why not? Because they were blocked with wood in several places.

For example, here is where a 2x4 was installed (thereby blocking the air flow, there were 3-4 such occurrences):







This project began with what I thought was only one remaining blockage - way, way, way up at the top of the peak of the ceiling; here it is all patched and primed and ready for paint:







But of course I can't leave well enough alone; there were a few places where the primary return duct was only 50% blocked, and I decided that, if I'm going to do this, I may as well do it "right":











This is where the primary in-house return duct would have connected to the furnace primary-return ducting. There were holes cut in the floor in which air was supposed to flow but they were blocked halfway by a 2x12:






Because the house was rebuilt after a fire, I can understand how all that stuff happened.

But there is no excuse for the crappy-quality job the installers did... for example, notice the diagonal line - white spray paint on one side, not on the other. That is where a piece of sheet metal was originally installed to keep the duct from sucking air from between some floor joists:



(The white spray paint is Kilz that was applied to lock in the smoke odor.)

The rebuilders kinda blocked off that leak with a 2x12 so maybe the furnace installers legitimately couldn't get there to install a new sheet-metal plate, but I cut that thing out (SawzAlls are WONDERFUL tools!) and will sheet-metal it.



Another problem from the installers is where the elbows connect to the primary distribution:


I shouldn't be able to poke my fingers through that joint.



Here is a top view, this one at least has some duct tape on it (which, after 30 years, isn't much use anymore):





My father told me about some 3M tape, it's basically real sticky aluminum foil:



I'm using that, applying on both the top and bottom:









The insides of the ducts are incredibly dirty so, in keeping with a disease I got from my mom, I'm washing the insides:






Not real willing to squirt a hose in the ducts in the walls, I think maybe a 6" chimney brush on a flexible fiberglass pole may help with that, dunno yet....

 

It's amazing the hack jobs people will do on some stuff.
My house had a register and 10" flex duct above the wood stove, so I figured it was an inlet for the electric furnace in the attic- Nope, it had about four feet of hose and was open to the attic. Good to know where all my heat was going.
I used a dryer duct cleaning brush and a low speed drill to clean this place, along with a good shop vac.