Ask Me Help Desk - Duct never hooked up

We have lived in this house 1 year, 3 months. We just discovered the duct in the baseboard under the cabinet which holds the sink in the kitchen was never hooked up there is a grill in place which we removed to discover the boot was never even attached. When you stick your hand in the hole in the floor you feel insulation (from drywalled ceiling of our unconditioned basement. Went in crawl space and counted ducting going to the first floor that is hooked up to duel fuel unit/heatpump. There is 11 ducts plus a return duct hooked to unit but only 10 ducts on first floor plus this hole in the floor. I would say it is obvious there is a 6" duct in the floor joist area letting heat and atr into this joist area above our unconditioned basement. Called the HVAC guy. He came over and said they will cut hole in basement ceiling and fish new duct in. I asked about the existing extra duct he said he doesn't know where it is at and that it won't hurt anything. To me this would be jacking up my utility bills which are unusually high. Is leaving this extra duct just dangling in the floor joists code? Is heating this floorjoist area costing me? He is coming back next week to fish in new duct , I would like to know if I should push the issue for him to find and fix?? This ductwork. Thanks

Its hard to believe someone would do what you've explained, but I've seen it before. Not knowing how the house is constructed makes it hard to give an opinion. What I'm referring to is joist configuration. I'm going to guess based on what you've said that getting a run to that boot was impossible having a finished ceiling. What I mean is cosmetically. They might have had to drop below the finished ceiling to get across a beam of something.

My next thought/question. Are you getting any air through that diffuser? Any at all? Turn on the blower and check. If you are, the insulation guys may have knocked it loose. Around here 3 screws in every joint is code, but don't know where your at. If this is the problem a small hole maybe all that's necessary.

In my opinion running an entire new run seems a bit drastic since the run is apparently there but not connected properly. Get another opioion.

Quote:

Originally Posted by eschuen

Its hard to believe someone would do what you've explained, but I've seen it before. Not knowing how the house is constructed makes it hard to give an opinion. What I'm refering to is joist configuration. I'm going to guess based on what you've said that getting a run to that boot was impossible having a finished ceiling. What I mean is cosmetically. They might have had to drop below the finished ceiling to get across a beam of something.

My next thought/question. Are you getting any air thru that diffuser? Any at all? Turn on the blower and check. If you are, the insulation guys may have knocked it loose. Around here 3 screws in every joint is code, but dont know where your at. If this is the problem a small hole maybe all thats necessary.

In my opinion running an entire new run seems a bit drastic since the run is apparently there but not connected properly. Get another opioion.

We can see no boot has ever been attached so insulation guys did not knock anything loose. Also, nothing is in the way of runnig that ducting(beam, etc. ). Another opinion would be great. We do want to know about leaving that extra line not connected to anything , just to heat pump and then somewhere in the floor.