I Was just getting ready to head out the door and uh, there was a funny noise and I was like oh man I think I need to change my air filter. My air filter is plugged. Yeah, it's plugged, but this is even worse. This video is brought to you by Sporland.

Quality, integrity and tradition. All right. I know I'm a Nut but I just I don't know I get obsessed about perfection and I realize it's not going to be absolutely perfect, but I'm squaring out some new boots because we're going with smaller boots and registers to get proper throw for the two-ton system we're installing. So I squared up the new hole I decided to when I'm all ready.

I'm going to take out the old Boot and just patch over that rather than trying to patch half of that boot. So I've got the new hole marked out. We're going to do that. We're going with smaller boots and registers to get proper throw across the house because we want to make sure we're throwing it all the way across.

so that way we get proper mixing. so we're going to be cutting in that one. I Brought it up higher because it wasn't level with the other one already and we're going to be putting another one right there. and then we'll be cutting in a new kitchen one.

Everything's going to basically get smaller so on a lot of these like this one over here all end up going higher too and we'll just patch over those because in my head, maybe I'm wrong, but it seems to me that it'd be easier to patch the entire hole rather than patch half of it because then they just get a bunch of drywall dust and everything. So and that's why throughout my whole process I haven't um, patched any of my holes and I just taped them up because I knew that I'm going to get a drywall guy to come in when I'm all finished up. Okay, foreign ly sealing up these now. My buddy Adam helped me to get the boots custom made because we have a lot of funky sizes and then he made me these extenders because we ended up going with Krueger registers and they have dampers in them and they need extra deep boot boxes basically so that way the dampers can open and close and they don't have anything.

So Adam made me these extensions, put them together and uh, I just am sealing them up right now. All right. Once the duck sealer kind of dried a little bit I hit him with a little bit of flat black paint just so that way they don't shine, weird light angles or anything inside there. So I'm gonna let them dry for a few minutes and then we're probably gonna go and put one of these in.

All right. I Came up into the attic because I had to measure to frame around I need two by fours coming down on each side of that hole? So that way uh, the uh, the grill screws into more than just the drywall or the register. So got my measurements. we're going to come back.

I'm going to go downstairs, cut them, and then hopefully the the boots are going to be dried by now from painting and everything. So I'm out of breath because I've been climbing up and down but okay. got my first boot in I got I'm gonna measure for some places to stick screws so that way it's nice and secure. Got the boot installed, put the grill up, leveled it out, and I taped around it because we're gonna seal the can in there so we're gonna get some Caulking and seal all around that.

All right. Got this guy: I Just used some white caulking, went around to seal it, put the tape there so I can pull it off and then we'll paint it when we're done. so you're not looking at the white just to make sure that it's airtight. Oh yeah, it's all good.

Yeah, it's nice and airtight in there so I'm just gonna let that dry so that's not too bad. just put some black paint on the edges right there and again. the um, the grill will cover it up and then I'll go do some touch up around here because there's a couple little spots where there's like right here and right here. So we got the whole cut in.

uh I Used caulking to seal all around I painted the caulking black and then I um painted around the trim because the caulking kind of turned it all white. So I'm gonna wait for the paint that I just did. just touch up paint all around there to dry. Then we'll put the register on and then we'll move on to the next one.

I'm getting ready to do this one I already climbed in the Attic I'm gonna go ahead and move this one over too. so I got two laser levels marking my corner point and then I'll just measure out the boot I need to make sure it is really close to the The Vault right there. so I need to make sure everything's gonna fit which I'm pretty sure it will and we got to make sure with the register too. so this guy will basically Mount right there and there's plenty of room up there.

So yeah, it'll fit in the register and everything. It'll be perfect, right? Um, I'm not connecting duct work to these boots yet I'm just cutting them in now. This isn't ideal. but I used a start collar I Got a bunch of start collars right here, right? I Used a stark collar, bent the tabs in, and taped it shut.

This isn't going to cause any real thermal, um, protection. You know it's not going to let the heat re I Mean it's going to slow it down slightly, but not very much. But the biggest thing is it's going to keep the dust out right. The dust from the attic.

Now my existing system is oversized. It's a four ton. um, so a little bit of heat load isn't going to be the end of the world. It's not ideal, right? But hopefully I'm going to get this done shortly.

But for now, I'm just cutting in the boots and putting the registers on and I'm taping that shut. and I did that for the other one I already did too. And then that way we're keeping the dust out of the house. All right.

This one's in. uh I framed 2x4 right here. actually. um I had to rip a 2x4 down the middle because it needed to be two and a half inches.

um I think what did I yeah I think is what I had to do. But anyways. um yeah. I ripped a 2x4, put three inch screws through into the other two by four over there, then ran just some drywall screws through the can.

I'm going to get in here and tape it up and then we're going to go ahead and put some caulking on that. Okay, we've got some caulking on there. It's all ugly, but when I peel the tape off, it'll be a little more manageable and then we'll paint it to fill in all the uh, ugliness. If I get this tape off me without getting cocky, don't look at me.

So we're gonna let that dry for a few minutes and then I have some flat black paint. We'll paint that and then we'll take the uh paint the inside with flat black and then I have I just went and got this paint right here so we'll paint the outside. You're not really going to see any of it anyways because the register is going to hide it all but still I don't know. I'm just kind of being a nut right now that Kruger register super nice.

My buddy Adam talked me into those and I really do like them. Um, it's crazy too. like by reducing the size, we're increasing the throw and you know going to be able to mix the air a lot better. I'm just waiting for the caulking to dry on that one and then we'll paint it and everything.

but this one turned out super super nice. I'm super stoked about them also. Jill and her infinite wisdom and our garage sale today. She sold our couch so we have no couch in the front living room anymore.

so I'm thinking arcade games and maybe a bar top. That's what I'm thinking. Also, these laser levels are super handy. She's like they're cheapy ones.

I Didn't need anything fancy. She used a thumbtack to hold it in, set it up at 90 degrees, and then do what you need to do. It's not like for full-on construction work for you know, big stuff, but for like 30 bucks and then this one I've had forever got my kitchen boot getting ready to cut that one in right now. It's amazing how much isn't level in this house.

And the interesting thing like I use the straight edge of the existing register and then come to find out it's way off. but I'm also measuring to the edge of the wall. and who's to say the edge of the wall is straight? You know, like everything's just a mess in this place, but that's how most track homes are I guess so. I'm sure this is really typical you can see.

I Got this one cut in again, these ones are getting deleted after we're done. I got this one cut in that one cut in and my kitchen one. We have a multi-directional on the kitchen so it's gonna shoot that way and shoot towards that wall to help mix and then again, that one will be deleted. I'm getting ready to do my front entry room and because of the way that everything's framed out, there's no way to get this centered on this door without really doing a bunch of stuff.

So I'm just gonna have to be okay with the fact that it's not going to be centered because I'm not going to try to reframe everything. Um, it's kind of a bummer though, but you know it is what it is I Gotta let some of this stuff go in these residential houses. You know nothing's completely Square nothing's completely centered. So this is that register boot right here.

and if you look, you've got this framing just for the drywall to be screwed to right there. If I was to center it, it would have to come to where. Basically it's right here and this is a supporting Beam for the roof truss system. and I'm not gonna mess with that like my register boot would be like right in the middle of there.

We're not going to do that, so we're just gonna have to deal with the fact that it's not going to be centered on that door. It's just a bummer, but it is what it is. So I'm just going to move it up to about right here. Somewhere in this area, it's going to be close to the roof line.

That way it can shoot across the Vault and that's where we're gonna go with this guy. All right. I Got it marked out. We're going to put it at about 23 inches from the top of this boot right here.

We're going to level it and again, the whole point is is to hit the ceiling as much as possible, let it travel amongst the ceiling, and then we'll probably try to angle it towards the window a little bit too as far as the direction that it's blowing. Get some mixing going on. Um, so now I'm just going to tape it out. it's a what is it a six by ten boot so it is going to be a little bit shorter than this one.

Everything's smaller, all right. Got the boot installed. Uh, it is painted on the inside I Caulked where the screws went through I was able to get four screws on this one I Just have a cap so that way dust doesn't get in on the other side. If you think about it, it logically makes sense that you should always caulk around the boot.

Okay, because the last thing you want is for the register to go on and the air to hit the back side of the register. then Escape into the Attic So You always want to make sure you're cocking behind there. You know there's going to be a lot of people telling me that that's a waste of time. It's negligible.

The air leakage. it's not if you think about it. I'm downsizing my own system from a four ton to a two ton I Need every ounce of airflow out of this to make my system operate properly. so we are going for as tight as you know I can get it basically.

So I'm going to do everything I can to make sure that we have the minimal amount of air leakage. Well, when I cut in this boot I Realize that the stink pipe for the sewage, the vent pipe was in my way. So I'm just gonna relocate this I'm just gonna 45 it straight down into there. uh well, something like that we'll see.

I'm gonna actually try to see if I can just cut back this. if I can cut this back and 45 it out of the way, that's going to be best worst case I Got to cut it down but I don't have one of those bits to Auger it out so we will have to see. But I got a little bit of the two inch stink pipe and a couple of the fittings and stuff so it shouldn't be too hard. Well, it's not the prettiest thing in the world.

If I had bought street 45s, it would have been a little bit easier, but it's all in, it's glued. didn't really change a whole lot and then now I got a direct shot to hook up flex duct without it being in the middle of that. So that way we're not kinking our flex duct, all should be good. I'll uh once the glue sets and dries I'll get a strap that pulls it just this way a little bit and we'll be good to go.

So now we can start running our flex duct and there we go, all nice and pretty caulked around the boot. Uh uh, not that it's really going to matter, but I paint match the inside of the boot with black paint covering up all the white caulking. but you're never going to see that stuff leveled out the register and we're good to go. So again, we're going to be removing that one when all is said and done.

Part of my project too, We're putting in better bathroom fans so I'm about to retrofit this one to the bigger fan that has a light and then we have a built-in damper inside of it so it's going to help with the air leakage a little bit. So I got to cut this hole to nine and three quarters by ten and a half. so it's going to be a couple inches bigger on each side. so my joist runs right here.

So I'm basically going to enlarge the hole this way and enlarge the hole that way and it's going to offset a little bit more over the shower, which is what we want anyways. and you can see the only light we have in here is this and it's super dark in that shower so hopefully this helps a little bit more. We had a giant mess in the bathroom stuff everywhere, but we have a working fan light move some air. One thing though is I had a three inch duct coming off this fan and it's made for a four inch duct.

so I am going to upgrade that and I think it'll quiet it down just a little bit, but at least it lights up the bathroom a little bit more when they're in the shower and stuff. So now I got to clean up all my messes. All right. All together we got that one right there.

We got that one right there. We got that one in the kitchen. Of course we're still gonna delete the old ones. we got the new one in the front room that we've still yet to decide on what we're gonna do in here, but I am really thinking like a pinball machine and some cool old school arcade stuff a bar top.

I Even thought about moving something into this area. moving the TV room into this area and this is where I start getting crazy. cutting it into that wall, taking that closet out because that closet's like six feet make that like an entertainment center in the wall. Have a nice room right here because we got good shutters that block it off in here and then turning this room where we have the kitchen table into like a game room kind of set up with like my wet Dream would be a pinball machine, maybe a foosball table and a bar top.

That'll probably never happen, but it sounds like a grand idea, right? But anyways, uh you guys saw we cut in the return on this one and then walking through the rest of the house. uh you saw the one in the master bedroom that we cut in right up in here. Okay, so we got that one and then we went into. we've got the new ceiling fan and or a new uh bath fan in this room right here and then each one of the bedrooms now have a new register cut in or each one of the bedrooms I should say have a new register cut in here.

now this one I had to go far away from the wall because of like the the way that the Roof Systems set up but it's all good. no big deal and then we have this room right here. We got it cut in and everything's capped off and then we have my office right here. so I didn't show you guys every single one because you didn't need to see me cutting every single one.

but you see the way that I went about it cutting them all in and stuff. so I think they all turned out nice I was just getting ready to head out the door and uh there was a funny noise and I was like oh man I think I need to change my air filter. my air filter is plugged. Yeah it's plugged but this is even worse.

This is my own system I've never opened this up I've lived here for over 10 years. go figure right? our own systems get trashed. Yeah, that's pretty gross huh? and that's not even fully cleaned yet. that was just brushing it off with the brush.

pretty nasty. I'm gonna Institute a hair net policy in this house or a shower. crap my cat. My family has to wear shower caps when they walk through the house.

from now on. gonna grab some of the Viper cleaner spray it on there, get it to push some more of the stuff out of there. This thing's not going to be perfect, but I'm going to do my best to get some airflow out of it. Maybe it'll lower my energy bills, all right.

I Cleaned the evaporator, put it back together just quickly. Nothing too crazy. Um, and I'm very curious because there's a massive amount of an airflow. Improvement So I want to measure that airflow Improvement So I've got my true flow grid out.

We're going to do a measurement because I do have a measurement before when the evaporator was dirty. so I want to see how much better the airflow has gotten. So we're working through the process. It's a step by step.

I'm waiting for my system to turn back on because I just put the filter door on and once it Powers up we're going to go through all the different steps of the true flow grid. get a return duct measurement after the filter, before the evaporator and in the supply duct, and then we'll insert the true flow grid and we'll get an accurate measurement here. All right we are running, so we're going to go ahead and hit take measurement and then we're going to work our way through after the filter. All right, let's go ahead and move it after the filter, take measurement before the evaporator coil and I've already done this.

So I have the holes drilled so it's kind of super easy for me to do this. take measurement. My understanding is this is getting a baseline so it can you know use this stuff and then supply duct when we put in the true flow grid and it can get an accurate measurement applied. duct up there clearly tell majority of my restriction is in that return.

Oh the same majority but a good amount of my restriction is in that return. All right. So now we're going to work our way through the process and what it's telling me to do is uh, leave the pressure probe in the supply plenum, take out the air filter and put this guy in place of the air filter. I Had to get a little creative to make sure that, uh, the true flow grid doesn't pop up or anything.

So I taped it down so we're good. I'm going to put the door back on and we're going to finish our measurements. Oh wow, that is insane. So when I originally took my airflow on October 16th of 22.

we had 11 35 Cfms. Okay, when I cleaned my evaporator coil, we had 1309 Cfms. That's a pretty significant change. That's awesome.

1309 Minus 1135 174 Cfms of improvement by cleaning the evaporator coil. That's pretty crazy I Didn't realize the coil was that dirty, but I had never cleaned it before anyways. So you know you know, the really difficult thing about my house project is that this is all happening on the two weekends off. I have a month? okay or have in a month? I should say.

okay. so I'm on call. Uh, a lot basically. So um, actually I have three weekends off in a month? Yeah, so I'm two weeks on three weeks off is what? I am? Because yeah, because the way we did things.

but still. regardless, this is happening. You know, a little bit at a time, just on the weekends usually Saturdays and Sundays I don't really have any time during the week because of work and video schedules and stuff. So really, it's just you know, three Saturdays and Sundays a month essentially and I just do a little bit at a time.

So that's why it's taken me so long. you know, because my my normal obligations and then you throw in birthdays and holidays and different things. which is all life. but it just like messes with my head like it's just man.

I just want to be able to focus on this. You know if I just had two solid weeks I could get this done. You know, probably if I had some help too. But that's my own issues I Like doing things on my own.

But so we're working through this process. so you know I've gotten a lot further than what you guys are seeing in this video. but this is me cutting in all the cans, the boots, um, you know, mounting everything, framing around them. It takes me forever to do a simple process because the way that my brain works is I'm in there measuring, trying to level things out, getting everything all straight.

I realized that probably I didn't need to do any of that. it's just how I work. Okay, now another thing to think about too is you know how frustrating it is to try to find and I've done this in the past before. Now this project I'm spending a lot more time and I'm doing things a lot more proper essentially right.

But I've done load calculations before using like write soft and figuring things out on my own for you know, family houses and things like that and you know all kinds of projects right? And I realize as I'm doing this project and what I'm learning through this project is how much I oversized equipment in the past? okay, um, it is what it is, right? You know I mean a good majority of everybody out there is oversizing equipment. pretty much if you're trying to follow the proper uh, manual J calculations and stuff, you know, um, you know we're all oversizing stuff and and if we want to as we progress in the future and we become more energy dependent, we need to really start thinking about reducing our Demand on the electrical grid, especially where I live. So that's why I'm going through this process of you know, of course, I'm going to rely on the electrical grid because I'm putting in a heat pump. So I'm going to use electricity during the winter and the summer a good amount of electricity.

but I'm trying to be a little bit more efficient in the way that I design things. So that way we have consistent, longer run times, less cycling on and off. That kind of stuff, right? But as I'm going through that process, I'm learning so much and I'm realizing all the mistakes that I've made in the past. But another thing that I'm learning is that you know when you come up with a load calculation and you go through the entire process and then you select the registers, the boots, the duck sizes, and all that different stuff.

and then you go try to get those materials. and I ran into this in the past and I ran into this this time too. Nobody stocks the stuff that you want. People only stock what they say are common sizes, right? But unfortunately, what are common sizes typically are the sizes that nobody really needs.

Okay, I mean, unless you're doing a trunk line, you know you don't need 16 inch supply duct, right? 18 inch supply duct unless you're doing a return air drop. Okay, um, you know. But but everybody is is. And it's not even just the ductwork because I realize that you know you can oversize duct work and that's not a big deal as long as your registers and your boots are correctly sized and that's what I'm talking about too.

You know, getting register boots um, or or boots you know, and and getting um, you know, registers like the the nobody has that stuff in stock, right? I It's just it blows my mind. You know that a good majority of the industry and I'm not trying to stand on a high horse and say that I'm better than anybody, right? Because I've done this incorrectly in the past too. But the more you learn the proper way to do things, the more you realize that nobody knows how to do things the proper way. And yes, systems have worked and they do work okay.

But are they working properly? Are they working as the manufacturer designed them to work? A good majority of them are not. They really aren't because equipment is not sized right. I'm sure there's a bunch of people watching this and it's okay. It's okay to not know the right way to do things because I'm just learning right now and I'm 20 plus years into my career and I'm just learning how to do things the right way.

Okay, so it is what it is, but I'm sure there's a lot of people that are watching saying you don't need those. those sizes you don't need to do that should have just kept what you had. but I'm you know I'm I'm strange I'm strange I'm Different I Like to do things my way. Okay I want to address a few things that I know: I'm going to get pushed back on number one framing around the boots that I cut into the walls.

The framing has no insulation, no thermal barrier between the wood framing and the boots. Okay, I didn't really think that one through when I first started cutting those in. In hindsight, I probably should have done something a little bit different and had a a thermal barrier between the two by fours that I cut around the boots. but okay I really don't think that I'm gonna have as big of a problem as it seems like it and my initial plan I don't know if I set it anywhere in this video when I am done with these instead of wrapping that raw fiberglass crap around these things I'm actually gonna go get a froth pack from Home Depot and I'm gonna spray foam all the boots.

Okay, so you know I know I Used caulking around the outside of it and you know there's a potential that caulking can shrink over time. Different things like that: I'm gonna spray for foam on the inside of the drywall up in the attic, all around the boot. so you're going to get even more air sealing and more insulation around those those boots. So that way you reduce the amount of condensation that you could potentially get.

Okay, so it's not perfect that I framed around those and I realized like in hindsight I probably should have done something a little bit different, but you know it is what it is. it. it's just how it is. and I think I'm going to be okay if I was in a much more humid climate.

maybe a little more concerned about condensation making its way into the wood and causing rot and things like that, but I really don't think I'm going to run into those issues here in our dry climate. Um, but you know, who knows. Again, I'm filming it all. So if I run into problems in the future, I'll put it on film and I'll show you guys.

Okay, so um, you know I am going to spray foam around those things and uh, what was the other things you know I realized in editing for some reason I didn't film that I had cut in a new return. So what? I did I actually have really nice uh Krueger return grills coming that have much more. Um, you know, a lot, a lot less of a pressure drop across them. Okay, so we have nice return grills coming for now I just went back with identical heart and Coulee grills just so that I can cut the openings and just get them put in there and then when the Kruger grills come in I'm gonna have to do some framing around those and make the the Kruger grills look really nice for the return.

Grille So we are going to have two return grills. um one thing I will say and you guys will see in future videos but when I cut in that return Grille It made it so loud in my house because it opened up so much more airflow and it's just it's Extremely Loud You can hear the air running through that return Grille and the fan noise all the way in my living room. Now when you're watching TV you actually have to turn the TV up because it's so loud. but that's because we're running a four ton um, or a hundred thousand BTU furnace, right? So that's a hundred thousand BTU furnace existing in my house.

Massively oversized. Um, and the air moving through that thing is just ridiculously stupid. My new system is going to be a two ton heat pump. It's only going to have 800 Cfms of air moving through it, so it's going to be a lot lower.

Um, it's not going to be that much whatsoever. Okay, um, so we covered that. Uh, when I do that too? I'm also going to be doing a bunch of work inside the return cabinet underneath the uh, the new fan coil. we're going to air seal that in there, so this is I've still got quite a bit of work left to do, but this is where I'm at.

So I really appreciate you making it to the end of the video. If you have any feedback, any comments, any suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments. shoot me an email. Hvacrvideos Gmail.com I'm always looking for feedback and I'm always looking to improve my knowledge.

Okay, I am not the smartest person in the room whatsoever. Okay, especially on this project because I'm I'm really winging it on this one. Um, if you're interested in supporting the channel, you know the easiest way to support this channel is literally just watch these videos from beginning to end. Um, that's the simplest way, but there's other methods too.

If you're interested in purchasing any tools, you can go to Truetechtools.com I have an offer code. Big picture. One word on checkout. If you put my offer code in on majority of the items on their website, you'll get an eight percent discount and then I get a small commission from that.

So that's a great way to help support the channel. You can also support the channel via PayPal Patreon and YouTube channel memberships. Those are a couple different ways. There's links in the show notes of this video for that and yeah, that is it.

Stay tuned. There'll be more videos coming I've got a bunch of electrical work coming on this and then we got Refrigeration line sets going in and I'm trying to do everything I can with my existing system running some of that work I've already done again. Uh, this video that I'm releasing right now is actually from about a month ago. so I've gotten quite a bit more stuff done since what you've seen in this video.

so stay tuned. I'll edit those videos down and I'm hoping to get this system done here in the near future because I want to be done with this project or at least have the majority of it done with this project too. I Know that you know it's going to be all kinds of changes coming over the next year, but I plan to have the heat pump installed and operating and running through the winter and then you know tying in some little things that I want to do to improve the house a little bit more so stay tuned. Okay again, thank you so very much and we will catch you on the next one.