On Saturday I had buyers begin their inspection process on a lovely home they are buying in the University area. I recommended they start with an in-floor duct camera inspection to evaluate the condition of the in-slab duct work. Inspection revealed the ducts to be compromised and we are now in the process of evaluating the costs for repair or replacement. What makes this discovery more distressing is that the sellers had recently invested in a new heating and air conditioning system. Those new units may now be unusable depending on the solution to the duct problem.
It’s not the first time I’ve seen new units installed without the HVAC technician first evaluating the in-slab duct system, so I can’t stress this enough: If you have in-floor ducts in a slab and you plan to replace or upgrade your HVAC system, do a camera inspection first.
A camera inspection can tell you (a) the duct material used in construction and (b) the current condition of those ducts—information that could help you avoid significant investment in a deficient system. Even if you don’t plan on changing your system now, you might choose to proactively camera your ducts in order to plan for the future and, if there are problems brewing, potentially be able to make changes to forestall further damage.
Though there is the risk a proactive scope could reveal an issue that might otherwise never come to light if a buyer chose not to inspect the ducts, I believe it’s better to know and be able to be in control of the solution, than to have this be an unwelcome surprise in the midst of your home sale process.