Oakton home with mildew on vents

Wednesday, April 3rd, 2019 by Justin Dobson

Challenge

This home in Oakton had mildew all over the vents. This is caused when there is an air gap between the boot, vent, and drywall. The hot attic air hits the cold vent and condensates. Thus, eventually creating mildew and/or rust on them. Many homes in Oakton and throughout Northern Virginia have this issue but don't know it.....until they replace their Heating and Cooling equipment to higher efficiency products. The newer HVAC has cooler output air and hits dew point much faster and more often causing this condensation.

Solution

We removed the vents and boots in this Oakton home and disposed of them properly. Then we installed new metal boots and vents. Foam spray insulation is then used to seal the air gaps and insulate the bare metal and fixes the problem. Those of you in Oakton and the surrounding ares can call on us to correct these issues. Rust, water marks, or mildew are all indicators of air leakage.

Project Summary

Evaluator: Scott Beers

Nasty mold and mildew all over this vent is unsightly and more importantly unhealthy!!!

Nasty mold and mildew all over the vents. You can see the mold and where it began to form.

Here is a view of the mold from the attic side. This is nasty. Check out the dirty blown insulation...this is a sign of air leakage. If you ever see dirty insulation in your home, its a sign of air movement/leakage.

We replaced the old fibrous duct with metal. Now we just need to seal it and insulate it.

Foam spray insulation has now sealed all air gaps and insulated the boot and vent properly so there will be no issue with this in the future.

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Oakton home with mildew on vents

Challenge

Solution

Project Summary

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