Can Ductwork Touch The Floor Joists

I own an old home circa 1919.

Can ductwork touch the floor joists.

I ve been taping the seams and joints of all ductwork with foil tape and then planning to insulate the ducts. See the illustration by the u s. This is typically the case for ducts that run through a dropped ceiling or soffit or between joists so long as the floor system sits on top of a conditioned basement or crawlspace. How do you get the ducting in there.

Except for the first 7 feet of the supply run raise the supply run so it is directly up against the floor joists. In the 70 s when the new furnace was installed they cut through the floor joists to run the air ducts. There is a nice rectangular ope area to run the hvac ductwork through in the middle of each truss. I have a question that i can t seem to find an answer for i am helping my sister in law build their house and they are using floor trusses 14 inch depth open web trusses at 19 2 oc.

All of the heating ducts run under the main floor between the floor joists. If there is enough room up in the joist bays yes you could run the duct work up there. However doing this does not fix the slant that the floor has taken since the old joists got damaged. Just be sure to get the sizing sorted out correctly ie a 12x12 duct cannot be replaced by a 3x48 duct same area as there s a lot more friction in the 3x48 but the correction factors for duct shape are surely available so you could pick a size that will work.

My question is this. It currently has an unfinished basement but i am in the beginning process of retrofitting this. A cable that is run through areas where forced air flow is supposed to occur heating cooling or return ducts and some raised floors and drop ceilings must by law in the us be plenum rated. Yes cables and conduits can run parallel to duct work and can touch each other.

Attics can be problematic when insulation is located in the attic floor rather than in the rafter bays or better yet outside the roof sheathing. Floor joist cavities can make acceptable duct chases for insulated air sealed metal flex or fiberboard ducts. In situations when sistering damaged floor joists with lumber of similar dimensions it can be easy to notch and slide the sister board into place. Only approved duct materials such as galvanized steel aluminum fiberglass duct board and flexible duct that meet local code smoke and flame spread criteria must be used.

This would raise the ductwork 1 2 to 1. I can t meet the 7 mark but the local authorities will give me a variance if i do the following. Take some extra time and jack the damaged area up so that the new lumber doesn t need to be. The problem lies when you come across where electrical and water piping is then you may not have enough room.

So in direct correlation to those cut joists are ou. Department of energy below. It is a heated basement and plan to finish it into a living space. In respect to this can conduit touch ductwork.