Dr. Cheap's House of Hacks

A/C Duct Extension

Circa 2002

There was an air duct for the A/C at my house that was never completed. Short story:
Previous owner knocks out wall out to make room for washer/dryer.
Built new wall about 8 or 9 inches further back.
A/C duct that went to the bathroom on the other side of that knocked out wall was higher up, and not messed with.
Another hole WAS cut in the new wall and the plastic vent cover put on.
End result is the hole in the old wall for the vent just went into the closet with washer/dryer.
When the A/C runs the W/D unit gets really cold & the bathroom stays hot.
Genius, pure genius.

What a waste. So all I need to do is put about 9" of duct work between the two vent holes (old & new wall) right? Yeah right! If it were that simple, this page would not exist. The holes aren't lined up, nor are they the same size!

Okay, time for fancy 3D modelling of the system. No CAD this time, just pencil, paper, and a ruler. A protractor might have helped, but I don't think I have one anymore. I recorded measurements of all the edges of the parallelapiped formed by connecting the two holes together, I'm really glad I got a minor in Math!

Now to find some material...
Sheet metal? Nah...1) don't have any 2) hard to work with, especially in a small cramped area like this.
Plastic? Nah...1) dont have any 2) irregular shape
Paper? Nah...1) too thin 2) won't last or hold shape

I got it...cardboard!
It's more sturdy than paper, easier to cut & shape than plastic, and I can put nails thru it much easier than sheet metal. And as a bonus, I have some too.

I took a couple of "Xerox inkjet photo paper" boxes and started slicin' and dicin'. Luckily I had 1 empty box (1 top, 1 bottom), but still needed more. I robbed the top of the 2nd box...oh well at least the remaining paper has a box-bottom to sit in.

Measure once, cut twice.
I did a lot of test-fitting into the wall-gap & making minor cutting adjustments along the way. Got some nails and hammered this stuff in. I think I used my fingers more than the hammer.

Oh, ignore all that torn up wallpaper, the vent cover hides it and it's going to be replaced one of these days. The reason it is so torn up is because the genius glued the vent cover the wallpaper instead of putting screws into the sheetrock!

I might go back and seal it up the edges with some duct tape. Wow, using my roll of duct tape for an air duct--that'll be a first!

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