Ventilation & air quality

If the return air smells musty, that's moisture trapped in your ductwork, not a filter problem, and we test for it before we quote a fix.

Duct sealing, static-pressure balancing and ERV fresh-air systems for Austin houses, duplexes and small offices where the humidity never fully leaves the building. This is where most of the ventilation contractor austin calls we get actually end up.

Inspection booked within days
Pressure tested before and after, not just eyeballed
Mastic on every joint, never foil tape
Austin, Texas and the surrounding service area

What Austin humidity actually does to a duct system

A sealed house in a hot, humid climate is a good thing for the utility bill and a bad thing for a leaky return. Every time a duct joint pulls unconditioned attic air into the return side, it's pulling in moisture along with it, and that moisture has nowhere obvious to go. It settles into insulation, into the fiberglass liner inside old metal trunk lines, into the dead air behind a closet baseboard. Nobody notices until the closet smells like a gym bag or a spare bedroom stays five degrees warmer than the thermostat says it should.

We check static pressure with a manometer at the air handler before we touch anything, not after. A healthy duct system usually reads under 0.5 inches of water column total external static; we've measured houses over 1.0 on systems that were "working fine" by the homeowner's account, because a bigger blower motor had been masking a duct problem for years. Sealing that system with mastic, not tape, drops the static pressure, drops the runtime, and it also stops feeding moisture into the exact cavities where mold starts. That's the mechanism, and it's the reason duct sealing austin searches so often lead back to a musty-closet complaint rather than a comfort complaint.

Two ways we fix airflow at the duct itself

Sealing an existing system and adding fresh air to a tight one solve two different problems. Most houses only need the first.

Gloved hands applying mastic sealant to a duct joint in a dusty attic

Duct Sealing & Balancing

Every accessible joint, boot and plenum seam gets brushed with water-based mastic, not foil tape. Tape lets go in a hot attic within two summers; mastic doesn't, because it cures into the seam rather than sitting on top of it as an adhesive that eventually cooks. We test static pressure at the air handler before we start and again after the last joint is sealed, so the number on the invoice is a number we measured, not one we assumed.

What's included
Sealant	Water-based mastic on every accessible metal and flex joint, not aerosol or foil tape
Testing	Static pressure reading before work starts and again once sealing is complete
Balancing	Damper and register adjustment room by room so no single room is starved
Access	Attic, crawlspace or closet chase, whichever the ductwork actually runs through
Typical duration	Half a day for most single-story houses, longer for multi-zone or hard-access attics

Price basis: per system, flat fee after an on-site inspection, from $650.

Energy-recovery ventilator unit installed in an attic with ductwork connections

ERV Fresh-Air System

Once a house is sealed tight enough to hold conditioned air well, the old ducts have nothing new to circulate, and they just recycle the same humid air past the same damp cavities. An energy-recovery ventilator swaps a measured volume of stale indoor air for fresh outdoor air, running each stream past the other through a core that transfers most of the temperature and humidity between them, so you're not paying to condition raw outside air from scratch. We size it to the house's actual air-changes-per-hour need, not a stock number off a spec sheet.

What's included
Unit	Balanced ERV core sized to the home's square footage and occupancy
Ductwork	New insulated supply and exhaust runs, tied into or separate from the existing system
Controls	Wall control with a boost setting for cooking or a full house of guests
Placement	Attic or mechanical closet, wherever there's a clean run to an exterior wall
Typical duration	One full day, occasionally two on a hard attic

Price basis: installed, from $2,600.

Where we draw the line

We won't seal a duct system we haven't pressure tested first, and we won't sell an ERV to a house that just needs its existing ducts fixed. Guessing at airflow is how call-backs happen.

Resezido Climate — Ventilation

What this doesn't cover

Duct sealing does not repair crushed or disconnected flex runs, and we don't quote it over the phone. Static pressure has to be measured on site, and damage found in the attic gets priced once we can actually see it.
An ERV is not a dehumidifier. If the complaint is standing humidity rather than stale air, a dedicated dehumidifier tied into the return may be the better fix, and we'll say that on the visit.

Get on the schedule

Tell us what the air is doing

Musty closet, a room that never cools, or high bills with no obvious cause — describe it and we'll bring a manometer, not a guess.

+1 (213) 555-8290 — same crew answers, no call center
office@resezido.com

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What's going on with the air

Notes

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This starts a conversation, not a binding quote. Every price above is confirmed once we've measured your system.