Ductwork Repair & Sealing in Portland, OR
- Included: leak detection (smoke test or pressure test), sealing with mastic or foil tape (not standard duct tape, which fails in Portland's damp crawlspaces), reconnecting disjointed sections, and insulating exposed runs.
- Speed: most crawlspace and attic duct sealing jobs finish same-day, in 2-5 hours depending on how much of the run is accessible.
- Cost: sealing runs roughly $450-$1,200 for a typical single-family home; full-section repair or replacement of a crushed or collapsed run is $250-$800 per section — ballpark, exact price confirmed on-site.
- What we take: photos of the duct condition before and after, plus a written quote before any repair starts — no surprise charges added mid-job.
- Booking: call (971) 512-0966 for a scheduled inspection, or request one online; diagnostic fee is published upfront, not negotiated on your porch.
Leaky ductwork is common in Portland's older housing stock. A lot of the craftsman and bungalow homes in Sellwood-Moreland, Laurelhurst, and Irvington were built before central forced-air heating existed, so ducts were added later — often crammed into a crawlspace or attic with connections that were never fully sealed. Over decades, tape degrades, sections separate at the joints, and rodents or plumbers working under the house knock things loose. The result is a furnace running longer and harder while a chunk of that heated or cooled air just dumps into an unconditioned crawlspace before it ever reaches your living room.
Repair and sealing fits when the ductwork itself is basically sound — metal or flex duct that's intact but leaking at the seams, disconnected at a boot, or crushed where someone stepped on it in the crawlspace. It's the lower-cost, faster fix compared to full duct replacement, and it's usually the right first move before anyone talks about a new furnace, because a leaky duct system can make a perfectly good heat pump look underpowered. The trade-off: sealing an old, undersized, or poorly designed duct layout won't fix airflow problems caused by the duct sizing itself — if certain rooms have always run cold, that's a design issue sealing alone won't solve, and we'll say so rather than sell you sealing work that won't change the symptom.
Homes in St. Johns and parts of Lents sit on lower ground where crawlspaces run damp for much of the year, which accelerates duct insulation breakdown and mastic failure faster than in a drier attic setup like you'd find on a Mount Tabor-area lot. During wildfire-smoke season, leaky return-side ductwork is also a real indoor-air-quality issue — it pulls unfiltered crawlspace or attic air straight into your supply air, smoke particles included. Sealing the return side properly is part of a reasonable smoke-season IAQ plan, alongside filtration, and it's something we walk through on-site rather than upsell over the phone.
We diagnose with a visual inspection and, where it matters, a duct pressure or smoke test to find leaks that aren't obvious by eye — a lot of duct loss happens at boots and plenums, not in the visible runs. You get a written quote before we touch anything, and the diagnostic fee is stated upfront so a homeowner in Multnomah Village or Woodstock isn't guessing what a truck visit costs before we've even scheduled it.
📞 Call (971) 512-0966Ductwork Repair & Sealing pricing in Portland
| Duct leak diagnostic (pressure/smoke test) | $100-$175, credited toward repair if you proceed |
| Spot seam/joint sealing (per section) | $150-$350 |
| Whole-house duct sealing (mastic, crawlspace or attic) | $450-$1,200 |
| Crushed/disconnected section repair or replacement | $250-$800 per section |
| Duct insulation wrap (exposed crawlspace runs) | $200-$600 depending on linear footage |
Exact price confirmed free on-site before any work.
Ductwork Repair & Sealing — questions, answered
How do I know if my Portland home's ductwork needs sealing instead of full replacement?
If the ducts are intact metal or flex with leaks only at joints, boots, or seams, sealing is usually the right fix — full replacement is only needed when duct material is crushed, crumbling, or undersized throughout, which we confirm with an on-site inspection before quoting either option.
Why does my house in Sellwood-Moreland or Laurelhurst have such uneven room temperatures?
In older Portland homes, uneven temperatures are often caused by duct leaks that starve far-from-the-furnace rooms of air before it arrives — a pressure test on the ductwork identifies exactly which runs are losing air and by how much.
Does duct sealing help with wildfire smoke getting into my Portland house?
Sealing return-side duct leaks reduces unfiltered air from a crawlspace or attic mixing into your supply air, which is one practical step during Portland's smoke season, though it works alongside filtration rather than replacing it.
How much does duct sealing cost for a typical Portland bungalow?
Whole-house duct sealing for a single-family Portland home typically runs $450-$1,200, with the exact number depending on how much of the duct run is accessible in the crawlspace or attic — confirmed after an on-site inspection, not guessed over the phone.
Will you push me toward a full duct replacement I don't need?
We provide a written quote before starting any work and explain repair-versus-replacement trade-offs on-site — if sealing solves the problem, that's what gets quoted, and if the duct layout itself is the issue, we say that too rather than upselling unnecessary replacement.