The in-ground ductwork scare

It was Monday night, a day before we were scheduled to approve the condition of the house on Academy Ridge, and 4 days before we were scheduled to close. A friend of ours saw on my blog that we were planning to purchase a rental on Academy Ridge Road, and emailed us to say that they used to live there. He then went on to warn us that the neighborhood has a problem with failing in-ground ductwork, and asked if we had checked into that. We hadn’t.

I was like, “Ductwork for what?”  Turns out it was HVAC! I had no idea that sometimes HVAC (heating and air conditioning systems) ductwork would be installed underground!

Apparently the underground ductwork can rust and collapse.  Then new ductwork has to be installed on the roof, and new vents put in, all costing a great deal of money. I think it cost our friends about $15,000.  Wow, I didn’t want to buy a rental with a $15,000 ticking time bomb!

Here’s google map photos of houses on the same block, that had to put their ductwork on their roof after their in-ground ductwork failed.

So we spent a frantic evening trying to quickly research in-ground ductwork and how it can be maintained or remediated. Meanwhile, John was working late that night at work, getting ready for two big presentations the next day.

That was at about 9:00 PM. Then around 11:00 PM my real estate agent emailed to say, “The house does not have slab ductwork.”

Whew!  Apparently she had already looked into it, because she knew about the potential issue. She knew we would have to get it inspected if the house had it. But it doesn’t!

We closed on the house yesterday!