Most homes have one room nobody wants to sleep in. It is freezing in January and it is an oven in July, and no amount of thermostat adjusting fixes it. People replace furnaces over that room. Often the equipment was never the problem. The air was never getting there in the first place. From June 2025 through July 2026 our techs ran 27 duct work jobs across Northern Utah.
Duct work we actually did this past year
This is our own job log, June 2025 through July 2026, not an industry average: 22 duct work estimates and 5 duct work installs, 27 jobs in twelve months. The estimate count sitting well above the install count is worth noticing. A lot of these visits end with us telling somebody their duct system is fine and the problem is somewhere else.
What bad duct work actually costs you
Your furnace and air conditioner can only deliver what the ducts carry. When a system leaks at the joints, is undersized for the load, or runs through an unconditioned attic or crawlspace with no insulation, you pay to heat and cool space nobody lives in. The equipment runs longer to hit the same setpoint, which costs money every month and wears the system out early.
The symptoms homeowners describe to us:
- One room or one floor that never keeps up.
- Weak air out of a register even with the system running hard.
- A basement that is a different climate than upstairs.
- Rooms that whistle or bang when the system kicks on.
- A system that short cycles.
- Utility bills that do not match the size of the house.
What we do
- Repair damaged, disconnected, and crushed duct. We find it constantly in crawlspaces where flex duct has been stepped on or has fallen off its collar.
- Seal leaking joints and seams properly, because the cloth duct tape somebody used in 1994 has long since let go.
- Insulate runs passing through unconditioned attics, crawlspaces, and garages.
- Add or resize supply runs and returns. An undersized return will choke a correctly sized furnace.
- Run new duct for a finished basement, an addition, or a converted room.
- Replace failing trunk lines and transitions.
- Modify existing duct when a new furnace or air conditioner needs a different configuration than the old one.
Why Utah homes make this worse
We ask a duct system to do two opposite jobs here. Summers along the Wasatch Front run dry and well over ninety, winters drop below freezing for months, and the swing between them means a duct system that is merely adequate in one season is exposed in the other. Older homes on the benches and in the older parts of Salt Lake, Davis, and Utah counties, and out through Weber, Summit, Tooele, and Wasatch, often have duct that predates the current furnace by decades, sized for a system that no longer exists.
Basement finishing is the other big one. Utah homes get basements finished constantly, and the duct rarely gets extended properly when that happens. A single register added off a long, undersized branch is how you end up with a beautiful basement that never gets warm.
Straight talk about what we do and do not do
We repair, seal, insulate, modify, and replace duct. That is real work we do year round and it is what this page is about.
We do not clean ducts. That is a separate trade with its own truck-mounted equipment, and we do not own it, so we are not going to sell it to you. If that is what you need, we will say so and you can hire a company that actually does it. We also do not install air purification or air treatment equipment. Plenty of companies will quote you a box on the side of your furnace before anyone has looked at whether the air is reaching your rooms at all. We would rather fix the duct.
What our customers say
Rare Breed carries 1,712 reviews at 4.9 stars across our three Northern Utah locations. Quoted word for word from our public review pages, click through and check us:
“He was the only plumber that didn’t tell me they were two weeks out. I definitely appreciate his responsiveness and quality.”
Joe H. · Google review
Fast, Friendly, Fair
We schedule a 2-hour arrival window and we keep it, because sitting home all day waiting on a technician is not respect for your time. Every job gets done right the first time, no shortcuts. That is the A STEPP standard our whole team is held to: Accountability, Safety, Trust, Excellence, Progress, Positivity.
Rare Breed Plumbing, Heating, and Air
Sandy: 8763 Sandy Pkwy, Sandy, UT 84070
Bountiful: 270 S Main St. Suite #113, Bountiful, UT 84010
Orem: 1197 S 1480 W, Orem, UT 84058
Mon-Fri 8am-5pm, 24/7 emergency service
Call 385-449-0144 or book online.
Duct questions we hear a lot
One room is always cold. Do I need a new furnace?
Maybe not. If the rest of the house is comfortable, the equipment is doing its job and the air is not getting to that room. That is a duct question, and it is usually a much cheaper answer than replacing a furnace.
How much air am I losing to leaks?
It depends entirely on the system, and we are not going to quote you a percentage we read somewhere. A technician looking at your actual duct in your actual crawlspace can tell you what is wrong with yours.
Can you add duct to my finished basement?
Usually yes, and it is far easier before the ceiling goes up. If the basement is already finished we will show you what access we need before anything gets opened.
Do I need my ducts cleaned?
That is a fair question and we are the wrong company to ask, because we do not offer that service. What we can tell you is whether your duct is leaking, crushed, disconnected, or undersized, which is a different problem entirely.
