apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

the idea of exposed airducts ( or any type of exposed piping) as 'decorative' makes me laugh- most people pay very good money to have all that sh** unexposed!!!
oh well to each his own!! try a furnace supply co. if you must!!

you could get.....eeeekk....pvc pipes from homedepot and wrap duct tape around them for the "pipe" look, this is a very trading spaces way to get the effect.

You could use regular piping too...most exposed ceilings aren't just hvac piping...but water too. Painting them in a pop color...like royal blue...would hide their "faux"-ness too

i'm sorry ... I hate when people do this. It's like watching one of those lame design shows where it's a split-level family home in Boise and they want a "New York loft" with fake exposed brick... gross.

... so you want ducting installed that doesn't serve a purpose?

Perhaps you should have your head examined.

I agree ridge...plastic pipe wrapped in duct tape...I don't think so...

The faux airducts is something that I would advise against, it just seems so silly.

If you're looking for something sculptural to fill that ceiling space maybe get some cool lighting fixtures or even look for some cheap sculptural piece on ebay that could hang from the ceiling.

strip sheet rock off your ceiling and you will see your ducts. otherwise, hvac installers will know where to get this stuff.

Faux Airducts?!?!

That's as bad as the folks who have brick and divided light windows on the front of their house and vinyl siding and plain windows on the other 3 sides, or buy the most basic BMW 3-Series sedan with an Automatic and stick "M" badging on it.

Not fooling anyone.

Why would you want fake air ducts anyway? Is your ceiling lonely up there all by itself?

I get the why... But I would caution against it.

I had 12' ceilings in my last place, and I relished that it was just big open space. I have a friend that would love to get rid of her ductwork. It adds a lot of visual clutter and collects dust like crazy.

Look under "sheet metal fabricator" and/or "ductwork".

That said, I live in a loft with (real) exposed ducts, and I find that they visually drop my high ceilings too much, and they collect a lot of dust on top. I'm thinking of rerouting some of them behind walls, but it would be an expensive project. Why someone would pay to do the opposite (and in such an inauthentic, functionless way) is beyond me.
But -- it's your loft! Good luck.

The idea of exposed duct work seems to be to highlight the authentic nature of a space. Adding it as a decorative element is just counter-intuitive! But I guess after it is in, who would know that it wasn't functional? It sounds pretty ridiculous, though.

I agree with what others have said - it sounds like the HVAC equivalent of wood grain vinyl contact paper.

I'd play up the high ceilings with authentic things those of us with lower ceilings would kill for - tall vintage columns, extra high cabinet or shelving furniture pieces, oversized art canvases, unusual items suspended from the ceiling - a crusty old canoe or well worn kayak, something sculptural, etc.

I agree..it seems the concensus is no to the fake airducts- if you find your ceilings are too high and spacious I'll gladly trade you my lowly 8 footers lol-

If staring at exposed ductwork will make you happy, then go for it.

I could have sworn I saw pipes like that at Home Depot yesterday (I was over by the stuff you need to install dryers), but that doesn't answer how you'd hang it from the ceiling...

Poor Scott got quite a smackdown, huh?
Not that I like the idea either.

Remember the mockumentary "Spinal Tap" (spoofing the lives of fictitious heavy metal rock stars)?

The scene I'm thinking of is when the guitarist gets nailed by airport security with a cucumber stuffed down the front of his tight-fitting pants.

This is kinda like the loft version of that.

This is a joke, right?

Wow, put the pitch forks away, I meant decorative as "looks good enough to be in plain sight" (i.e *not* PVC wrapped in duct tape :-p), I never said I wasn't going to be using them.

My place doesn't have any in wall ducts so this is an easy, aesthetically pleasing, way for me to pipe air without having to do any heavy construction.

I'm certain Home Depot has the "elbow" parts in with the furnace supplies. I don't know if you can actually buy the lengths of ducting anymore - I think they make them out of sheets of metal (?) that you can also buy at Home Depot, or any building supply place. In the photo they're using thin, flat metal strapping looped around the ducts but I have no idea what's connecting the loops to the ceiling.

I'd think a heating/cooling place would be able to help. Or you could take a look at this, which might help:

www.alpinehomeair.com/related/Ductwork.pdf

Um, the Home Depot website has a subsection in the HVAC section called "ducts." Pipes galore...

i stepped into bizarroworld, didn't i?

Maybe it's the Brazil fan in me, but ducts are pretty swell. "Central Services: We do the work, you do the pleasure."

I thought of so many ideas in this thread. Two ducts running side by side for "something new", transparent ducts (for a pet skyway). ... I want a pet skyway. I guess that's already so good, I thought I had more of 'em.

So, I used the terms from that PDF to do some more googling and apparently the magic word is "Spiral Duct". Googling that gave me everything I needed to know.

Wow. Such nasty comments on here. I don't remember seeing the original poster say they were going to be "fake" ducts. He just said he wanted the decorative round ones - not the rectangular ones that are normally installed behind drywall.

I happen to live in a loft and have the exposed ductwork (that is functional) and LOVE it. I have to dust the top like once a month, but I do my ceiling fans, top of my cabinets, refrigerator, etc... too. So, no big deal.

What you're looking for is called "spiral ductwork" in the industry. So, if you google search for "spiral ducts", you'll get many results. My suggestion would be to call a local HVAC firm and ask if you can buy spiral duct from them if you want to install it yourself.

Good luck! It'll look awesome.

ditto halltd

Sorry about the others evilpenguin81 :(

Ductwork can be amazing to look at. Faux ductwork is certainly as legit as a faux fireplace...though I do prefer some function with my form. Nonetheless, to each their own.

It is my suspicion that certain large coffee chains that shall remain nameless actually install fake ducts to make their cafe interiors appear more rough and loft-like. This question did not surprise me at all. I realize now that they will be functional, but ducts are one of the most recognizable elements of loft design and striving for "authenticity" is nothing new.

I can see this possibly working, particularly if there are already raw elements in the original poster's apartment, for example, concrete floors, exposed brick, and especially an unfinished ceiling.

The photo above, though, looks cheesy - you have duct work running below what appears to be a finished ceiling. It's typical of what you would see in new condo construction in dc. New condo building with pretty much standard apartments. But wait! Let me add some exposed duct work, give it a name, like, hmmm, Metropolitan Lofts or some other NY inspired name (like, Chelsea Flats or The Greenwich?), and jack the price up.

I'm kind of confused by this question.

Do you already have forced air ducts?

If so, are you not getting enough air delivered to the areas you need?

The reason air ducts are exposed is because they are usually installed in a loft or commercial environment where the ceiling is exposed and not finished.

If you do not have exposed ceilings than the ductwork has been run behind drywall or sometimes above a drop ceiling, concealing it. You would have to go through great trouble to run new ductwork.

Second thought...Are you in San Francisco? Perhaps you don't have forced air and would like to install a furnace and air conditioner? If that's the case, you will have to hire an hvac person and they can run that (exposed) ductwork for you.

www.mcmaster.com

They have everything you can ask for, and can deliver overnight.

I don't like exposed ductwork so I wouldn't do this at all. If you were putting in a heating or cooling system, I'd have to advocate for then covering up the exposed ductwork.

Otherwise, if you really need something on the ceiling why not hang lighting or fans or a piece of installation art?

I'm still confused, i'd really think you'd need a HVAC dude to run any sort of functional ductwork. Where is the air not getting to? Where is it coming from?
I think most people don't think of sprial duct work as decorative hence the vemon... I two had my mind hole blown by the idea of faux ductwork. I've actually seen soft/clear ductwork in several resturants and thought it looked a bit decorative. It's in Noodle Ranch in Seattle.

Can i vote for a large sculpture intsallation??

Like some a light sculpture perhaps?

I think youre trying to go with a look like this.

http://www.agentpanelgold.com/agents/matthorton/imagelibs/private_library/4020%20azlofts%20interior.jpg

It's going to look like crap if you do it yourself. I'm sure you don't have a clue on how to install it if you cant even find it. The reason why they leave that exposed is because the area was designed for having an open ceiling, with the floor joists or raftter, trusses, whatever exposed. It will look stupid if you just hang it from the ceiling. You'd need to pull all the sheetrock down and then youve got insulation, which is (serving a purpose up there) wires, pipes, who knows what else. If you do undertake this project can you please post some pictures so I can see how you hack it up.

Wow. Pitchforks is right. I now understand how innocents got burned at the stake in Salem.

This whole notion of "faux ductwork" is erroneous. I am embarrassed on behalf of AT commenters everywhere that this amount of gleeful nastiness got spewed over some other poster's misstatement that the ductwork would be "just for show."

Sorry about that, Scott. Good luck with your project.

I agree with RichardinLA. AT isn't about ragging on someone's aesthetic.

Try this Furnace Filter site or some other kind of wholesale HVAC website. They'll get you what you need.

I'd suggest getting some latex caulking to go around the edge of the ducts "entering" the wall. Good luck, that's a pretty big undertaking.