Each winter, we remember that the front bedrooms don’t heat very well.

I’ve checked out the basement ductwork and plumbed the stack in the walls— all clear.

Now that our third winter is coming up, I finally opened up the elbow that connects the basement ductwork to the wall stack.*

This picture shows what I found in there.

* This was no small feat- The wall stack is part of an old gravity heat system and is connected to a standard six inch duct with large box that sits up above the central beam in our basement. Once I finally pulled off the new ductwork, I had access to a hole that was 12”x3” and went back about 18 inches before the stack went up. Getting the frisbee out was particularly difficult. Oh, and did I mention the layers and layers of old paint over the screws and seams in the duct? Fun, fun!