HVAC and bouncy steps

For the HVAC, I added standard registers in the wall and tied into the main supply & return trunks. We only have a single air handler, but there was an existing register pushing air into the basement, so I wasn't too concerned about robbing air from the furthest rooms on the circuit. To start, I removed the existing register and patched up the hole in the duct board. I cut in a standard 8" take-off and ran insulated 8" diameter flex duct to a 12x6 register box. I sealed everything off with foil adhesive to ensure no leaks. I ran a single low supply so the heat would enter the room on the floor.


On the return side, I left one stud space without insulation so I could use it as my return chase. So here, I just cut into the wall space and the return trunk with 8" take-offs and connected the two with insulated flexible duct. I only opened up a single 12x6 low return so I would pull cold air off the floor in the winter. We'll see how things go this summer to determine if I need to add a high return to pull hot air off the ceiling. With the AC on in the house, the basement was always comfortable, so I may not have to bother with it.

Here's the return register...

And the supply on the other side of the room.

So far I've been pleased with the performance and the finished space stays very comfortable.

After the drywall was installed, I noticed that the steps were a little bouncy in the middle of the run. To fix this, I fastened some nailers to the wall using Tek screws and screwed the stringer to them. On the framed side, I did the same thing and tacked some nailers on the studs and tied into the strigner...... No more bouncing.