How to Hide Ductwork Inside a Wall

Place the first floor plan of the house on a table and tape it down. Place a transparent version of the second floor plan over the first and tape down one side. Place a transparent version of the third floor plan over the first two and tape down a different side. This will allow you to overlap your plans to see the relationships between one floor and the next. If your furnace is in the basement, start with the basement floor plan.

Draw the main channel of your ductwork. Typically, you will have a large duct that will carry your treated air upward through the house and return ductwork that will suck in room air and carry it away from the room. Most floor ducts run laterally and are hidden inside the cavities of floor joists.

Determine the size of ducting you need to run behind vertical wall spaces. Ducting is larger than the thickness of a wall. Identify a closet, laundry area, pantry or less important room where the thickness of the wall can be modified to allow for the thickness of the ducting to be housed inside the wall. Sometimes, these duct surrounds are framed into the corner of a room, if there is no other solution.

Borrow the space from a closet, pantry, mudroom or other room and build a channel space specifically for duct runs. When possible, position your channel so that it lines up with another less important room so that you can borrow similar space above and below the level you are working on. The objective is to hide the location of the duct run behind the walls.

Build away from the interior of a wall in a room where you have no choice. Arrange to house the ducting, then look at the wall as a design opportunity. Many walls with vaulted ceilings benefit from the installation of niches to allow the display of artwork and lights. These niches are often generated from hiding ducting, then working around the soffits created by the ducting paths.

Design soffits to hide ducting inside your wall along the top ceiling edge. A soffit is a framed-out box that hangs from the ceiling. Incorporate your soffit into a tray ceiling design that will hide the ducting inside the wall, while adding architectural value. For a ducting air return, frame the wall thicker than standard studs in order to hide the ducting within the drywall cavity.