air return vents in the wall: paint or not?

16 years ago

Our air return vents are in the wall, about a foot or so down from the ceiling. Are they supposed to be painted the same color as the wall, or left white?

Thank you for your input!

Featured Answer

jpatcucc

16 years ago

Atlanta Supply Company will sell vents online. I've had no experience with them, but it's the only place I've found that lists my odd sized vents in their catalogue.

Sort by:Oldest

Comments (10)

paintguy22
16 years ago
It's personal preference, though most decorator types would argue that cold air returns are not decorative pieces that you would want to highlight so painting them the wall color will help them disappear.
fnmroberts
16 years ago
I agree with painting them.

Remove them from the wall to paint the wall. Carefully wash the vents and rough them with steel wool or a scotch brite so your paint will adhere. Brush paint the vents after they air dry, when the paint has dried, reinstall. Probably will require 2 coats.
Related Discussions
Air conditioner vents and returns
Q
Comments (14)
It may be an option. You need to have a way to run the duct from the air handler to the floor system of the second floor. We have attic space on the 2nd floor (and I think you probably do) so there is room to run the ducts there or even put an air handler there. When we built, I really didn't push it. Now building again, I am putting the ductwork between the 1st and 2nd floors. Keeping it there really helps with efficiency. It is at the beach and I really want to keep the ducts away from the humidity up in the attic. I didn't push the issue initially because I didn't necessarily want floor vents. Downstairs we have floor vents in hardwood and that is perfect. But with tile and carpet, floor vents wind up being metal which is less than ideal. Now you could do some in the ceiling and some in the floor but that loses any efficiency benefit and the longer duct runs actually cost some efficiency (and cost money initially). Insulating the floor is not an issue. I have insulation between basement and 1st floor and also ductwork running there. As an aside, insulating the floor does not help a lot with sound. Insulation is a pretty bad sound barrier anyway but it does close to zero for foot stomps which is the main issue in the basement. Builders push insulation for sound because it is so cheap and it gives them something to do easily. But if you want to cut sound significantly, you have to spend some money. We may do more sound proofing over the garage since we have a bedroom there. What I would do is a second layer of drywall with a sound barrier glue used inbetween. "r-11 fiberglass" - that isn't even the best sound insulator. R-15 is a little better at sound and is what you get if you walk into Lowes and look for sound insulation. Cellulose is better still. But like I said, nothing is really any good in that category.
...See More
Can I block/reduce return air vent? Alternatives?
Q
Comments (3)
If the return was properly sized, you don't want to reduce it--it will mean less airflow in the LR if nothing else. What's in the wall above the return? Could you open up the wall that you'll be covering and put the return high instead of low? Then you could put a grill at the top of the bookshelf/cabinet, where you won't see it as much anyway.
...See More
Return Air Vent Above Register?
Q
Comments (2)
I don't know what you have but it sure isn't a heating system. You need to call a good dealer to go over your system and see what can be done to make a proper system. paulbm
...See More
cold air return vent in basement
Q
Comments (3)
You'll hear a lot of debate about this one - some will say you can't do it without calculating a Manual J etc but the reality is there's a lot of boilerplate hvac systems, at least where I am in Canada. I have two returns in the upper floor of my house only a couple of metres apart, and none in the finished basement and none in any of the bedrooms, which I've been told is an 'impossibility' - well here in Canada, it's not and the system works well enough - the master bedroom is a bit cooler with the door closed, but it's above a poorly insulated garage. I see a lot of basements with the return in the ceiling. Warm air does rise, though, and in the summer you might want some of that cooler air in the basement circulating upstairs, so I'm planning to do exactly what you mentioned, put the return near the floor, backing onto the furnace room. If there was some sort of big issue with changed airflow, you could probably block off an equivalent of the downstairs return vent in the upper return, to equalise the air flow, but to this layperson, the SUPPLY of cold air is not as much of an issue if you're not getting cavitation (a vacuum effect because the pump isn't able to suck in as much air as it's trying to deliver.) Take some temperature readings over a few hours in different spots in the house, and make note whether the furnace is running a lot more than it was previously. The 'duct work' typically is either the space between floor joists or a boxed duct around the same size, or, running down the wall, typical stud wall spacing, 16." That's what I see here in British Columbia, again, I'm not an HVAC tech. Don't go excessively large. If you go through the furnace room wall you won't need much in the way of ducting and if you need to you can use thermopan (silver faced cardboard) instead of drywall or OSB to form the 'duct' from the floor up to the return (make sure you cut into the return, not the warm air section and make triple sure you're not going to damage any wires, gas lines, a/c lines etc. As for the return, the standard size grille is about the width of the space between studs I guess so around 16?" If you need to tweak it, you can block sections of it or the upstairs one inside under the grille if you need to. If you're careful, you're not going to damage anything irrevocably.
...See More
Happyladi
16 years ago
Yes, paint them!
PRO
Lori A. Sawaya
16 years ago
If you have existing vents run 'em thru the dishwasher, spray with a bonding primer, paint them. You can only paint them a couple times before they start to look glompy and ugly. If the vents are odd sized and not easily replaced from HD or Lowe's, be extra careful because you need to make them last or you'll be in for a search project to replace them.

If the vents have been painted a couple times and/or are chipping etc., I recommend just buying new, spray with primer and paint.
decorativewalls
16 years ago
wearybuilder, yes paint them. As paintguy suggested you really want them to disappear and as funcolors mentioned use a spray primer and spray evenly . Use waterhose/soft brush to clean. You can repaint them as many times as you repaint your walls.
PRO
Lori A. Sawaya
16 years ago
OMG! That's an awesome resource. Thanks for the link! There is an older area of homes that I've been working in a lot lately. Lots of 40, 50, 60 year old homes, many were custom and designer back in the day. What an odd collection of vents and returns! Creative HVAC is an understatement. :D

Unfortunately, they've been painted and painted and painted and look awful at this point. I know most of them have lead paint - which homeowners don't think about when they take a piece of sand paper to them for a repaint. Sanding and salvaging is often the chosen option 'cuz it can be hard to find replacements.

Having an on-line resource to order new is like the highlight of my week!
User
16 years ago
If you want an easy way to get paint off old vent covers or anything metal, get an old cooking pot (that you'll never use for cooking), fill it with water, drop in your metal item, and let it boil. Add a tsp or so of baking soda. The heat of the water will soften the paint and it'll peel right off. Ventilate your room while you are doing this. Makes paint removal a piece of cake.
susanlynn2012
16 years ago
I had my wall vents painted to match the wall in my bathrooms but not in my home office. I wish I had all my rooms done with the vents matching the walls. It looks so much nicer not having the wall vents stand out.
0
richardkittyhawk
16 years ago
Several years ago, when Bob Vila was on This Old House, he demonstrated using Oven cleaner and a bucket to remove paint from brass door knobs and fixtures. It is best done outside to avoid the fumes. Line the bucket with an old cloth, spray oven cleaner heavily, and let sit for a while.
The paint will come right off.
0

air return vents in the wall: paint or not?

jpatcucc

Comments (10)

paintguy22

fnmroberts

Related Discussions

Happyladi

Lori A. Sawaya

decorativewalls

Lori A. Sawaya

User

susanlynn2012

richardkittyhawk

COMPANY

BUSINESS SERVICES

GET HELP

CONNECT WITH US