The Saga of the Duct Taped Duct

That there duct with the duct tape in the previous post below has a story. It has been installed and torn out and installed and torn out and installed, so that duct tape is kinda like a big ace bandage. It is our mature experienced duct. It's been around. First, the HVAC guys installed it in a stud cavity (the magical place between the 2x4s that make up the walls) that is where the gas fireplace vent must to go. So at one point in time, it was nicely riveted in place and smooth and flawless. Well, it goes all the way through the floor above and connects to a flare for the heat vent that will be in the wall up there, so it had to be unriveted on both ends, wiggled out, moved over, and rethreaded through a new hole in the floor and reriveted. Then the spray insulation applicator tried to insulate along the sides of it. The foam insulation spread around the curved edges to the back and expanded, acting like a wedge to push the duct out of the cavity too far for drywall to cover. So the insulation had to be carved and sawed and chipped away, in a process involving one of those big scrapers often used for chipping ice off sidewalks and a huge power tool called a reciprocating saw, tools that made me cringe to see in such proximity to my precious timber frame posts. Then the poor duct had to be removed again so the insulation behind it could be cut out. And the insulation sticking to it had to be carved and scraped off. Then it was reinstalled. Again. I guess the seam there was a little gappy so the installer felt the need to bind it up in a little duct tape. Well, in that it will all be covered up in drywall soon enough (okay, NOT soon enough to suit me but that is another story.) all that matters is that it works, not that it be pretty.