Heating duct help

I decided to crawl under my house today for the first time. I discovered two of the insulated foil-like tubes that serve as heating ducts are severed. The cats that get under the house in the winter are probably to blame. Anyone have experience with this kind of thing and know how much it would cost to get those fixed DIY or by a professional? Any help is appreciated.

 

Duct tape, dumbass.

 

Cute, but the extent of the damage looks a little beyond that.

 

Call a professional. Have him look at it and give you an estimate. Then you'll know how much it might cost.

 

You can get that tubing at Lowe's or Home Depot at a reasonable price.

 

"If you know what I mean. Nudge, nudge. Wink. Wink."

 

Call a couple of pros. Be there when they do the estimates and ask questions about the process and learn as much as you can. If you decide you aren't comfortable doing it yourself, hire one of them.

I'm guessing the joints are most likely taped with foil tape, not duct tape. You can get that at home improvement stores also. Duct tape degrades over time.

Find where the cats are getting in and close that up now.

Edit: Whatever (dirt, debris, etc) is in the duct work is shooting up into your house, so clean anything out and get this taken care of. Make sure the cats aren't in there when you do

 

Thanks for all the input.

I decided to go back under for a closer look at everything. It appears every piece of tubing came apart at the joints. The only way my small, one-story house was getting heat this winter was directly from the furnace vent itself. I'm going to call a couple of pros, but the simplest solution appears to be, as bigpern so bluntly put it above, duct tape it all back up.

How cats could have done this, I haven't a clue.

 

Sleeper: Like the man said up there, foil tape rather than duct tape. One is used to hold ducts together. The other is duct tape.

 

I reviewed the thread to jot down some notes, and noticed that. Foil tape it shall be.