Temporarily closing supply/return ducts

[Theodore]

Hi,
My folks are elderly and live in a ranch home in Florida with one forced air central AC system. They have a master bedroom suite with supply ducts and one return register, and there are multiple supply ducts throughout the rest of the house, as well as two return registers elsewhere. They are having their master suite flooring redone, and walls painted. In an effort to minimize the smell of paint throughout the house, as well as keep the flooring contractors isolated from them (to minimize potential risk from Covid19), I had suggested they temporarily close off the supply ducts to their master suite, as well as temporarily close off the one return duct in there. This way, that master suite area is pressure-neutral and they can just open the windows in there and put a window fan for ventilation while they work. With the rest of the house as well as two other return ducts unaffected, I figure there wont be any serious issues or cause for concern/damage to the AC for the week or so that this work will take place. But I wanted to get some input from more experienced folks.
Thanks!
Theodore

 

[Reach4]

Did you want confirmation that that would be a good idea? I expect the experienced folks would agree that it is a good idea.

If you wanted somebody to suggest a method, I think you might want to describe what access you have to the holes. Use plastic sheet and tape on grills? Remove grill, cover hole+frame with tape, and screw the grill over the plastic? Cover a horizontal rectangle inside of register with a brick wrapped in an old rag? Blow up a ball inside of a 6 inch round duct that you can access in the ceiling?

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Theodore]

Yes, just wanted to check and see if any HVAC folks would caution against doing so because (I'm wildly guessing) even closing off just one out of three returns would cause the air handler to be starved of air and end up frosting over and/or overtaxing the compressor, or some other thing that I'm not aware of.

 

[Fitter30]

Short term wouldn't bother me.