Gas and Oil Home Heating Furnaces - Is this a proper heat pump solution?

We live in a fairly small two-level townhouse. The heating system is a heat pump which is located in the basement. It never seems to cool the second floor (3rd floor if you count the basement as floor 1) well enough in summer or heat it well enough in winter. The first floor seems to be heated and cooled fairly well though. The heat pump is only 4 years old and has always operated this way.

I’ve had a couple of different servicemen in to look at my system and give me an evaluation and estimate to fix the problem. After looking in my basement and attic they both told me the ductwork is laid out horribly. One thing, the return vents upstairs won’t hold a tissue when tested. There doesn’t appear to be good airflow to the second floor as well. Basically there was poor design when the townhouse was built. The one serviceman suggested I have a new ductwork line run strictly to the second floor and also place a new thermostat on the second floor to control it. Some of the ductwork lines on the first floor would be sealed off where it really isn’t necessary (closets). They also want to put a second return vent on the first floor for airflow. The current ductwork in the basement coming off the heat pump is I believe a 12” thickness. He wants to replace it with 8” ductwork to concentrate the airflow. The price to do all this is $2300. He believes he can run the ductwork alongside the current ductwork between the joists between the floors without having to cut into the walls. I have several questions I’m hoping someone can answer for me.

1.) Is this a fair estimate for all this work?
2.) What’s the chances of this work being done and it not really fixing the problem? Basically, I don’t want to be $2300 poorer and nothing to show for it.
3.) Is this a common problem with townhouses that use heat pumps?
4.) I’m probably going to be in this townhouse another 5-10 years. Is this worth the money and effort to get all this done? Do you think it would help in resale since none of the other townhouses in my development would have the new heating/cooling ductwork system? I know it’s probably a matter of preference but should I just gut it out with what I’ve already got since I’m only planning on being there another 5-10 years?

Thank you so much for answering any or all of my questions!!!

The volume of air remains constant in the home and for that matter for each level in the home. In other words, you cannot blow heating or cooling into a home or level without taking out the same volume of air. Another way of stating this is, if a certain volume of air enters the return on one level, that same volume of heated or cool air must come out of your supply registers on that level.

It is true static pressure dissipates from it source, which in this case is the blower in the furnace and accounts for the reason why the suction and blowing of air is greater at vents nearer than vents that are further away from the fan, it will not be that great of a difference to cause the problem you're experiencing.

Since you already did the tissue test, take it one step further. Locate and cover(close) the return register in the basement. There should be a remarkable difference in the suction on the other levels. If there is, that would indicate the return in the basement is too large and too close to the blower. If there isn't a remarkable difference in the suction, it would indicate duct leakage on the return ducts in the basement. The best way to illustrate this to you is a vacuum cleaner hose that has a hole in it. The suction at the end of the hose is dramatically reduced. Solution is to tape the hole on the hose. You can do the same thing with you duct work in the basement.

Before you have any duct work done, insist that a duct blaster test be done to determine the air tightness of the duct work. If they are leaky, you probably don't need new duct work, you need duct sealing.