Some people are more sensitive to airborne dust and pet dander than others. If your nose is getting itchy just thinking about what might lurk in your ducts, the $300 to $600 it costs to clean a 2,000-square-foot home is a worthwhile investment. But before you reach for the phone, take a good look to see if your ducts are dirty.
Service Doctor recommends you call 888-588-5655 for a FREE in-home consultation to review the health and cleanliness of your ductwork for heating and cooling system.
Get the Picture
Wouldn’t it be handy if you could take an incredible journey through your ductwork to see if cleaning is needed? Using a pocket digital camera equipped with a flash, you can come close. Simply remove a floor register, reach as far as you can into the duct (don’t drop your camera!), and take a couple of shots.
If there’s gunk within a few feet of the register, take heart. It’s easy to snake a vacuum cleaner hose into the duct and remove the stuff. However, if you see a long trail of junk and a thick coat of dust beyond what your vacuum can reach, your house may be a candidate for professional cleaning.
Look for These Symptoms
- Clogs of dust, cobwebs, and debris, or noticeable particles blowing out of supply registers
- Visible mold on the inside surfaces of ducts
- Rodent droppings and dead insects inside ducts
In addition, recent construction inevitably creates dust you don’t want in circulation.
Service Doctor recommends cleaning after a big remodel job. After a new home purchase is also a good occasion — after all, who wants to breathe someone else’s pet dander?
“People get it done after they buy a house,” he says. “It’s like getting the carpets cleaned.”
Good Reasons for Duct Cleaning
- Cleaning removes accumulated dust so it won’t shed into the household.
- Removing debris and cobwebs eases airflow and increases the efficiency of the system, in extreme cases as much as 40%.
- If you have fiberglass ducting, fiberglass gathers more dust than sheet metal.
