Air Ducts Before

Air Ducts After

Clean air is essential to life. Often times we breath contaminated air without even knowing it. And one of the most least suspecting places you would think of having to worry about is your very own house. In houses that haven’t had their ducts cleaned there is dust, dust mites, chunks of drywall, wood shavings, other construction materials, bugs, hair, fur, and sometimes rodents and mildew. Look for yourself, just pull up a floor register, or a return vent from the wall and shine a flashlight inside. You will be surprised at what you find! This is what you’re breathing every day! This isn’t something that a lot of people worry about though because its unseen. Out of sight, out of mind.

Do you find yourself constantly dusting? It seems like you can dust over and over again and it just comes right back. Have you considered cleaning the ducts? Often times it comes from the forced air system in your house! It just circulates the air around the house and the haunting dust comes back. There are many reasons to have your ducts cleaned. Better air quality, especially important for anyone with asthma, reduce allergens, and it keeps the dust levels down.

Get those dirty ducts cleaned! Most of the duct cleaning services are very thorough. They do cost a pretty penny but its worth it. Usually around a couple hundred bucks. Although it is expensive, it is very thorough and better for your health and furnace.

The procedure: Most companies hook a (technical term) big vacuum to the supply and return side of the duct work at your furnace, and then block off all the vents for maximum suction. It kind of makes a central vac throughout the house. There will be suction to each vent/ Then they go from vent to vent one at a time and feed a line through it to the trunk line. The trunk line is the big duct either in the crawl space or ceiling that all the vents branch off of. The line that they feed down is just an air compressed line but at the end is a whip that blows out air and whips around violently inside, knocking everything and anything off of the duct walls, leaving it spic and span. Usually they will go into the crawl space if you have one to clean out the trunk line also. Everything gets sucked back to the vacuum at the furnace.

Before

After

When you’re calling around to the different companies some things you might want to look for is how thorough their process is. Ask if they clean out the trunk lines, and air wash the furnace and motor. Some companies use what they call a roto-vac. I personally don’t like that process because it doesn’t seem all that thorough. It’s pretty much a glorified shopvac. It is a vacuum with a long hose and at the end is a spinning brush. However try to shove a shop vac hose down your vents and see how far you can get it in. see what I’m getting at? Also ask them how long it will take them. Depending on the size of the house and how gruesome the ducts are it should only take a few hours. Anywhere from 2-4 hours for the average house.

So 3 Major things to look for when you’re going to have your ducts cleaned would be:

Ask what their process is for cleaning your ducts

Ask how long it will take

Ask if they clean the trunk line out

Overall it’s a very smart investment. Its for the health of your family, and cleanliness of the air in the house. It keeps the dust levels down, and it also helps with the health of your furnace. Changing the filters regularly helps a lot too.