An awkward question first
Do you actually need your air ducts cleaned?
The EPA's position is that most homes don't. We'd rather tell you that up front than sell you a service you can skip.
What the EPA actually says
The boring conclusion nobody advertises
Every duct cleaning company in North Texas will tell you dirty ducts are making your family sick. The federal agency responsible for indoor air quality has looked at this and reached a more boring conclusion.
"EPA does not recommend that air ducts be cleaned routinely, but only as needed." And, more bluntly: "Duct cleaning has never been shown to actually prevent health problems."
SOURCE US Environmental Protection Agency, Should You Have the Air Ducts in Your Home Cleaned?
That is not an argument for never cleaning ducts. The EPA lists three situations where it does recommend it:
Visible mold
Substantial growth inside hard-surface ducts or on other system components.
Vermin
Ducts infested with rodents or insects: tracks, nesting, droppings.
Excess debris
Clogged with dust actually being released into the home from the supply registers.
Notice what those have in common. Each one is something you can see. If you cannot point at a reason, the honest answer is usually that you do not need this yet.
The defining ad in this trade
The $59 whole-house special
You have seen the ad. Unlimited vents, one flat price, sometimes with a free dryer vent thrown in. It is the defining feature of this industry and it works like this: the price covers a technician running a shop vac into each register for a few minutes. That is not duct cleaning in any meaningful sense. The upsell begins once they are inside.
A vacuum in a vent
A shop vac poked into each register moves a little dust near the opening and nothing deeper. Debris has nowhere to go.
Negative pressure on the trunk
The system is put under negative pressure with a large vacuum connected to the trunk line, so debris has somewhere to go. Each branch is then agitated mechanically — brushes or compressed-air tools — to release what is stuck to the duct wall. Registers come off. The blower and the coil get attention. It takes hours, not forty minutes, and it costs accordingly.
If a quote sounds impossibly cheap, it is measuring a different job. Ask what equipment is connected to the trunk, and ask how long they expect to be in the house.
Local conditions
What's different about Arlington
Arlington's cooling season is long. A system that runs from April into October is moving air through those ducts for a large part of the year, and most of that ductwork sits in an attic that gets brutally hot. Two things follow.
First, duct leakage matters more here than duct dirt. Air escaping a poorly sealed joint in a baking Texas attic is conditioned air you paid for, dumped somewhere nobody lives. For most Arlington homes, sealing returns more money than cleaning ever will, which is why we offer it and most cleaning companies do not.
Second, humidity plus a cold evaporator coil is how mold gets a foothold. If there is a genuine mold problem in a North Texas system, it usually starts at the coil and the drain pan, not in the middle of a duct run. That changes what needs cleaning, and it is the reason we look at the air handler before quoting for the ducts.
Permits, since people ask
Cleaning your ducts does not require a permit. Changing them does. Arlington requires a mechanical permit for ductwork alterations, replacements and venting modifications, under the 2021 International Codes the city adopted in late 2022, with applications going through the city's Accela portal. If a company proposes replacing duct runs rather than cleaning them, that is permitted work, and you should expect the permit to appear in the quote.
What we handle
Five jobs, and when each is the answer
Air duct cleaning
Whole-system source removal to the NADCA method: negative pressure on the trunk, agitation in every branch. Not a vacuum poked into a vent.
Dryer vent cleaning
The one job in this trade with a documented fire-safety case behind it. Long duct runs in Arlington two-story homes make it worse.
Coil and blower cleaning
Where the measurable efficiency loss lives. A fouled evaporator coil costs you more each August than dusty duct walls ever will.
Duct mold inspection
One of the three conditions the EPA says does warrant cleaning. Testing first, because "it looks like mold" is not a diagnosis.
Duct sealing and repair
Leaky ducts in a hot Arlington attic dump conditioned air where nobody lives. Usually a bigger saving than cleaning, and rarely offered.
Straight answers
Common questions
How often should ducts be cleaned?
There is no interval, and any company quoting one ("every three to five years") is selling a subscription rather than answering the question. The EPA's guidance is condition-based: clean when there is a reason to.
Will it help my allergies?
Possibly, but the evidence is weak enough that the EPA says plainly that duct cleaning has never been shown to prevent health problems. If allergies are the reason you’re here, filtration and humidity control usually do more. We will say so.
There's dust blowing out of my vents. Is that the ducts?
That is one of the three EPA conditions, so yes, worth investigating. Check the filter first though. A collapsed or bypassed filter causes this more often than dirty ducts do, and it’s a five-dollar fix.
What about the sanitizer spray they offer?
Be cautious. The EPA notes that chemical biocides and sealants applied inside ducts are not well studied for this use. If someone wants to fog your system after cleaning, ask what the product is and why it’s needed.
Do I need this before selling my house?
Rarely. It doesn’t appear on an inspection report. A dryer vent that’s genuinely blocked might. See dryer vent cleaning, which is the one job here with a real safety case.
How long does a proper job take?
For a typical Arlington single-family home, most of a working day. If someone quotes ninety minutes for a whole house, they’re describing a vacuum in a register.
Symptom first, diagnosis second
Tell us the symptom first
Dust from registers, a musty smell when the AC kicks in, a room that never cools, a dryer taking two cycles. Each of those points somewhere different, and only some of them point at the ducts.
Describe what's happening and we will tell you what it is likely to be.