Air duct cleaning in Arlington
The service this site is named after, and the one we most often talk people out of. Here is what it involves when it is done properly, and how to decide whether you need it.
When it is justified
The three reasons that justify it
The EPA does not recommend routine duct cleaning. It recommends cleaning when one of three things is true: substantial visible mold inside hard-surface ducts or on system components, infestation by rodents or insects, or ducts clogged with enough dust and debris that particles are coming out of the registers.
Each is observable. That is the useful part. You do not need a technician's opinion to check whether debris is blowing into your living room, and you do not need one to notice droppings.
The method
Source removal: what the work involves
The recognized method is called source removal, and the principle is simple. You cannot clean a duct by sucking at one end of it. You have to put the whole system under negative pressure and then physically dislodge what is stuck to the walls, so it travels to the vacuum instead of into the house.
In practice that means:
- A high-capacity vacuum connected to the trunk line near the air handler, running for the duration.
- Every register removed, not just loosened.
- Each branch agitated with brushes or compressed-air whips, worked along the run.
- Supply and return both done. The return side is dirtier and is the one most often skipped.
- The air handler opened up: blower wheel, evaporator coil, drain pan.
- Access ports cut and properly sealed afterwards where the trunk cannot otherwise be reached.
A crew doing all that on an average Arlington house is there for most of a day. That is the single most useful thing to know when comparing quotes.
Reading a quote
Reading the cheap quote
Flat-rate offers around fifty to a hundred dollars for unlimited vents are common in this market. The arithmetic does not work: the equipment alone costs more to run for a day than the quoted price. What is being sold is a visit, and the actual revenue comes from what gets added once the technician is inside. Sanitizer treatments, "mold remediation", coil work, a UV lamp. None of those are inherently illegitimate. The problem is discovering the price in your hallway with the registers already off. Ask for the fixed scope and the total before booking, and ask what specifically would change it.
Say no to this
What we would tell you not to buy
Chemical fogging and sanitizer treatments as a standard add-on. The EPA's position is that products applied inside ducts have not been well studied for that use, and the sensible order is to remove the contamination physically rather than spray something over it.
Duct sealing chemicals sprayed inside the duct as a coating are a separate thing from mechanical sealing at the joints, and the latter is what helps. see duct sealing and repair.
Straight answers
What homeowners ask us first
My house is new. Do I need it?
Often yes, once, but for a different reason. Construction debris, drywall dust and offcuts routinely end up in ductwork during the build. A post-construction clean is one of the more defensible reasons to do this.
Will it lower my energy bill?
Cleaning duct walls, barely. Cleaning a fouled coil and blower, measurably. Sealing leaks, significantly. If the bill is why you’re asking, the ducts themselves are the least promising of the three.
What if they find mold?
Ask for it to be tested rather than treated on sight. Plenty of dark deposits in a duct are not mold, and "we found mold" is the most common upsell trigger in this trade. See duct mold inspection.
Do I need to be home?
Yes, and you should be. Registers come off in every room and you want to see the before and after inside the trunk. A company confident in its work will show you camera footage without being asked.
How messy is it?
Done correctly, not very: the negative pressure is what contains it. Done badly, you will find out over the following week as dislodged debris works its way out of the registers.
Start with a survey, not a sales visit
Ask about duct cleaning
Tell us which of the three conditions you can actually see, or describe the symptom that brought you here. If none of them apply we will say so, which costs us the job and saves you the money.
Related work we arrange
The other four jobs
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.