Air ducts are often full of debris, dust, insects, mold, and particulate matter.  I just had my ducts cleaned for the third time since moving into this house five and a half years ago.

Each of the duct cleaners had slightly different equipment.  Many have fungicides that can be misted into the ducts, but because I am not sure of the safety of the products used, I have not tried this.  I have, however, put a few drops of cinnamon oil on an aromatherapy pad and put this between the grill over the return and filter.  The aroma is intense and pervasive so be really careful how much you use.

	As you can see, the truck is specially equipped with enormous vacuum cleaner bags, hoses, and the power to suction out debris in the HVAC system.
	The hose is attached to the furnace and sucked into the bags mounted on the truck.
	Air, using a compressor, is blown from each register.  The flexible tubing is fed into the ducts and rotated so as to blow as much debris as possible through the ducts to the furnace and into the vacuum bags.

Comments

This is a straightforward job, sometimes performed by one person and sometimes by two.  It takes a couple of hours and costs $200-300, depending on the company, equipment used, and number of registers.  If there are a lot of particulates in the air, it may solve many problems.  I believe it is essential to clean the ducts after any construction or renovation work.

When I first had the ducts cleaned, I had been aware of the smell of burning construction materials (and the chemicals used on those materials.)  The person performing the work found pieces of drywall, wood, sawdust, nails, and such in the ducts.

The second and third times, we only found powder, lots of it.  After each cleaning, I felt the air quality had improved significantly.

 

Ingrid Naiman
3 October 2006

Continued on next page

See also, page on HVAC Systems and Forced Air

Hidden Mold in Crawl Space || Installation of Crawl Space Encapsulation

CleanSpace Installation A-Z || Garage || Air Pressure

Remediation Attire || Particulates || Mold Dog || Summary

Sacred Medicine Sanctuary

Copyright by Ingrid Naiman 2006

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