Duct Cleaning

The sad news is, we can’t always control how much air pollution there is in our cities. The good news is, we can control how much indoor air pollution there is indoors, inside our homes, offices and other indoor areas we use frequently.

One of the ways to control indoor air pollution is by regularly cleaning your air ducts. The term "ducts" refers to various components heating and cooling components of forced air systems around your house, such as:

If air ducts are not installed, maintained and operated correctly, they can become contaminated with dust particles, pollen particles or particles of other debris. Moisture, when present, threatens to provide an environment for microbiological growth, such as mold. Spores from such growth may be released into the air in the home's living space. Exposure to contaminants like these may cause allergic reactions in people. That’s why many people choose to have their air ducts cleaned.

You can get duct cleaning done professionally, or you can enlist the services of a duct cleaning professional. If you decide to go professional (which is always a good idea when you’re dealing with matters of home hygiene and health), make sure that the air duct cleaning service provider will clean all components of the system and has the qualifications to do so. If one component of a contaminated system has not been cleaned, re-contamination of the entire system can result—and this defeats the purpose of having undergone air duct cleaning to begin with.

There are different methods of duct cleaning. Usually, a service provider will use specialized tools to remove dirt and other debris from ducts, then will use a high-powered vacuum cleaner to suck the dirt out.

Some duct cleaning service providers will suggest applying chemical treatments to the ducts in order to kill microbiological contaminants, or to cover the inside surfaces of the air ducts and equipment housings to control mold growth and/or prevent the release of dirt particles or fibers from ducts. Note that these practices are still being researched and tested for safety and efficiency.

If you choose to allow your duct cleaning service provider to apply these methods, then do so only after the system has been properly cleaned of all visible dust or debris.