Air Duct Cleaning Service

What is an air duct cleaning service?

Many customers do not understand what an air duct cleaning service is. Air duct cleaning is the process of removing the buildup of dust and debris from your home’s ventilation system. Your home’s HVAC system pushes air in a continuous loop throughout your home so that you are consistently breathing new fresh air. 

A home’s HVAC system consists of returning cold air and supplying new fresh air throughout your residence. This continuous air cycle filters out the dust and debris floating around your home, so you will often find that your cold air return vents will start to accumulate dust build up on the register covers. This is because your return lines are like a vacuum. It constantly pulls in the air in your home, and forces that old air to the furnace, where the filter collects the debris and then blows the clean air out to your supply vents where you often feel cold or hot air depending on the time of the year. 

During this process, the walls of your ducting will often collect dust, debris, dander, pet hair, and many other contaminants. After a prolonged period, you will need to hire an air duct cleaning service.

Why do I need my air ducts cleaned?

Most people have no idea that your home needs an air duct cleaning to help improve the airflow, furnace efficiency, HVAC system lifespan, dust, and odors from the many years of living in your home. Your furnace HVAC system is one of the most expensive appliances in your home! When this system is not maintained, repair bills, filter replacements, and even a complete HVAC system replacement start to take a toll on your wallet. To help mitigate these costly repairs, it is wise to make sure that you perform an air duct cleaning service with a local vent cleaning company on a regular 5–7-year basis as recommended by NADCA or so they say!

Totally Clean Pro Tip: Check your furnace air filter quarterly to see if it needs to be changed out. If you neglect this basic homeowner responsibility, your filter will reduce airflow, which in turn causes your furnace to work harder, which raises energy bills and burns out components in your furnace a lot faster! Set a reminder on your phone! 90% of furnace-related, heating and cooling issues are due to homeowners forgetting to change out the filter! Save yourself a $100 service call and the humiliation by simply changing this easy component out!

How often do I REALLY need my air ducts cleaned?

The duct cleaning industry standard for recommending duct cleaning differs from company to company. Most companies will regurgitate and spit out the industry standard air duct cleaning interval of 5-7 years recommended by NADCA for two reasons:

1.      Air duct cleaning companies don’t get a lot of repeat business because this is often a one-time service, so they try to make it sound like you need them again sooner when you don’t need your ducts cleaned as often as they say. Duct cleaning companies do not consider your living situation and make a recommendation based on that. More on that below.

2.     Many vent cleaning companies are considered fly by night, and scam artists. They do not care to be honest with you and they will find every reason to upsell you on unnecessary services and time frames to clean your house sooner and for more money!

Totally Clean is an honest and independent company. We recommend that your ductwork get a proper cleaning as needed. By this, we consider many factors in your home which account for dust build-up in your air ducts such as:

1.     Family Size

2.     Children

3.     Pets in the household

4.     Size of home

5.     Style of home

6.     Layout of ductwork

7.     Quality of ducting

8.     Cleanliness of home

9.     Location of home in proximity to external factors (ie: farm fields, dusty roads)

10.  Filter changing frequency

The 10 factors listed above all contribute to how often you will need your air ducts cleaned and serviced. We often see that smaller homes with larger families, pets, and older carpeting contribute to more dust. That being said, you may consider having an air duct cleaning service on a more regular basis such as every 3-5 years. Cleaning your air ducts varies from home to home and Totally Clean prides itself on our honesty. After we clean your ducts, we often get asked, “When is the next time that we will need to have our air duct cleaned by you?” 

We often consider the factors above and make a recommendation based on how long it was before your last cleaning, the dirtiness of the ductwork, and the factors we mentioned above. Your recommendation is always carefully crafted based on our assessment of your home when you ask us.

What are the reasons to get air ducts cleaned?

Knowing when to have your air ducts cleaned and serviced are obvious when you know what you are looking for. Totally Clean is here to help you understand the tell-tale signs that your air ducts need to be cleaned.  We recommend having your air ducts cleaned for the following reasons:

New Home Construction

Did you just have your dream home built? Now is a great time to have your home’s air ducts cleaned out from drywall dust, and other construction debris that either fell into the vents or was purposely used as a garbage can during the construction process! During the construction of your new home, there were probably a lot of different contractors during the building process and not every contractor took the time to either shut your HVAC system off or properly clean up after themselves. Contractors love to use your ducting as a garbage disposal for drywall junks, scrap tile, flooring, and sawdust to name a few items. 

We are often called in to clean out drywall dust from the sanding and finishing process. Your furnace is usually running during this process and sucking in the fine baby powdered drywall dust into your return vents. It often gets passed your filter and into your supply air ducts as well. This continues to circulate throughout your home, causing it to be dusty and a breathing hazard. Drywall dust is not healthy to breathe in. If you have a newborn or children in the house, then it’s a good time to have us clean this out.

Allergies or hypersensitivity to dust and airborne allergens

Many of us suffer from some sort of allergies and it is difficult for us to breathe in our own homes. Oftentimes the indoor air quality in our homes is worse than the air outdoors. There are steps to take to help alleviate the air quality in your home. Air duct cleaning is something you should check off your list. You could have allergens accumulating in your ducting due to previous owners that didn’t take care of the home, never had their air ducts cleaned, kids, pet dander, dead skin cells, nicotine and smoking, pollen, and even sometimes mold. 

When you get your air ducts cleaned with our high-powered air duct cleaning HEPA vacuums, we help eliminate these possible contaminants being cycled through your air supply in your home. We do not guarantee your allergies will be fixed, but you will notice that it will help! This service is great to check off your cleaning list and for that piece of mind!

Purchase of new home

New home? Congratulations, you must be excited, but what you don’t know is what is lurking in your air ducts waiting for you to breathe in! You have no idea what the previous owners were like, what their cleaning habits were like, the type of pets they had in their home, or the lifestyle choices they made in your home. We always recommend getting your air ducts cleaned when you buy a new home. Your air ducts are like a time capsule! The things we find during the cleaning of your air ducts will blow your mind, surprise you and disgust you all at the same time. If you just purchased your home, get your air ducts cleaned and serviced so you can have that piece of mind and so you know exactly what you are breathing in.

Pets & Children

We love our pets and children but what you may not realize is that they are little piggies! Children love to put objects inside our vents out of curiosity, accidentally, and to be mischievous! Pet’s innocently shed their coats of hair and accidentally drop their favorite dog toys in the air ducts and sometimes even dump their food bowl down the venting. We have seen it all! We often find homes, with air ducts built into the flooring to be the dirtiest. Objects easily fall into them, and you would be amazed at the bags of dog food we have cleared out of them over the years! If you’re lucky, sometimes we find some cool antique toys worth value!  

You never know what you will find in your air ducts during our service. It’s a mystery! If you are hypersensitive to pet dander, then this is a good reason to get your vents cleaned out.

It’s just time to get them cleaned!

We are busy and we often forget or overlook some important tasks around the house that need to get cleaned. Your air ducts are one of those that are often items overlooked! If you never had your air ducts cleaned, it’s time to get your home in tip-top shape.

Our Air Duct Cleaning Service Process

At Totally Clean, we have been cleaning air ducts for over a decade! We have perfected our process to make sure you are getting a full and complete duct cleaning service each time! Since we are an owner-operated duct cleaning company, you can be assured that you are getting quality cleaning every time we go out in the field to service your homes in the Southeast Wisconsin area. When you work with Totally Clean, you won’t have any incompetent employees servicing your air ducts. Our process ensures your air ducts are cleaned professionally each time.

1.      Call or submit a quote request to get your air ducts cleaned.

2.     We will call or email you in a timely manner so we can go over important questions about your home, from there, we customize a quote tailored to your home.

3.     After we agree to a price, we then proceed to find a convenient time to schedule your air duct cleaning service.

4.     You will then, receive notifications via text and emails reminding you of our upcoming appointment.

5.     Prior to the job starting, we will send you a text message informing you that we are on our way to your home.

6.     Totally Clean will arrive on time, introduce ourselves, tour your home to get a plan to clean your home fast and efficiently and of course answer any questions you may have.

7.     From there, we will unload our equipment and start cleaning.

8.    Once we are finished, we will clean up after ourselves, and provide you with many before and after pictures to ensure you are happy with our quality of work.

9.     Payment will be rendered after the job is complete via check, cash, credit card, or Venmo.

10. We thank you for your business, invoices will be sent via email when we are finished and of course, we will encourage you to leave us a positive review on Google!

How to prepare for your air duct cleaning appointment

Preparing for your air duct cleaning service is stress-free. We make it as straightforward as possible. We do ask for the following to help us speed up the job and do the job you hired us to do:

1.      Please have all furniture, objects, toys, and debris removed from all register vent openings. This includes a clear path to the furnace and trunk lines. We cannot work efficiently if we are moving furniture and belongings out of the way. If there are any heavy objects, we would of course lend a hand. If there are excessive obstructions when we arrive, we may have to reschedule your appointment.

2.     Have a new air filter ready for us. Please do not install it prior to the cleaning. If you do, then we just kindly ask that you leave the old one by the furnace so we can swap that in prior to the cleaning.

3.     Be courteous and respectful. We will always do the same in return. Please inform all family members and living occupants in the home that we will be there for service on the agreed-upon day, so nobody is surprised by our visit.

4.     Please do not hover and follow us around the entire job. Of course, it is okay to check in on us and ask us questions during the process. We have a job to do, and kindly ask that you go on about your day so we can focus on the cleaning.

5.     We understand many customers work from home, please make arrangements to be mobile that day or inform us of important meetings scheduled for that day. We will only need to be in your office space for a short period of time. We can make quick work of that area if you cannot be disturbed. If we cannot access a certain area, then we cannot guarantee our work. All air ducts must be cleaned.

Our air duct cleaning method and equipment

Totally Clean uses what is called the negative air method to properly clean your air ducts. There is no other way to properly clean your air ducts. PERIOD! We will explain this in more detail shortly. Our method is the most efficient way to clean your air ducts and ensure they are done properly each time. Just make sure you are choosing a company with a great reputation, has honest reviews, good equipment and does not try to upsell you on unnecessary services.

1.      We use high-powered HEPA-rated vacuums that pull a minimum of 5000CFM.

2.     The vacuums are brought into your basement and plugged into your trunk lines with an 8-in flexible hose. Yes, we will have to cut 2-4 holes in your ductwork to attach our vacuum. The number of holes we cut all depends on the layout of your trunk lines and how many furnaces you have. Don’t worry! The holes will be professionally sealed up when we are finished so that there are no air leaks.

3.     We then proceed to turn off your furnace at the power source to ensure no one in the home accidentally turns it on during the cleaning process. Please note that your furnace system must be turned off for the air duct cleaning process.

4.     Your home’s air ducts are essentially turned into one large vacuum so we can get all the fine particulate and debris sucked into our HEPA-rated vacuum.

5.     We will then proceed to go to every vent in the home and use our high-powered airlines to blast and agitate all the debris in each ducting branch line.

6.     Once all the vents and branch lines are cleaned, we will then proceed to the basement to finish cleaning out the return and supply trunk lines.

7.     Your new filter will be installed, and the system powered back on.

8.     A final clean-up and inspection are performed.

9.     Equipment is put away.

10. Before and after photos are presented, payment is made, and we are gone!

In a nutshell that is the basics of our cleaning process. It is much more involved and slightly adjusted for each home we visit due to the uniqueness of ducting layouts. If this didn’t clarify it enough for you, then please don’t hesitate to ask us any questions. We use the Hypervac 220v HEPA-rated vacuum system and a very powerful 175PSI two stage truck mounted air compressor with 43 CFM, multiple agitation tools and accessories to properly clean your homes air ducts. It is always beneficial to have us clean your dryer vent while we are there! We offer a discount if we are already on the scene!