Can I Do My Own Air Duct Cleaning?

Air duct cleaning is vital to maintaining a healthy environment inside the home. Dirty vents circulate all types of dust, debris, pet dander and mold spores along with all kinds of irritating and even dangerous microbes that are the root cause of allergies, asthma and other respiratory problems big and small. Many people are not aware their allergies or asthma were born in the air ducts of their home. Others discover the truth and decide to try and clean the air ducts themselves. But is this a good idea?

What’s Wrong With Doing Your Own Vent Cleaning?

In theory there is nothing wrong with cleaning your own vents. In practice however, it’s a different story. Here are 6 reasons why air duct cleaning is best left to the pros from Steve’s Carpet Care.

1. There’s method to the madness - It may seem to some that air duct and vent cleaning amounts to little more than removing a register and hooking up a big fan that will blow away all the nasty dust and microbes in your ducts. But there’s actually a lot more to it than that. The technicians do a complete analysis of the air flow in your home before deciding which vents represent the optimal access points; those places where a sudden, intense air burst will be most effective in loosening that nasty stuff lining your ducts. Picking the wrong access point or points will, at best, result in only a small portion of the contaminants in your ductwork being loosened.
2. The home must be protected - Some well-meaning homeowners open the registers on their ductwork and try reaching in with all manner of improvised cleaning tools such as rags on poles. While this might seem like a good idea it usually has unintended consequences. In some cases the homeowner receives a face full of potentially harmful microbes. In other cases clouds of dust are ejected from unseen registers and come to rest on the expensive living room furniture, making matters far worse and more complicated. The professional duct cleaner makes sure the home interior is protected from blowbacks or blowouts by methodically sealing the system before cleaning begins.
3. All the contaminants must be removed, not just some - Even if the DIY homeowner manages to get everything within arm’s reach inside the ducts squeaky clean without causing clouds of contaminants to eject onto the kitchen counter it’s not enough. Every last nook and cranny of the ductwork must be effectively scoured or the remaining contaminants will continue to generate allergies, respiratory irritation and more. The pros from Steve’s use a multi-phase process to ensure your ducts are clean. The first phase being the intense pulse of air to jar contaminants loose and the second being the introduction of patented Teflon balls that crawl through the system snagging any particles the air burst missed.
4. The dirt, debris and other contaminants must be disposed of properly - Air duct cleaning involves far more than just jarring a few trillion microbes in your ductwork loose. Those microbes, along with all the dust, pet dander, old leaf fragments, carpet fibers and more still have to be removed from the home and disposed of properly. You could probably count the homeowners in North American who have the equipment to do this on one hand, and still have five fingers left. Once all the dirt and debris in your ducts has been effectively loosened the technicians from Steve’s use a powerful truck-based vacuum to suck every last molecule from the ductwork. All those contaminants wind up in sealed bins inside the truck and are later disposed of in accordance with local environmental ordinances.
5. If you get hurt you pay the bill - Here’s a sobering fact to contemplate. If you get hurt attempting to clean the ducts yourself you wind up paying the medical bills. Likewise, if you enlist the help of the uninsured local handyman to do some vent cleaning and he gets hurt while working on your home, do you know who is financially responsible? If you said “I am”, congratulations. And if that handyman claims disability because of an injury he sustained while doing air duct cleaning on your home do you know who will be forced to support him the rest of his life? If you said “I will”, again, congratulations. The pros from Steve’s carry full liability insurance as well as being fully covered against injury while working on your home.
6. The value of your home is at stake - A home with dirty air ducts is a less valuable home than one with clean ductwork. At the same time trying to DIY the air duct cleaning process is an idea destined to make matters even worse than they already are. At Steve’s we’ve been in business for more than 42 years and are one of the most experienced duct cleaning outfits in Metro Denver. We have the experience and expertise to get the job done right and restore your home to the healthy, happy, nurturing environment it was meant to be.

The Bottom Line

Air duct cleaning is no joke. Nor is it something that should be attempted by people without the experience or equipment to do the job right. Don’t gamble with your health, the health of your loved ones and the value of your home. Enlist the pros at Steve’s Carpet Care to clean your ductwork. We do vent cleaning right. Call today: (303) 530-4900.