After considerable respiratory I'll ess in my family, I am beginning to wonder if we need our airducts cleaned. We had our basement finished last winter and our hardwood floors redone this summer. I always trust the advice that I get here. Does anybody have any recommendations ? Needless to say, the cheaper the better.

Oops, pardon the typo. Illness

If you google the subject, you'll find articles that indicate that airduct cleaning is a bit of a scam, as well as unnecessary and ineffective in helping with controlling respiratory problems (according to governmental agencies).
You'll also find a ton of businesses offering the service.

Don't you think after having dusty rehabs done it's worth it? Makes sense to me. It's not very expensive. Surly, honest companies exist. At the very least, change your furnace often.

We had it done after our entire house was rehabbed. I am not sure that it made all that much of a difference. We also have an electronic air filter but the 3M filters will also work. You can also deep dust down by dusting and mopping with a damp cloth or paper towel.

I have the worlds dustiest house.
I've cleaned the ducts, change the furnace filter regularly, mop and vacuum. It drives me crazy.
Is it caused by living near the rail road tracks, living on a fairly busy street, or living in a 70 yr old house? Ideas?

Thank you all. Like most of you, I am skeptical, however my 6 yr old has been sick since early October and was even in the hospital for 5 days and now a sinus infection. Hospitalization for respiratory distress, followed by pneummonia. Then I had pneummonia. Then my other son has been sick for 2 weeks. we are NEVER this sick. first year and we use to live right on a major street in Chicago with bus traffic. Now, we do live on a busy street ( road ) here also. The boys and I are here the most and have been sick. My husband is gone quite a bit and he has not been sick. Like I said, i would never even consider putting any money or effort into this, but I can't stand to see my kids sick any more this winter. Buggy, I hear your pain. I think it might be all of those. Sorry.

I don't have any true personal knowledge of a good air duct cleaning company, but if no one can give you a specific company's name that they like and trust, I would start here. National Air Duct Cleaners Association. They have several certifications available where the providers clean the ducts to a particular standard. They also have a brochure available on line that you can use to determine how thorough a job any particular company will do on your home. brochure

My husband is professionally involved with the cleaning industry and so through osmosis over the years, I have picked up a bit more professional knowledge about the industry than the average bear, and can say with certainty that in the cleaning industry in general (ie janitorial services, carpet cleaners/restorers), companies that spend the extra time and money on association memberships, continuing education and certifications for their employees are vastly more professional and 99% of the time, have substantially better work product than the low overhead, stencil a name on a truck and put out some coupons type companies.

Good luck, if I had had those kind of illnesses running through my house, I'd be investigating cleaning my ducts as well.

Buggy and Newbie,
The advances in furnace air filtration systems gets better every year. Many of the good electrostatic filters are not that expensive and are simple to maintain. I would also suggest having an HVAC guy give you a price on a ultra violet germicidal lamp that they can install on your furnace. If these and duct cleaning don't work call Ed at Mold Solutions 630-667-7408. He can do an inexpensive air quality test to see if there are other issues.

Okay, I have a question. Thanks for posting the question newbie.

We moved into our house almost 5 years ago, it is a 93 year old home. I have a few seasonal allergies that I keep under control, but ever since I moved in, they have been worse only when in the house. Especially at night when the heat is on.

Taking that into account, I redid a few of the horizonal ducts in our basement this year so that we can clean up the basement. When I cut them open, I found about a 2 inch layer of brown fuzzy death in them. It was thick and felt like steal wool. If I shook it, something that resmembled a mushroom cloud came off it.

Also, we had a heating company out to fix the furnace and they were going to do a free duct cleaning. They opened up one vent and found asbestos tape holding it together. They said they would not do the cleaning because of it, but said it was "Safe."

1. Should I be worried?
2. Is the brown fuzzy death in my ducts really why my allergies are haywire only when I am in my house?
3. Should my inspector have caught this? He missed all the asbestos wrapping on all the exposed water pipes in the basement that were in clear sight as well and we had to pay $$$ to have that removed.

Dunne Cleaning. Dunne

quote:

Originally posted by bry:
1. Should I be worried?
2. Is the brown fuzzy death in my ducts really why my allergies are haywire only when I am in my house?
3. Should my inspector have caught this? He missed all the asbestos wrapping on all the exposed water pipes in the basement that were in clear sight as well and we had to pay $$$ to have that removed.

1. exercise caution, and do not disturb any questionable material. Call an environmental company, those trained to look for this stuff, test your air quality and do any abatement necessary. there is an environmental company in the building just south of the library in glen ellyn

2. See answer #1

3. Ask nika, but be prepared to wait a long time for a response. also see answer number 1

Bry,
I would highly recommend calling the company GEM mentioned or the company I mentioned above to have them check it to be sure but they do make insulated duct that has the fuzzy side in so it may very well be that.

Here is a great article by the EPA. I thought that it is interesting that they state that there is no study that proves that air duct cleaning improves health.

epa.gov...

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Ted E.,