Air Duct Cleaning FAQ — San Mateo, CA
Common questions from homeowners in San Mateo and the surrounding area. If your question isn't here, call us and we'll give you a straight answer.
How often do ducts in a San Mateo house actually need cleaning?
Most homes here do fine on a five to seven year cycle. What shortens that: a crawlspace duct run that has taken on moisture, a remodel that dumped drywall dust into the returns, pets, or a system that sat unused for a season. Houses on the flats with supply trunks under the floor tend to need attention sooner than hillside places with attic runs, because the crawl space stays damp through the wet winters. If nobody has opened a duct in a decade, that's reason enough to look.
Call (415) 251-5450 for a same-day estimate.
Walk me through the job from the time you arrive.
We start by pulling a few register covers and looking inside with a camera so you see what we see before anything gets priced. Then we seal off the registers, connect a negative-air vacuum at the air handler, and work the system one branch at a time with rotating brushes and compressed-air whips that push debris toward the vacuum. The blower compartment, the return drops, and the plenum get cleaned too, since that's where most of the buildup sits. We close up, reinstall the covers, run the system, and show you the same camera shots again.
Call (415) 251-5450 for a same-day estimate.
How much of my day does this take?
A typical postwar ranch on the flats with one system and a dozen or so registers runs three to four hours. Prewar stucco bungalows near downtown sometimes take longer, because retrofitted forced air in those houses was fit around existing framing and the runs are awkward to reach. Two systems, or a split-level with a second zone upstairs, can push it toward a full day. We tell you the realistic window when we look at the house, not after we've started.
Call (415) 251-5450 for a same-day estimate.
What makes one duct cleaning cost more than another?
The estimate is free and you approve a written number before we touch anything. On this particular job the number moves with how many supply and return openings the house has, whether there's one air handler or two, and how hard the runs are to reach. Crawlspace flex branches that have slumped or torn cost more to clean properly than straight metal trunk in an attic. Heavy contamination, disconnected boots, or a dryer vent added to the same visit also shift it.
Call (415) 251-5450 for a same-day estimate.
Will you be moving my furniture around or leaving dust everywhere?
We slide light pieces off a register if we have to, and we ask before we move anything heavy or fragile. Drop cloths go down at the air handler and at every register we open. The vacuum holds the whole system under negative pressure, so debris travels into the machine instead of into your living room. Crews wear boot covers and the last thing we do is sweep and wipe the work areas.
Call (415) 251-5450 for a same-day estimate.
My clothes take forever to dry. Is that the dryer vent or the HVAC?
Dryer symptoms stay in the laundry room: long cycles, a hot machine, lint around the door, a burning smell. HVAC symptoms show up all over the house: weak airflow at some registers, dust settling fast after you clean, musty air when the blower kicks on. They're separate ducts and separate problems, even though both can be dirty at once. Tell us what you're seeing and we'll check the right one first, or both while we're there.
Call (415) 251-5450 for a same-day estimate.
What happens if you find mold growth inside the system?
We stop and show you the camera footage instead of guessing out loud. Growth inside ducts in San Mateo usually traces back to moisture, not dirt, and the crawlspace runs on the flats are the usual suspect given the marine layer and fog that push through the San Bruno and Crystal Springs gaps most summer mornings. Cleaning alone will not fix a duct that keeps getting wet, so we point out the source, whether that's a torn vapor barrier, a sweating line, or a condensate problem. For a confirmed growth situation we'll tell you plainly when testing or a remediation contractor is the right call.
Call (415) 251-5450 for a same-day estimate.
Do you put in a fresh filter when you're done?
Yes. Putting a dirty filter back into a clean system makes no sense, so a standard size filter is included with the cleaning. If your Carrier, Trane, Lennox, Goodman, Rheem, or American Standard unit takes an oversized media cabinet or a specialty pleat, we'll tell you the size and either source it or hand you the spec so you can keep spares. We also check that the filter is seated the right way and that air is actually passing through the frame instead of around it.
Call (415) 251-5450 for a same-day estimate.
Could a tech be at my place before the day is out?
Often, yes. We hold open slots on the schedule for San Mateo callers, and a single-system house booked in the morning can usually be done the same afternoon. Call early for the best odds. If the day is already full we'll say so straight and give you the first real opening rather than a window we can't hit.
Call (415) 251-5450 for a same-day estimate.
Where do you travel for work?
San Mateo is home base and we work across mid-Peninsula San Mateo County, between San Francisco Bay and the Santa Cruz Mountains foothills. That covers the prewar stucco bungalows and Spanish and Mediterranean revival homes near downtown, the 1940s and 50s tract ranches on the flats, and the hillside split-levels and later infill west toward Hillsdale and the Highlands. We know the older stock well, including houses that started with gas floor furnaces or gravity octopus furnaces and no cooling at all, then had forced air and AC retrofitted later. Give us the cross streets and we'll confirm.
Call (415) 251-5450 for a same-day estimate.
Have a question that's not here?
Call us and ask. We'll give you a straight answer and tell you if it's worth coming out.
Call (415) 251-5450Or see our contact page for address and hours.