Question 1

My house is a 1950s ranch with the ducts under the floor in the crawlspace. Can those even be cleaned?

Accepted Answer

Yes, and that's most of what we do in San Carlos. The older hillside and tract ranch homes here typically run sheet metal trunk and branch lines through the crawlspace, often with a furnace that was swapped out at some point without the duct layout being reworked. Metal cleans up well. We work from the registers and from access points at the plenum, pulling debris toward a vacuum rather than pushing it into the rooms. The variable is crawlspace height. Some San Carlos lots slope enough to give a tall, walkable crawl; others are tight enough that we work almost entirely from inside the house. We'll look before we quote so you know which one you have.

Question 2

We added a second story and the new rooms are on flex duct in the attic. Does that get cleaned the same way?

Accepted Answer

It gets cleaned, but not the same way. San Carlos has a lot of homes running two systems' worth of duct logic at once: original metal below the floor, newer flex above the ceiling from an addition or a full remodel. Flex has a ribbed interior liner that holds dust differently than smooth metal and can't take aggressive mechanical tools without risking tears in the inner core. We use gentler agitation and more vacuum on flex runs. If the addition was done well, the attic portion is usually in better shape than the original crawlspace side. If the flex is kinked, crushed against a joist, or sagging in long loops, cleaning will help airflow but we'll tell you honestly where the real restriction is.

Question 3

Why do my returns load up with so much dry debris every summer?

Accepted Answer

Position. San Carlos sits higher and sunnier than the bayside cities, the fog burns off earlier, and a lot of lots on the upper streets back directly onto dry grass and oak slopes. That combination means a long cooling season pulling air through the system plus a steady supply of grass pollen, foxtail bits and fine summer dust right outside. Homes with returns low on a wall, or with a crawlspace that isn't well sealed, see it worst. We find foxtail debris and grass seed in return boxes here more often than anywhere closer to the water.

Question 4

What makes one San Carlos quote higher than another?

Accepted Answer

Mostly the house, not the day. Register count is the baseline, and the post-remodel homes here often have far more supply points than the original floor plan did. Beyond that: whether you have one system or two, whether the crawlspace is tall enough to work in or tight enough to slow everything down, and whether the furnace was converted at some point in a way that leaves an awkward plenum connection. A straightforward single-system ranch with reachable registers is at the lower end of what we do. A 1940s hillside home with an addition, two air handlers and a crawl you have to belly through is at the upper end. We walk it first and tell you which it is before we start.

Question 5

How fast can you actually get out here, and is same-day ever possible?

Accepted Answer

San Carlos is on our regular route along the Peninsula, so most requests land within a few days of calling. Same-day happens when a crew finishes early nearby, and it's most likely midweek and outside the stretch from late spring into early fall, when everyone's cooling runs hard and the calendar fills. If you're calling because the system is making a noise, smells off when it kicks on, or airflow dropped suddenly, say so when you call. That moves you up, since those usually point to something other than general dust. For routine cleaning, booking a week out gets you a better time slot than chasing a cancellation.

Air Duct Cleaning in San Carlos, CA

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