hey all, my vents in the house need to be cleaned. the question is, should i just do this myself with a vacuum & extension or shoudl this be professionally done. … who knows maybe the professionals do something that the avg homeowner can’t? ::shrugs::
I had my vents cleaned when I moved into my house a few years ago. Here’s a breakdown of what the guy did.
-
Went to each register (supply and return) and took a high powered electric leaf blower and shot air down through the register to get the dust all down to the basement level. Then covered each register with magnetic cover to eliminate any air/dust from escaping.
-
Went into basement, and cut a hole on the supply side of the duct work directly after the heater/air conditioner to hook up a very powerful 8" vacccum hose that was incorporated into his diesel powered truck.
-
Then he cut more holes in each of the branching duct work as far away as possible from the heater/air conditioner unit to “push” all the dust/debris toward the hole with the vaccum attached. He did this by using compressed air (also run by his diesel) that had a unique attachment. The attachement was a thin flexible PVC pipe, with 6-10 peices of surgical tubing attached to it in 6-8" lengths, out of which the compressed air escaped. Therefore, when the air escaped, the lengths of tubes shot violently in all directions beating the hell out of the inside of the ductwork.
-
Then he sealed up all the holes, using machine screws, plates of aluminum and caulk.
-
He then repeated this entire procedure for the “return” side of the system.
My house is a modest 1500 sq ft single family, and it took him 6 hours to finish. I can’t remember the exact cost, but I don’t think it was more than $800. But again, this was 5 years ago already, YMMV.
Hope this helps you decide. I would gladly pay again for the same type of job. The pros have all the cool toys that would do a much better job than the avarage hoover attachments.
removed due to death in family