Do My Ducts Need To Be Cleaned?????

The common question many homeowners ask themselves is "do our air ducts really need to get cleaned"? As an air duct cleaning company we see a lot of things. Since air duct cleaning is all Amistee does 6 days a weeks 52 weeks out of the year we see all sorts of duct work. Some of the duct work is 2 weeks old, some close to 100 years old and many in the middle. When someone living in any of these homes asks us the common question of "do we really need to do this" our answer is always the same, yes you do. This answer is not because it keep us busy it is because we beleive in our service 100%. The debris inside of the duct work is very different between a new home and an old home but it is still not supposed to be in your heating and cooling system. When debris settles inside of the cold air and heat ducts it will eventually release particulates into the air that you are breathing. This may be drywall dust from the sanding during a building process which will reduce your furnace efficency or pet dander from a previous pet that will increase a family members allergies. I am going to break dirty air ducts into two different catagories for you, new ducts and old ducts to try and make this easier to understand.
In the NEW DUCT WORK catagory we have a heating and cooling system that is less than 5 years old. This is a newer home that has been constructed and now is being lived in by you, the homeowner. When the home was being built one of the first things to go in was the furnace. In Michigan we have very cold winters and the builders need the warmth of a furnace to keep their workers warm and to help dry paint, plaster, drywall mud and any other projects. During this whole time air is being pulled into the duct work. 9 out of 10 times the builder is not using a filter and 9.9 ot of ten times it is a very bad filter allowing 99% of the debris and particulate to flow right through the filter. When the work on your home comes to an end and everything is cleaned, up your duct work will hold all of the dust that was in the air during the building phase waiting to release it for many years to come. Works will use the vents as a trash can as well. Many (not all) will sweep nails, molding, carpet fibers, wood flooring pieces, sawdust ciggarete buts and other debris right into the vents. When you move in to your beautiful new home and bring in your furniture you will have an excessive amount of dust for many years to come. We have seen ducts so dirty that furnaces will actually shut down from having clogged filters and blower motors. A simple air duct cleaning done by a professional will relieve any problems from dirty ductwork. Our before and after pictures will prove this to you.
In the OLD DUCT WORK catagory we have a home that is over 5 years old. The heating and cooling system has been pulling in air from the living space for 1,825 days or more. The question that you have to ask yourself is what has been in your living space during that time? Whatever has been in your living space is now in your duct work. Here are a few questions to help you understand. Have you ever had a pet? Have you ever remodeled any part of the home creating dust? Do you live on dirt road? Do you live around a lot of trees or plants producing a lot of pollen? Has anyone ever smoked in the home? Do you have old carpet that is releasing broken down carpet fibers? Is your house very dry in the winter time? Is your skin very dry? Some of these questions are obvious and others are not. Lets focus on the dry skin for a moment. Our skin as humans is naturally "shedding" and creating new skin to replace old dead skin. This is a great human feature but a bad feature for duct work. Whoever has been living in your home has been producing dead skin cells that eventually gets pulled into the duct work and will cycle through and pop back out waiting for you to inhale. Here is a great thought. If you have just bought a home, you are breathing the previous owners dead skin. Great thought huh? With all of the factors that "create dust" inside of your home, after 5 years your air duct system gets loaded down with debris reducing your furnaces efficency and providing you with poor indoor air quality.
After cleaning thousands and thousands of homes air duct systems in Michigan we have found that in both new and old duct work alike we remove an average of 25-35 pounds of debris using our powerful vacuum trucks. That debris is what you, the homeowner would be breathing without Amistee cleaning your duct work. I can not tell you exactly what the mixture of contaminents is that you are breathing but I can tell you that you are breathing very dirty air if you do not get your air ducts cleaned by a professional. To give you an answer to the title of this entry, YES if you have never had your air ducts cleaned by a professional then your air ducts do indeed need to be cleaned.