Duct Cleaning in Scottsville, VA
Tell us about your home, and a licensed contractor who covers Albemarle County will get in touch.
Tell us about the job
It takes about a minute.
Seven months of heating pushes air through your ducts
Your furnace runs October through April here, seven months of the year. On winter nights averaging 28°F, it cycles on and off for hours at a stretch, and every cycle pushes air through the same ductwork. Dust, pet hair, and whatever else is in the house gets pulled in and pressed along the duct walls, and it builds up there over a season.
Most homes in Albemarle County are single-family and owner-occupied, the kind of house where the same ducts serve the whole heating season year after year. Storms are part of that picture too. The county has seen 24 winter storms and 268 damaging wind events over the past ten years, and power loss sometimes follows. When the furnace sits idle in a storm and starts back up, it can push loosened dust through the system all at once.
- 7 months
- October through April, your furnace pushes air through your ducts
- 4 months
- June through September, your air conditioner does the same
NOAA nClimDiv, 1991–2020 normals
- How often should air ducts be cleaned?
- There's no set calendar for this. It depends more on what's happening in the house than how much time has passed. If anyone has allergies that don't let up, if you've had work done that left dust behind like a duct repair or an attic remodel, or if you've got pets shedding into the return vents, it's worth having a contractor look sooner rather than later. Otherwise, a contractor can tell you what your ducts need once they've seen them.
- Is air duct cleaning worth it?
- It's worth it if your ducts actually have a problem, not just because time has passed. Signs it's worth doing include dust coming out of the vents when the furnace kicks on, a musty smell when the air runs, or someone in the house dealing with allergies that don't let up. If none of that is happening, cleaning ducts on a schedule alone won't do much for your air or your furnace.
- What does air duct cleaning involve?
- A contractor connects a vacuum system to your ductwork and uses brushes or air tools to knock loose dust and debris from inside the vents and trunk lines, then pulls it all out through the vacuum. They'll typically also clean the supply and return registers, and check the coil and blower housing since dust settles there too. A contractor can walk you through what your system needs once they've had a look.