Duct Cleaning? (1 Viewer)

[Samuel Des]

I've just moved into my townhouse, and, over the last month, have noticed black dust accumulating in the kitchen. It is particularly visible because the kitchen colour is off-white. Actually, it's quite shocking. There are two heating vents in the ceiling, so I'm thinking that it might be from the gas heater.

I changed the filter before these symptoms occured. Should I use one of those $20 filters? Or worse, do the ventillation ducts need cleaning? The grills of the ceiling vents appear clean.

 

[KyleS]

Samuel,

So you were noticing extra dark color on the walls? Did you clean everything, change the filter, and then you noticed the dirt coming back?

The filter in the vent should catch all the dirt and you can tell when you look at them if they need changing. If they are not extremely dirty my guess would be the dirt is NOT coming from the Vent.

KyleS

 

[Dennis Reno]

The dust may or may not be coming from the vents. Either way I recommend duct cleaning by a reputable company! I had this done shortly after I purchased my condo about six years ago. The amount of dust and debris that was removed was incredible. It made an immediate difference in the amount of dusting that was required as well as improving the smell of the place.

FYI, the primary reason we had them cleaned was due to the previous owner. They had a dog and I am highly allergic to dogs. We thought it would help to remove any dander that might have collected over the years. Little did I know what else was collecting. Apparently it is a common practice for builders to use your ducts as a collection point when sweeping. We had nails, pieces of wood, wood dust and other misc. building debris in ours!

 

[Philip_G]

since the ducts get roughed in pretty early in the framing of the house they do catch a lot of crap that people stuff in there..
anyway a duct cleaning can't hurt, neither can a decent air filter.. like a honeywell electronic air cleaner installed to replace the furnace filters