Air Duct Cleaning FAQ — San Mateo, CA
Common questions from homeowners in San Mateo and the surrounding area. If your question isn't here, call us and we'll give you a straight answer.
How often do air ducts in a San Mateo home actually need cleaning?
Most houses here do fine on a three to five year cycle. What shortens it is specific to the mid-Peninsula: spring oak, grass and acacia pollen, salt air off the Bay shoreline, and the late-summer wildfire smoke episodes that push fine ash through return grilles for days at a time. Raised-foundation homes in San Mateo Park or Baywood with crawlspace duct runs tend to need it sooner, because damp crawl air carries dust and odor into the system year round. If you have had a remodel, a rodent problem, or you are smelling the crawlspace when the furnace kicks on, do not wait for the calendar.
Call (415) 251-5692 for a same-day estimate.
Walk me through the job from the time you arrive to the time you leave.
We start by opening a few registers and the return to see what is actually in there, and we check whether your runs are in the crawlspace or the attic. Then we seal off the registers, cut an access port at the plenum, and put the system under negative pressure with a HEPA-filtered vacuum. Rotating brushes and compressed air agitate each branch so the debris travels to the vacuum instead of into your living room. We clean the blower compartment and return drop, close and seal the access, reinstall every grille, and run the system while you watch.
Call (415) 251-5692 for a same-day estimate.
What is the realistic time commitment on a job like this?
A typical Shoreview or Sunnybrae tract house with one system and ten to twelve registers runs about three to four hours. Older bungalows near downtown with converted gravity runs take longer, since the trunk lines are larger and the crawlspace access is tight. Two systems, or a home where the attic ducts have not been touched in twenty years, can fill most of a day. We will tell you at the estimate which bucket your house falls into so you can plan around it.
Call (415) 251-5692 for a same-day estimate.
Why do two houses on the same street end up with different totals?
Register count is the biggest driver, followed by how many separate air handlers you have. Access matters a lot in San Mateo: a slab-on-grade home with a clean attic walkway is faster than a 1920s raised foundation where the tech is on his back in a damp crawl pulling flex off a trunk. Duct material changes things too, since old fiberglass ductboard has to be treated gently where sheet metal can take a full brush. Rodent contamination, heavy smoke residue, or a blower wheel caked with dust all add labor, and we show you what we found before anything is added.
Call (415) 251-5692 for a same-day estimate.
Will you be shifting my furniture around or leaving dust behind?
We move what blocks a register and put it back. Heavy pieces, pianos and anything fragile stay where they are unless you ask and we both agree it is safe. Drop cloths go down at the air handler and at the access cut, and the vacuum keeps the system under negative pressure the whole time so debris goes out the hose. Crews wear boot covers, and if your air handler lives in a garage closet, that is where the equipment noise stays.
Call (415) 251-5692 for a same-day estimate.
How can I tell whether my problem is the dryer vent or the HVAC system?
Dryer symptoms show up at the dryer: clothes damp after a full cycle, a hot laundry room, lint collecting around the door, or a burning smell when the drum runs. HVAC symptoms show up everywhere at once: weak airflow at the far registers, dust settling a day after you wipe, odors when the furnace or AC starts. The two share nothing but the wall they pass through, so one being clean tells you nothing about the other. In condos and apartments near El Camino and Hillsdale, long shared dryer runs clog fastest, and we can check both while we are on site.
Call (415) 251-5692 for a same-day estimate.
What happens if you find mold growing in the system?
We stop and show you. Damp crawlspaces on the flats, much of that ground filled former bayland and marsh, plus fog coming through the San Bruno Gap most summer mornings, mean we see moisture problems here more than you would expect in a dry-summer climate. Cleaning alone does not fix mold, because whatever is wetting the duct will just regrow it, so we look for the source first: a sweating plenum, a failed vapor barrier, crushed flex sitting in standing water. Light surface growth on metal we can clean and treat; porous liner that is colonized gets replaced, and if the scope is beyond duct work we tell you that instead of selling you a cleaning.
Call (415) 251-5692 for a same-day estimate.
Does a fresh filter go in before you leave?
Yes, a standard filter is part of the job. Putting your old loaded filter back after we clean the ducts makes no sense. We size it on site and work with the common setups on Carrier, Trane, Lennox, Goodman, Rheem and American Standard equipment. If you want a higher MERV rating for pollen season or smoke events, we will tell you honestly whether your blower can handle the extra resistance, because an oversized filter on an older gravity-converted furnace does more harm than good.
Call (415) 251-5692 for a same-day estimate.
Can you get a tech out here before the end of the day?
Often, yes. Call in the morning and there is a good chance we have a slot open that afternoon, especially midweek. Smoke weeks in late summer and the first cold stretch in November are our busiest, so those days fill early. Tell us the cross streets and whether your ducts are in the attic or the crawlspace, and we will give you a straight answer about timing on the phone.
Call (415) 251-5692 for a same-day estimate.
Where do you travel for this service?
San Mateo is our base, the mid-Peninsula seat of San Mateo County, and we work the whole city: San Mateo Park, Baywood, the downtown fringe, Shoreview, Sunnybrae, Fiesta Gardens, and the condo and apartment blocks along El Camino and near Hillsdale. We run east toward the Bay shoreline and west into the Santa Cruz Mountains foothills, including homes up near the San Andreas rift corridor and the Crystal Springs reservoirs behind the ridge. Neighboring Peninsula cities are fine too. If you are not sure you are in range, ask and we will say yes or no on the spot.
Call (415) 251-5692 for a same-day estimate.
Have a question that's not here?
Call us and ask. We'll give you a straight answer and tell you if it's worth coming out.
Call (415) 251-5692Or see our contact page for address and hours.