Berkeley Parents Network: Heating Ducts

Berkeley Parents Network

Heating Ducts

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Berkeley Parents Network > Reviews > House & Garden > Heating & Cooling Services > Heating Ducts

Getting ducts cleaned
Asbestos Insulation on Heating Ducts

Getting ducts cleaned

Jan 2003

We just finished some remodeling and turned on the heat for the first time this season. The result was a lot of dust and who knows what else coming out. Can anyone recommend a company that cleans heating ducts? Thanks! Ebba

I am looking into having the ducts and furnace cleaned. My wife has been having allergies all winter. WE have called a few places so far and the quotes are about $400-425 for the ''1st 10 ducts.'' I have heard that there are many unscrupulous cleaners out there and you have to watch them to make sure they do the job. Any suggestions/advice would be greatly appreciated. adrian

We just had our heater ducts cleaned today by Atlas. This is the second time we've hired them to do this job, and they are great! They come when they say they will, within a 30 minute window, are clean (the workman wears booties so as not to track dirt around), and it is as painless as such a project can be! It cost $175 (we have a fairly large house) and took about and hour and a half. They also inspect your furnace, change the filters, etc. I highly recommend them. Judy

Nov. 1999

I had mine done last year by the company with the big ads, and it was a great success. Got rid of a lot of dust and musty smell. The guy even tried, for free, to fix a part that was almost broken. And he charged me less than the advertised price for some reason. I was really happy with the results. This isn't the same as having your furnace checked out, which you should also do once in a while.

I just had an estimate done from Freschi Air Systems 800-794-2653. I originally saw the full page ad but I always check the Better Business Bureau and ValueStar before I contract with a service person. Apparently there is a big difference between the $79.00 full page ads and a full service cleaning. The lower price cleaners basically use a shop-vac and take about an hour. A more extensive clean takes uses a larger suction system cleaning system and thoroughly cleans out each register. It runs about $500 depending on the size of the house but my neighbor and I are both getting it done so they dropped the price to 409.00. It will take them about 4 hours to do each house and they recommended the cleaning every 10 years for normal dust areas. You can look into you heating vents with a flashlight and see for yourself the amount of dust in your system.

We, too, saw the ad in the paper for the bargain duct cleaners, but something about it rubbed us the wrong way. Coincidently, friends had just had their ducts cleaned by Atlas Heating and Air Conditioning Co. They were charged a flat rate of, I think, $160, and were satisfied, so we called them. They charged us the same for our two bedroom house with six or seven vents, came on time, were very neat, and we are happy. Their number is 893-1343.

We had one company come to our house and clean our ducts--it's probably the one whose ad you saw. (They run full-page ads all the time.) They were very neat and polite. We have hardwood floors and didn't want them clomping their equipment around on it, and they were very careful not to. They did try to sell us special air filters and spray for killing bacteria in your duct, but they weren't hard-sell and we didn't buy anything. There was one small mishap--the guy accidently dropped an irreplacable duct cover screw down a duct. He graciously and patiently waited while my husband and I went through the contents of his vacuum cleaner looking for it (to no avail).

Asbestos Insulation on Heating Ducts

Sept 2003

We have to replace our 40 year old furnace. Tom from Walter Mork (who is fabulous) pointed out that the heating ducts are surrounded by Asbestos taping. He checked inside the house and looked in all the ''registers'' for evidence of asbestos INSIDE the ducts. To the naked eye, asbestos did not appear to be present. He took digital photos leaning into the register and placing the camera deeper into the duct. He called later to say that indeed, upon closer inspection of these photographs,he has found what looks to be asbestos dust inside one of the registers.

He said that a company called Synergy something generally does the removal. It will cost around 8K to remove and replace b/c the house is long.

Do you know of a company that can test for asbestos presense within the ducts? What are you thoughts about asbestos taped ducts? What about just sealing off that register? A few of the ducts are in areas that humans visit with some frequency especially those in our storage area in the basement. Can you recommend Synergy for duct removal or other companies? Aaaargh. help. thanks Justine

We also have ductwork under our 1966 home that is wrapped with asbestos insulation. When we replaced our furnace this summer, we sought opinions from several heating contractors, as well as from Synergy, regarding what to do with the asbestos. The general consensus was, as long as the insulation stays intact and on the outside of the ducts, it is not going to harm your family. Problems may happen if the ducts leak, and if the wrapping gets wet or starts to deteriorate in some way. Then, we were told, the fibers could get loose, get into the ducts, and blow into the house. Instead of having Synergy remove the asbestos, we chose to go a less expensive route, which was to have the ducts sealed with a process called ''Aeroseal.'' In this process, a rubberized material is sent via high pressure blower into your ducts (which have been temporarily sealed at the vents), and adheres to any leaks/holes. Sounded a bit farfetched when I first heard of it, but I looked into it and found that the technology was developed at LBL, and is endorsed by the DoE, etc. There are a few East Bay companies who use the Aeroseal process. We used Dependable Heating and were happy with them. The duct sealing for our 1600 square foot home was $650. I would recommend it as an alternative to asbestos removal if you don't have a huge problem and/or just don't want to spend the money on the removal. Cheri

Synergy did the work in our home and their work has since been ''approved'' by our kitchen contractor and the structural engineers he has brought in to work on the foundation. They were efficient, quiet, pleasant to work with and CLEAN! Good luck- chris

We hired Synergy for removal of our old asbestos lined heating duct system when we replaced our furnace. They were everything you would want in a company dealing with disposal of hazardous waste-- thorough, timely, and careful. They will seal off the work area (especially the registers that open up into the house) and dispose of everything that they remove. Good luck and I'm sure you'll feel better once you know it is out of your house. LUISA

Dec 2001

Can anyone recommend an HVAC company that specializes in removing old ductwork that has asbestos insulation, and putting in new ducts? I want to be sure that the new ducts are properly sealed and tested for airtightness, and I understand that not many HVAC companies are careful about this. -- Mark

We went through this with our fixer since 1995 and found that Asbestos abatement companies do only asbestos removal and HVAC (heating, ventilation and air-conditioning) firms will only do new installations. If you have ducts with asbestos, the HVAC firms will work with them, but won't replace them. Make sure you look at the total cost of the new system as it was just as expensive to insulate over the existing asbestos ductwork as it was to remove them and replace with new ducts when we did our work.

We used PW Stephens in Hayward, 510-887-6577, and also had a quote from one other firm. The reason we went with PW was they have been around and were recommended by every heating company we spoke with. They weren't the cheapest but not too much more then the other bid we had.

For replacing the ductwork and the heater, we went with Atlas Heating, and were very happy with our decision. We have since done an addition and they also were able to add the heating vents for this without major changes to the original system. I'm not sure what you're referring to with testing ducts for airtightness, but the system has to be properly installed to function properly and any established and licensed HVAC company should be installing airtight ductwork. -Ed

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