If you’re like me you read your favorite newspaper a few times per week and go thru your mail looking at coupons. It seems that every carpet cleaner is in the duct cleaning business and has a sale going on. I’ve seen it as cheap as $69 for the entire house and $149 for unlimited vent openings, etc. I often ask myself how they can make any money doing this, or should I say how they can do a good job for that price?
If you do some simple math; 2 servicemen at $15 per hour, each take approximately 4 hours to clean your ductwork properly, labor cost $120 minimum, the cost of the truck, the duct cleaning machine, advertising and the other cost of doing business and your cost as a company to do a proper duct clean and I stress the company’s cost without making any profit is approximately $300.
So how can these companies charge $69 and make any money doing it? The answer is simple; they can’t. What will happen is that they come to your home and try to up sell you. What is up sell? It’s when they tell you that you need sanitizer, deep cleaning, UV lights, etc., etc. Be sure to take the time to educate yourself on duct cleaning. If you check the EPA site under duct cleaning, you will see that they state a proper duct cleaning will cost between $500 and $1000 and take 4 to 6 hours to do.
NADCA is the only duct cleaning authority that certifies duct cleaning techs on how to properly clean duct work. Be sure to use a NADCA certified contractor and be sure to watch and ask questions when your ducts are being cleaned. I also recommend that you go to YouTube and watch the video on duct cleaning scams. It will help prevent you from being ripped off.
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I live in Chicago and I see these ads all the time $69 and $129, I told my wife that those ads are rip offs and that she should not even consider them. I looked at the info you have posted and found it to be very informative.
I was ripped off by a carpet cleaning company who came out to do my duct cleaning we were totaly screwed by them. I called Four Seasons Heating after our furnace stoped working when the carpet cleaners left. They found that the ducts were not clean at all the showed me all kinds of dirt, old paper, etc that was still in my duct work. The other company left my furnace filter in when they tried to clean the duct work and that caused my furnace to break, Four Seasons Heating cleaned my duct work and fixed the furnace.
I had my duct work cleaned from a company that charged $69 and what a mess, we called Four Seasons Heating to come out and clean our duct work they did a job for my boss and he was very happy with them. The crew that came out was very nice and neat about doing the job they were at my house for 7 hours cleaning the duct work and showed me what they sucked out and I was so mad at the other company. Do your homework and don’t trust cheap duct cleaning companies, Four Seasons Heating is the best company for duct cleaning.