Duct Cleaning - Scam??

[R Clark]

I normally tell folks that after construction and when moving into a place. You don’t know what the previous left behind. Take a look at how the furnace filter fits, if air can leak past. Buy mid priced filters and check/change them often.

This.

I don't think duct cleaning is a scam.

We had ducts cleaned in our previous home; built in 1980, we bought it in 2003, had the ducts cleaned about 2010.  Along with a fair amount of sawdust and small debris from the construction, we found a Pabst beer bottle like this:

   

Having worked as general labor for a residential home builder after high school, I know for a fact that Friday afternoon was a common time for the workers to "have a few" at the end of the week on the work site.  Unfortunately, stuff being dumped into ducts is probably not uncommon at all.

[Snipe Hunter]

Having worked as general labor for a residential home builder after high school, I know for a fact that Friday afternoon was a common time for the workers to "have a few" at the end of the week on the work site.  Unfortunately, stuff being dumped into ducts is probably not uncommon at all.

I've found some interesting things in wall cavities and between joists. I was redoing a water damaged basement and all the drywall, including the ceiling had to come out. There was a bag of pot in the ceiling with an old rotted rubber band around it. Rolled up around the bag was a pay stub from Bethlehem Steel from around 1965. Lots of beer cans and bottles. A small Channel Lock pliers, still use it a lot, real handy. It was it the wall cavity behind a toilet. I also lost a real nice Estwing framing hammer in an attic. Got back the next day and they had already blown in the insulation. I tried with a metal detector but it was gone.

[R Clark]

...There was a bag of pot in the ceiling with an old rotted rubber band around it. Rolled up around the bag was a pay stub from Bethlehem Steel from around 1965. ...

Wow.  Bethlehem Steel must have been a popular employer!  

[Tim in Indiana]

I normally tell folks that after construction and when moving into a place. You don’t know what the previous left behind. Take a look at how the furnace filter fits, if air can leak past. Buy mid priced filters and check/change them often.

My daughter and husband bought a five year old, repo home from the bank. It was pretty trashed and we replaced a ton of sub-floor along with quite a bit of drywall. After all the construction mess they had the ducts cleaned.

They were a mess but the really bad thing was the mummified cat the guy pulled out of the duct work!

[KC]

This.

I don't think duct cleaning is a scam.

We had ducts cleaned in our previous home; built in 1980, we bought it in 2003, had the ducts cleaned about 2010.  Along with a fair amount of sawdust and small debris from the construction, we found a Pabst beer bottle like this:




Having worked as general labor for a residential home builder after high school, I know for a fact that Friday afternoon was a common time for the workers to "have a few" at the end of the week on the work site.  Unfortunately, stuff being dumped into ducts is probably not uncommon at all.

I found a couple beer cans in the attic of the Texas house.  LOTS of stuff under garden tub.  What blew my mind was that whoever hung the ceiling fan in the master bedrooom used the light 'shade' as an ashtray.  All the surrounding houses were finished before that one.  Any 'leftover' building materials ended up in the back yard.

[R Clark]

I found a couple beer cans in the attic of the Texas house.  LOTS of stuff under garden tub.  What blew my mind was that whoever hung the ceiling fan in the master bedrooom used the light 'shade' as an ashtray.  All the surrounding houses were finished before that one.  Any 'leftover' building materials ended up in the back yard.

I wonder if this is most common with large subdivisions where one builder is throwing up homes faster than one can drive through the subdivision.

Friends of ours in Fayetteville AR just moved into their new home a year ago.  It's in one of those subdivisions where dozens of houses were under construction at one time.  They have all manner of issues related to sloppy building techniques.

[meackerman]

it seems like if you filter is at the furnace/air handler then the ducts can accumulate all sorts of things.

if the filters are at the return registers and are fitting properly, the ducts shouldn't accumulate nearly as much.

when we moved in to our currently place the HVAC system had the filter at the air handler, (which was in the attic).  I changed them to be at the return registers when I switched out the HVAC system....because I never remembered to climb up in the attic to change the filter up there.

[pgmrdan]

If the inside of a furnace is excessively dirty then at some time there must not have been a proper sized filter in place.  The filter will keep most of the dust out of the furnace/air conditioner and the duct work.

Think about it.  Some fine dust collects in some duct work.  If ducts collect dust what would knock the dust loose and let it go back into the house?  Duct work collects and holds some fine dust that makes it past the filter and the rest makes it back into the house.

Always use correctly sized filters and you should never have a problem.

[fixtureman]

I found a couple beer cans in the attic of the Texas house.  LOTS of stuff under garden tub.  What blew my mind was that whoever hung the ceiling fan in the master bedrooom used the light 'shade' as an ashtray.  All the surrounding houses were finished before that one.  Any 'leftover' building materials ended up in the back yard.

Where my daughter built the super his landscape brother to just dump the rocks on an empty lot.  My daughters lot had piles of rocks and roots on it and we made them haul it away.  But I used a rock hound all day long and got tons of rocks out.  We worked up the lawn and I did the rock hound again and got just as much out again.  We were just about to seed when the fence company came in when the lawn was muddy and tore it up so I did it the third time again lots of rocks and it looked real nice she had a landscaper come out and they gave her a real good deal to seed the lawn so she took it and they also used a rock hound to break up the top and then seeded.  still there are rocks that pop up now and then

[tomsteve]

Friends of ours in Fayetteville AR just moved into their new home a year ago.  It's in one of those subdivisions where dozens of houses were under construction at one time.  They have all manner of issues related to sloppy building techniques.

if its a pulte home, that should be expected