As we continue to use up the air inside our homes, this air is circulated throughout the house via various air ducts inside the house. Cleaning your air ducts is a very good and effective way to keep the air inside your home clean and breathable. But the question is “how to prepare for air duct cleaning?”
It is the professionals like us who will do all the work, but there are some preparatory steps you need to take as well.
To prepare for air duct cleaning in your home, you need to first declutter the area around all the air vents. Next, you also need to clear the space around your furnace as well as the air conditions. You also need to decide whether you will be inside the house at the time of cleaning and where your pets will be kept.
Let’s take a detailed look at how to prepare for air duct cleaning.
How to prepare for duct cleaning
The air ducts in your homes have a very important job of keeping the air inside your home clean and breathable. The air that we use goes inside the ducts via air vents and after being filtered they are circulated back into the house via these same ducts.
If these air ducts are not cleaned regularly, the air that will be circulated inside the house will be full of dirt, dust, and allergens.
It is better to hire a professional air duct cleaning service to clean your air ducts than to clean them yourself. Even then, there are a few steps you need to take to ensure the pros can perform their job properly and without having to worry about other things.
Here are the air duct cleaning steps you need to follow:
1. Decluttering the area around the vents
The first step in preparing for duct cleaning is to ensure the professionals get proper access to the air vents and registers all around your home. To make sure they do, you need to remove the clutter around all the vents as well registers in your home.
If you have furniture in those places, make sure you remove them and store them in a different place for the duration of the cleaning procedure.
Also, you should start removing the furniture and other items around the air vents at least a day before the cleaning team arrives. This will allow you to have time to clean the room before the cleaning process starts.
2. Clean the area around your furnace
The air duct cleaning process also includes cleaning the furnace and the AC units in your house. This is why you need to make sure the professionals can get easy access to them.
For this reason, the area around the furnace and AC have to be cleaned properly so that nothing gets in the way of the pros working.
If you have any outdoor units, chances are that there will be a considerable amount of debris around them. Take some time to clean the debris around the units to ensure the professionals get clear and easy access to them.
3. Deciding where you will be during the process
The air duct cleaning process can take a long time depending on the size of your house, the number of ducts in it, and how much work there has to be done. Also, the procedure involves an extended period of loud noise, which might be an annoyance, especially for children and elderly people.
If you want to supervise this procedure and stick with the pros to see how they work, it is just fine.
But if you have children and elderly people, for whom the noise can be a big issue, you have to decide whether you will move to another place for the day until the process is completed.
4. Deciding where to keep your pets
Another aspect of the air duct cleaning process you have to take into account is where you will keep your pets. As said earlier, the air duct cleaning procedure is a long and noisy one, which will be extremely uncomfortable for the pet animals. There are a couple of things you can consider in this case.
First, if you have a backyard, and the pros inform you that the cleaning process will not take much time, then you can put your pets in the backyard for the duration of the cleaning process.
Second, if you don’t have a backyard, or the cleaning process needs a longer time to complete, then you can either keep them in a relative’s home or daycare.
5. Hiring a professional and licensed team
Air duct cleaning is a delicate, thorough, and time-consuming procedure. Only the professionals who are properly licensed will be able to clean the air ducts efficiently and properly.
If you want to do the cleaning yourself or hire a firm that has promised you they will clean your ducts in less than two hours and for a reduced price, don’t even think about it.
The main goal of cleaning air ducts is to make sure the air inside your house is clean and breathable. If you take shortcuts in cleaning these ducts, you might save some money in the short run, but you will definitely be going to spend a lot more money because of this in the future.
So, to keep yourself as well as your family healthy, hire a licensed air duct cleaning service.
Final Words
Air ducts play a big role in keeping the air inside the house clean and keeping its inhabitants healthy. This work must be done by professionals, but knowing how to prepare for air duct cleaning is a good way to make life easier for them.
If you are ever in need of cleaning your air ducts, call us now to book our air duct cleaning services.
FAQs
1. How does air duct cleaning work?
The air duct cleaning process is a sophisticated one and has quite a few steps. These steps are:
– Inspecting the ducts
– Creating a negative pressure to suck the air in
– Agitating the dust inside the ducts
– Cleaning the air duct system.
2. How long does it take to clean an air duct?
On average, it takes around two to four hours to clean an air duct system. But the time varies depending on a lot of factors. These factors include the size of the house, the number of vents, how much work the professionals have to do, etc.
3. What to expect during an air duct cleaning?
When the air ducts in your house are being cleaned, the heating and cooling systems of your home will be turned off. As a result, you can expect your house to be warmer or colder than usual for the duration of the procedure.
4. How do I know if my air ducts were cleaned properly?
There are a lot of ways you can find out if your air ducts were cleaned properly. First, you can check the ducts with a flashlight after the cleaners are done to see if the ducts are still dirty. Next, you can check your registers to see if they are properly cleaned.
