NADCA ACR
01The industry's Assessment, Cleaning & Restoration standard: assess before cleaning, clean by source removal under negative pressure, and verify the result. Our procedures follow it on every job.
Duct Cleaning · From $349
Full-System Air Duct Cleaning
Whole-home source-removal cleaning of every supply and return run.
01Before anything else
Do you actually need full-system air duct cleaning?
EPA does not recommend duct work on a schedule. It reserves the case for visible mold, vermin, or debris heavy enough to be released into the home. So before the price, and before the method: here is what would put your system in that category.
Tick what you recognize
- A visible puff of dust from supply registers when the system starts
- Dust ridges or gray streaks forming on ceilings and walls around vents
- A musty or stale smell that arrives only when the air runs
- Filters loading up within a couple of weeks of replacement
- A remodel, pest issue, or moisture event in the system's history
- You've owned the home for years and the ducts have never been opened
Ticked nothing? Then you may well not need this yet — and we would rather tell you that for $99 than sell you $349 of work you can defer. Book the camera inspection and let the footage decide.
This service
Full-System Air Duct Cleaning
- From
- $349
- On site
- 3–5 hours
- Standard
- NADCA ACR
- Evidence
- Photos before & after
- Quote
- Written, before we start
Prices shown are starting estimates and may change with the condition, access, and scope we find on site. Only a written quote from an on-site visit is a price we commit to.
Our own job
The brush working the trunk
Scoped from a camera inspection
At Prime Air Duct Experts, a full-system air duct cleaning is never guesswork. We scope every job from a camera look inside the ducts first — weighed against EPA guidance on when the work is actually warranted — so what you approve is matched to what your system actually needs, with the photos to prove it. And if the camera says the work isn't needed, we tell you that instead.
Camera duct inspection02What the standards say
Not our opinion. Somebody else’s published rule.
Every claim on this page is measured against a named standard you can go and read. One of them declines to recommend this work at all — and it is in the list, not buried.
EPA guidance
02EPA advises duct cleaning when there is visible mold, vermin, or significant debris buildup. We confirm at least one of the three on camera before recommending a full cleaning.
We treat this as hygiene, not medicine. It empties a reservoir of settled dust. It does not cure allergies, and we will never tell you it does.
Read EPA’s position03What is included
Every line you are paying for.
Printed here so you can hold anyone else’s quote against it — including ours.
Full-System Air Duct Cleaning — scope4 lines
- Every supply and return run agitated and vacuumed under negative pressure
- Supply and return plenums cleaned at the air handler
- All registers and grilles removed, washed, and re-seated
- Before-and-after camera photos of your actual ductwork
Not included, on purpose: add-ons nobody has shown a reason for. Sanitizing, UV and filtration upgrades are offered only where the footage shows an indication — our technicians are not paid on what they sell.
After
Flexible supply run, shot down the bore
Drag it. One component, photographed twice.
The same ribbed run from the same position. The dust load lifts off the liner and the wire helix comes back into view — the debris streaked along the ribs is what a filter never reaches.
04What it costs
$349, and here is why.
Published, not quoted over the phone from a script. The number moves only with what we find on camera, and only before you have approved anything.
What the price is buying
- Labor
- 3–5 hours on site, containment down and back up
- Equipment
- Negative-air collection, agitation tooling, HEPA filtration
- Evidence
- Camera work before and after, delivered with the invoice
- Warranty
- One year on our workmanship
What moves the number
Number of runs · attic access · duct type · how much the system is carrying. A two-system two-story is not a compact ranch, and we would rather say so than quote you a figure that changes once we are through the door.
05How the visit runs
5 steps, in this order, every time.
- 01
Camera assessment
Every accessible run is scoped first. If the buildup doesn't meet EPA's threshold for cleaning, we tell you so and stop right here.
- 02
Seal and pressurize
Registers are sealed, the vacuum connects at the trunk, and the whole system goes under negative pressure so debris can only travel one direction: out.
- 03
Agitate every run
Rotary brushes and air whips work each supply and return line from register to plenum, breaking the settled layer loose into the collector's airflow.
- 04
Plenums, registers, filter
Both plenums are hand-cleaned, every register washed and re-seated, and a fresh filter installed so the newly clean system starts clean.
- 05
Verify and document
After photos of the finished runs, a walkthrough with you at the registers, and the full photo set delivered alongside the invoice.
06What you are left holding
You cannot glance at a duct the way you can a mowed lawn.
Which is precisely why this trade has a trust problem, and why the job is not finished until you are holding proof of it.
Photographs of your own ductwork
The same runs, before and after. Not a stock gallery — your system, shot on the day.
A written record
Which runs were cleaned, what was found along the way, and anything we deliberately left alone.
A year on the workmanship
If something we did needs doing again inside twelve months, it gets done again.
If any company — ours included — cannot show you the inside of your ducts after charging to clean them, ask why.
07Book it
Nothing is charged until you have approved a written quote.
Leave three fields, or call. We will tell you on the phone what your system likely needs — including, sometimes, that it needs nothing.
Arrival windows2-hour
- 8:00 – 10:00 AM
- 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM
- 12:00 – 2:00 PM
- 2:00 – 4:00 PM
- 4:00 – 6:00 PM
- 6:00 – 7:00 PM
A preference, confirmed by a person — we do not hold a live calendar and will not pretend a slot is reserved until someone has said so.
Do I actually need my air ducts cleaned?
Maybe not — and we'll be the ones to tell you. EPA guidance says duct cleaning is warranted in three situations: visible mold, vermin in the ducts, or significant dust and debris buildup. Not on a calendar, not automatically every few years. Our $99 camera inspection checks your system against those conditions and gives you a straight verdict with photos. A meaningful share of inspections end with 'not yet, re-check in a couple of years' — and that answer costs you $99, not $600.
Will duct cleaning help my allergies or asthma?
Honestly: there is no good evidence that it does, and the EPA states plainly that duct cleaning has never been shown to prevent health problems. It genuinely helps when your system meets one of the EPA's three conditions — visible mold growth, vermin, or debris actually being released into your rooms — and a camera inspection tells you which. For a household with asthma or heavy seasonal allergies, the changes that reliably move indoor air are a filter matched to what your blower can pull, a return path that isn't starved, and sealing ducts that are pulling attic air into the house. We would rather point you at those than sell you a cleaning you don't need.
We have a new baby — should we get the ducts cleaned?
Only if something has actually loaded them, and the usual culprit is renovation. Drywall dust and jobsite debris land on the return side where a filter never reaches them, so a nursery remodel with the system running is a real case and the before-and-after footage shows it. If nothing has changed about the house, start with the $99 camera inspection — it often ends the conversation. And one hard rule regardless: no ozone-generating air cleaner near an infant. The EPA is clear those aren't effective at concentrations that are safe to breathe.
How much does air duct cleaning cost?
A full-system source-removal cleaning starts at $349, targeted supply-and-return work at $199, and a camera inspection at $99. Those are honest starting points, not bait: your exact quote is confirmed after we look at the system on camera and before any work begins, and it doesn't change mid-job. Add-ons like sanitizing ($149) or a UV light ($399) are offered only when the footage shows a real indication — our technicians don't earn commissions.
How long does a full-system cleaning take?
Three to five hours for a typical single-system home. The honest variables are the number of runs, attic access, duct type, and how much debris the system is carrying — a two-system two-story takes longer than a compact ranch. We'd rather quote you a real window than promise a ninety-minute miracle, because whole-home source removal physically cannot be done in ninety minutes. You'll get a specific time estimate with your quote, and the system is back on the moment we finish.
Full-System Air Duct Cleaning — where
All service areasLast reviewed: