Air duct cleaning cost
Duct cleaning costs $400 to $1,000. It is one of the most aggressively marketed home services in the country and one of the least often necessary, so the useful part of this page is when to skip it.
National average
$600
per project
On this page
- What it costs
- When it is worth doing
- When to skip it
- What a proper job looks like
- The thing that is usually the real problem
- Frequently asked questions
- How often should ducts be cleaned?
- Will duct cleaning help my allergies?
- Is the "pounds of dust" claim true?
- Should I have the dryer vent done at the same time?
- What about UV lights and duct sanitising?
Duct cleaning costs $400 to $1,000 for an average house, typically around $600. It is one of the most aggressively marketed home services in the country and one of the least often necessary, so the useful part of this page is the section on when to skip it.
The Environmental Protection Agency's position is that routine duct cleaning has not been shown to prevent health problems, and that it should be done for a specific reason rather than on a schedule.
What it costs
| Job | Typical cost |
|---|---|
| Whole house, up to about 10 vents | $400 to $700 |
| Whole house, 11 to 20 vents | $600 to $1,000 |
| Per vent pricing | $25 to $50 each |
| Main trunk lines only | $200 to $400 |
| Dryer vent, added to the visit | $80 to $200 |
| Blower wheel and coil cleaning | $150 to $400 |
| Sanitising or antimicrobial fogging | $75 to $250 |
| Mould remediation, if actually found | $1,500 to $6,000 |
| Sealing accessible duct leaks | $300 to $900 |
| Aeroseal internal duct sealing | $1,500 to $4,000 |
A $79 whole-house special is a bait price. What arrives is a shop vacuum, a walk around, and a quote for the work that was always going to be quoted.
When it is worth doing
There are real reasons, and they are specific:
- Visible mould growth on the inside of ducts or on the coil. Confirm it is mould before paying for remediation; insulation fibre and dust look similar.
- Rodent or insect infestation in the ductwork, with droppings or nesting material.
- After construction or renovation, particularly drywall sanding. Drywall dust is fine, abrasive and gets everywhere.
- After a fire, for the smoke residue.
- Visible debris blowing from the vents, or dust so heavy at the registers you can see it accumulating.
- A new house where the ducts were used during construction, which happens more than it should.
- Moving into a house where a heavy smoker or many pets lived.
When to skip it
- Because it has "been a while". There is no schedule that means anything.
- Because someone in the house has allergies. The evidence that duct cleaning helps allergy symptoms is weak; the filter, the humidity and the sources in the room do far more.
- Because a mailer says the ducts are full of pounds of dust. They are not.
- Because you were offered $99 and it seemed cheap. It is cheap because it is not the product.
What a proper job looks like
The standard is source removal: the system is put under negative pressure by a large truck-mounted or portable vacuum, and each run is agitated with brushes or compressed air so the debris goes into the vacuum rather than into the house.
That means:
- Every supply and return register opened and covered
- Access ports cut into the trunk lines and properly resealed afterwards
- The blower compartment and the evaporator coil cleaned, since that is where the dirt actually accumulates
- Before and after photographs down the runs
A visit with a shop vacuum at each register is not duct cleaning. Neither is "sanitising", and chemical fogging into ductwork is not something to accept casually: the EPA notes that few products are registered for use inside ducts.
The thing that is usually the real problem
Most complaints that lead people to duct cleaning are actually about airflow: rooms that never get warm, dust settling faster than it should, a system that runs constantly.
Those are almost always leaky ducts rather than dirty ones. A typical house loses 20 to 30% of its conditioned air through gaps at joints and boots, often into an attic or crawl space. Sealing that is a different job with a measurable result, and it costs $300 to $900 for accessible work.
If the ducts run through an unconditioned attic, sealing and insulating them will do more for comfort and running cost than cleaning them ever will.
Frequently asked questions
How often should ducts be cleaned?
There is no interval. Do it for a reason. If you want a rule, look inside a return register with a torch every couple of years and judge by what you see.
Will duct cleaning help my allergies?
Probably not much. A better filter fitted correctly, humidity between 30 and 50%, and dealing with the sources in the rooms will do more. If there is visible mould in the system, that is a different matter and worth acting on.
Is the "pounds of dust" claim true?
No. It is a stock line from a marketing template. Ducts in an ordinary house hold a surprisingly small amount of settled dust, most of it in the first few feet of the returns.
Should I have the dryer vent done at the same time?
Yes, and this one is genuinely worth it. A blocked dryer vent is a real fire risk and it is cheap while someone is already there with the equipment.
What about UV lights and duct sanitising?
UV lights on the coil have a narrow legitimate use in keeping the coil surface clean in humid climates. Sold as a whole-house air purification measure, they are overstated. Fogged chemical sanitisers are best avoided.
Read next
Ductwork replacement cost$3,500 to $12,000per projectReplacing ductwork costs $10 to $35 per linear foot, and a typical house carries 150 to 350 feet. Sealing sound ducts costs far less and often recovers most of the lost airflow.
HVAC tune-up cost$85 to $250per eachA tune-up costs $85 to $250 a visit. It is the cheapest thing you will spend on the system and the one most often sold as something it is not. A real service is an hour of measurement; a $59 special is twenty minutes and a sales conversation.
Whole house humidifier cost$400 to $1,300per eachA whole-house humidifier costs $400 to $1,300 installed. Buy a $12 hygrometer first: below 30% in midwinter is worth acting on, and above 50% is a condensation problem rather than a dryness one.
Blower motor replacement cost$400 to $1,800per eachA blower motor costs $400 to $1,100 for a standard PSC and $600 to $1,800 for a variable-speed ECM. A blower that will not start is the motor about a third of the time and a capacitor or board the rest.
How long does an HVAC system last$6,500 to $22,000per projectA gas furnace lasts 15 to 25 years and an air conditioner 15 to 20. Those ranges are wide on purpose: two identical systems on the same street routinely differ by a decade, and almost none of it is brand.