Ducts cleaning/sanitazing

House Repair Talk

Help Support House Repair Talk:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

brasilmom

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jan 4, 2009
Messages
198
Reaction score
6
Hello,

I live in a house that is a little over 40 yo and have been here for about 8 years now.

The house is fine and extensive remodeling/update has been made by the previous owner. There are some dust that perhaps is left over from the remodeling, but that is not my major concern.

I have a very sharp sense of smell and the house does have a funny/funky smell. It has bothered me and I think I am ready to do something as I know that just freshener will not do, and I do not favor them anyway.

So, the ducts are steel as far as I can tell and do not have internal insulation, it seems. I wonder if perhaps a creature could have died in there causing the smell - or if there could be some urine/fecal from mice, or who knows what. The previous owner did not have pets, and only 2 other families lived in the house but I do no know if any of them had pets.

Are there companies that will sanitize the ducts? What are the attributes I should look for when hiring someone for the job? Is there any sanitation that I could do myself in order to clean the ducts?

The filters are changed regularly and as expected does look dirty upon replacement.

Thanks for any insights.
 
I've never seen internally lined duct in residential ductwork. Lined duct is good for insulation and sound proofing ... but I don't like it. You have air blowing nonstop over fiberglass , it's got to be going into the air. Here abatement of asbestos is a big deal and big money , I'm betting once the asbestos is gone they will turn on fiberglass.

Anyway , I did duct cleaning when I was younger. We hooked up a huge hepa vacumn to the duct and then drilled holes in the duct and fed in a snake that banged around . Then sprayed some smelly stuff in there. Your basically just vacumn ing your ductwork. They just have equipment to make it easy. A dead animal , I'd say you would have to find it and physically take it out.
 
Thank you Buffalo for your insight. I do not know what the cause of the odor is, but I know I want somehow freshen the system. Is there any cleaning that I can do? Since the weather is good and I do not need to have it running, I figure this is the time to do it. I am thinking on doing some cleaning on the furnace itself and then perhaps sprinkle a bit of baking soda; perhaps clean some parts with peroxide??? Thoughts?
 
I'd go to an HVAC supply store and see what they sell for disinfectant / oderizer. Is your ductwork in a basement? Maybe pop the end caps off the main trunk line and peek in there. Use a shop vac to clean what you can reach. You could cut holes in the duct every so often to clean it then patch it when done. If it's insulated then you would want to glue insulation back on your patches I guess.
Do you have AC? ductwork is usually internally insulated for sound proofing. But it does insulate too.
 
Back
Top