Is Duct Cleansing Worth It? - Conference with Dave Adams

1. Is Duct Cleaning Worth It? - Interview with Dave Adams Is Air Duct Cleaning Worth It? - Consultation with Dave Adams I'M Kyle hawk and I'll be your host today and here on the program. Our objective is to bring you the very best and customer information on home enhancement tasks and health and lifestyle subjects, and every week we get details on the show from qualified company and subject matter specialists. They give you whatever you need to know. Recently we braved the cold outdoors with the help of Duane ward of the David hazing group. Here in Indianapolis he offered us some really terrific tips on taking care of your house's exterior during winter and I'll. Tell you what, if you missed out on that episode, you're not going to wish to miss it once again and you can discover it by signing up for our podcast on itunes. Simply pull up the itunes app on your home computer order. The podcast app on your mobile phone search chat with the specialists hit the subscribe button. You'Ll get each and every single episode that we launch when we put it out and you can likewise leave us an evaluation there. Let us know how we're doing if you desire much more, you can discover this podcast as an article series on YouTube. Just go to youtube.Com look for Angie's List check out our articles, and you can read us as we go over these home-improvement and lifestyle topics and, obviously, you'll get whatever that you require when it comes to home service by going to Angie's List com. If you're trying to find somebody to look after those annoying ice dams on the roofing system, this winter, or perhaps somebody simply to assist with the basic upkeep around your home, you can discover what you require. We got scores and evaluations on company in your area. Simply go to Angie's List com struck join now. If you use the discount code, WIBC 40 you're going to get 40 % off a yearly subscription, it's only $ 49. 99 for the full year, so check it out today, head over to Angie's List dot-com. Well, here on chat with the experts, we yapped about how to work with the right business for the task and how to avoid getting scammed by lousy professionals and one service. That'S guess faced a lot of analysis over the last few years because of bad specialists offering defective services have actually been the air duct cleaning industry. Nevertheless, cleaning your air ducts is a vital part of home maintenance and is a big part of keeping your household healthy inside the house. Is Air Duct Cleaning Worth It? So today we're going to tell you about what you need to know when it comes to hiring the right air duct, cleaner and joining us today to talk about all this is Dave. Adams of the Alpine maintenance group here in Indianapolis Alpine Group, is a family owned company with 21 years of experience in the industry Dave's the owner. He oversees a staff of trained certified and ethical professionals at the very top of the industry and he's here today to talk with us all about the subject of air duct cleaning Dave welcome to chat with the experts good to be here Kyle. Thank you very much. I want to ask you a little bit about how you got into this industry, as some did like you have a pretty interesting background that led you to Alpine Group. Sure thanks. I was actually born and raised in Muncie. I have a degree in finance from Notre Dame following graduation. I moved down to Palm Beach County Florida. We live down there for 24 years. I had a property management company where we managed about 250 million dollars worth of property. We did air duct cleaning, mold remediation things like that. We sold the business when the kids were getting ready to go into high school. We wanted them to come back here to go to high school, so all four kids have been through high or either been through. Were in high school now in Indianapolis - and we found this business that a lot of the things that Alpine does were the same type of things that we did down in Florida. So it was very easily transferable. So we bought the business about six or seven years ago and that's where we are now yeah, it's a cool story and you offer a lot of different services at Alpine group. The main thing we're going to talk about, at least at the start of the show. Today is air duct cleaning and you know the sounds may be like not that interesting of a topic, but I mean there's a lot to discuss here and before we get into all that, I I guess a good starting place would be to have you share with Us, what exactly is air duct cleaning? Why is it important and - and why are we talking about this today - sure well in essence, air

2. duct cleaning is the cleaning of your HVAC system, which is the heating ventilation and air conditioning system of your seat system of your home. It includes cleaning the furnace. It includes cleaning the coils of the air, it includes cleaning the supply and the return duct a duct work, and it includes cleaning the registers so and talking about this, I guess a good place to start. There would be or they're talking about the main benefits or their health benefits to having someone come in and clean out the air ducts in your home. Sure, if you ever want to take a look, take your smartphone or any phone. Just stick it down the ductwork of your home and take a picture and you'll see what's going down there. Also, if you have a dusty home, the reason that it's dusty generally is because the dust is being conveyed through the HVAC system. So it's very good with people for people with allergies, pet allergies, dirty homes, and we see a lot of mold in HVAC systems as well. Yeah we're going to talk about that just a little bit. So what are some of the common sources of air duct contamination? Like when I take that picture and I'm looking down the air ducts, what's in there, that's causing the problem. Well, kids. Toys seem to be a big issue in the HVAC system, but those are easy to get out, but the main things are outside air mixing with conditioned air can cause issues, pets, construction projects and just general household dirt. So what I tell people, get the system cleaned put in a good filter and keep the house clean yeah. You mentioned mold being one of the things you might find there and that's obviously problematic. I think that kind of sends off everybody's alarm when they hear mold and think about it, maybe being in the air ducts. Are there ways to tell if you actually have a mold problem in the air ducts in your home? Well, there's a simple way: a lot of the times. What you'll find is some darkening around the either the carpet or on the registers themselves, or what you could do is call a reputable company Alpine group there's a few others that I would recommend they could come out and maybe open up the cabinet, the furnace cabinet And a lot of times, you'll see mold on the paper or on the insulation inside the cabinet. Generally, it's pretty simple process to clean up yeah and definitely a serious one. You would want to get it addressed and we'll talk a little bit later in the show about the steps you need to take when that time comes. Is there a possibility that your energy bill is going to be reduced after you? Have your ducts cleaned out? Is it also possible that your energy bill might be running high because you haven't addressed a problem with your air ducts? That'S a great question: Kyle, the National air duct cleaners, Association and you'll is the acronym is net Canady CA. So you'll hear me referring to net cut throughout the program. Anika has done a energy study, a white paper, and they found that cleaning a moderately fouled system can save anywhere between eleven and fifteen percent on your energy bill. So it's the same reason: airlines clean their planes, yeah the cleaner, the surface, the easier the air flows across it and you get less resistance. So you can have really a big savings and electricity over the year yeah and, as everybody starts to think about conserving energy. In their homes, that's been a huge push over recent years. A lot of people may not even realize that the air ducts in their home, something that's kind of out of their sight line, might be something to address. That could really make a difference and it sounds like it does and talking about cleaning out the air ducts. How does this actually happen? What cleaning methods are typically used on the air ducts? Okay, so the net cut has a specified cleaning process is called source removal. Generally, it's done with air negative air being a vacuum, positive air which is compressed air. That goes through the lines. So, if someone brings a shopvac into your home and just vacuums out the entrance to the duct registers, that's really not the prescribed way, yeah. What we do is we hook up eight to ten inch lines on your ductwork at the main down near the furnace that provides the negative air. We have a truck that pulls ten thousand five hundred CFM okay, so that's the equivalent of about ten rooms, the size of ten by ten by ten, that's every minute, okay, so it's very powerful and then what we do is we seal off all of the vents Throughout the home, so that the system remains under pressure so that the air is actually going in the duct as opposed to added the duct. We put a compressed air line in each of the vents and we push the debris through the system back to the furnace and then it's pulled outside of the house. We collect the debris outside of the house. We don't rely on HEPA filters, okay, yeah, or is that River time where somebody might be using chemicals or something in the air ducts in the cleaning process? Ned could has come out with a paper in the past two years where it's we try not to do it, except in extreme cases, because so, if, if you've got relatively clean, ducts chemicals really should not be applied. Sure, if you have a heavy mold contamination, it's something that should be considered, but it's you need to look at the pros and the cons yeah. Definitely well it's time for us to take a quick break here, but we're just getting started on today's show. When we come back, we're going to talk about how you can steer clear of air duct cleaning scams and we'll also get you filled in on what you need to know when it comes to your dryer vents cuz, that's another important piece of today's puzzle.

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