Air ducts ensure the circulation of good and clean air that is important to keep you and your home healthy. With Covid, being in a sanitized environment is more important than ever. Many things can go wrong if you don’t maintain your air ducts.
In this blog post, Crisis Restoration takes a look at what can happen when things go wrong and how a professional team like Crisis Restoration can help.
Build-Up of Mold Spores
Moldy air ducts can mean you’ll be circulating potentially toxic air throughout your building, which is dangerous to inhale. Untreated air ducts – especially those with insulation – create moisture through condensation. And when that builds up, the moisture turns to mold and mildew. If you can smell a persistent musty odor, this is a big red flag for your building’s health – and ultimately yours.
Clogged Air Ducts
If you’ve ever taken a closer look at the inside of a neglected air duct, you’ll notice a build-up of dust and debris that looks like the inside of a vacuum cleaner bag – long strands of gooey, grey matter caking the steel interior. This clogging is not only unhygienic; it also greatly reduces airflow. This reduces the effectiveness of your air conditioning and heating.
Pest Haven
Moisture, dust, debris – add those all together in a hard-to-reach place like an air duct, and you’ve got the ultimate breeding ground for nasty pests. Crickets and rats, mice, cockroaches, and even nesting birds can set up camp in your building’s air ducts.
Covid Considerations
Performing due diligence in a pandemic world means taking extra care around hygiene standards in your home or office building. Just because air is moving around your building doesn’t mean that it’s clean. For that, you need the correct filtration device fitted to your air duct system.
It is better to err on the side of caution when it comes to ensuring your public space passes Covid-related protocol – especially if you’re a school welcoming children back to the classroom or working in a corporate environment that facilitates returning employees.
Public spaces can get shut down quickly in the event of a virus outbreak. The last thing you need is to have your building come under the microscope for failure to maintain a fair standard of health and hygiene.
State laws vary in this regard, but a well cleaned, regularly maintained air duct system sets the proper standard for your place of work, education, or home relaxation environment. You wouldn’t order french fries from a deep fryer that looked like it hadn’t been cleaned in years. So why would you want to breathe in air from air ducts sporting dirty debris?
The Cost Factor
Your electricity bill undoubtedly goes up when your air ducts are clogged as your A/C is working overtime to push air around your building. There’s the risk factor associated with having your venue shut down for hygienic reasons to consider, and there’s the sage advice that maintenance is cheaper than fixing it when it breaks.
Cleaning air ducts is not a DIY operation. To do this job on your own you will need a high-powered vacuum and rotary brushes. You’ll need to carefully unscrew all the grills and hose out the interior without making a slushy mess of it all. Most likely not worth it to do it yourself.
How Crisis Restoration Can Help
The National Air Duct Cleaners Association recommends cleaning your air ducts every three to five years. Crisis Restoration is here to help if that time for an air duct cleaning operation is upon you.
If you’ve noticed a moldy odor in your building or can identify caked areas of debris and dust by the air ducts; or if you just have a hunch that it’s been a good few years since your building’s air ducts haven’t got a deep clean in a while, then Crisis Restoration has got your back. Available 24/7 for emergencies day or night, Crisis Restoration is experienced in the business of air duct cleaning – even more so since the onset of the pandemic.
We aim to make your life as easy as possible during this difficult time of disruption from your office’s daily routine. Getting back to normal starts with the first call. We will work with you to gather all the details, and we’ll dispatch a vehicle to your location immediately. To find your nearest Crisis Restoration location or for more information about air duct cleaning our other property restoration services, visit our website today.