Duct cleaning in a St. Augustine Shores ranch, from the first call to the last register

The signs that the ducts are the problem

The homeowner in this story lives in a 1984 concrete-block ranch in St. Augustine Shores. The signs she noticed, in the order she noticed them: a gray fuzz on the supply registers that came back within days of wiping it. A puff of dust from the vents when the system started each morning. One bedroom at the end of the hall that never cooled. A filter that loaded in three weeks. And, after a bad flood tide in the fall put an inch of water in the garage, a musty smell that the summer humidity made worse.

Any one of those is worth a look. All five together is a duct system that has been pulling attic air and insulation fibers into the house for years, and the fix starts with a phone call.

Step by step, from the call to the last register

The call. She describes the dust and the back bedroom. The dispatcher asks about the house’s age, where the air handler is, and whether the ducts are in an attic or a crawlspace. For a 1984 Shores ranch, the answer is attic, flex duct, probably original.

The inspection, a few days later. A technician from the Palm Coast headquarters arrives, about 39 minutes up the road. He pulls a register and runs an inspection camera into the duct. He goes into the attic with a headlamp and finds what the camera suggested: a split joint on the longest run, two boots pulled loose from the ceiling, and flex duct sagging between rafters so that it kinks at every dip. He measures static pressure at the air handler, which confirms the system is working against restricted duct. The quote covers cleaning the whole system, sealing every joint and boot, rehanging the sagging runs, and replacing the one section that took water in the garage flood. Two line items: cleaning, and repair.

The job day, 8 a.m. Furniture near the registers is covered. Every supply and return grille comes off and goes outside to be washed. A large vacuum is connected at the air handler and the system is put under negative pressure; from this point, anything knocked loose travels toward the vacuum.

9 a.m. to noon. Each supply run is agitated from the register end with rotating brushes and compressed-air whips, working toward the trunk. The return side gets the same treatment. The air handler cabinet is opened, the blower wheel is cleaned, the evaporator coil is cleaned, and the drain pan and line are cleared, because a cleaned duct feeding a dirty coil is half a job.

Noon to 2 p.m. In the attic: the split joint is cut back and reconnected with a new collar and mastic. The loose boots are refastened and sealed. The sagging runs are rehung with proper strapping so they run straight. The flood-damaged section in the garage is cut out and replaced.

2 p.m. to 3 p.m. The registers go back on, clean. The system runs with a new filter and the static pressure is measured again; it has dropped to where the equipment can breathe. The technician walks her through the before-and-after camera images and the attic photos.

Schedule a duct inspection

The cost of leaving it

A duct system in that condition charges the household every month whether or not anyone calls:

1. Electricity. The air handler works against the restriction and the leaks, so the FPL bill carries the cost of cooling attic air that never reaches a room.
2. Comfort. The back bedroom stays warm because the split run delivers a trickle. The thermostat room is fine, so the system shuts off, and the far room never catches up.
3. Humidity. Return leaks pull hot, wet attic air across the coil. The system dehumidifies the attic instead of the house, and the house feels sticky at 76 degrees.
4. The equipment. A blower fighting high static pressure and a coil coated in attic dust both fail early. Duct problems show up as “the air conditioner died” years before they should.
5. The air. Insulation fibers, attic dust, rodent evidence and whatever grew in the wet section all get delivered to the bedrooms, every cycle.

Keeping them clean afterward

Clean ducts stay clean when the leaks that fed them are gone and the filter does its job. After the job, the routine is short:

• A media filter cabinet if the house had a one-inch filter; it catches what the old one let through and lasts months instead of weeks.
• A look at the registers every few months. Dust that returns fast after a sealing job means a new leak or a filter bypass, and it’s a quick call.
• After any flood tide that reaches the garage or crawlspace, a call before the system runs. Davis Shores, the bayfront and the low streets of the Shores all see water in the ducts more often than anyone expects.
• The spring and fall maintenance visits, which include a look at the duct connections while the technician is in the attic anyway.
• Pets brushed outside, as much as that’s possible with two dogs in a Florida summer.

Cook’s cleans and seals duct in every kind of St. Augustine house, from attic flex in the Shores to crawlspace retrofits under the bungalows of Fullerwood Park and Nelmar Terrace to the sheet-metal trunks in commercial buildings downtown. Equipment and method for a given job are confirmed at the inspection. [[CONFIRM WITH JERRY]] If the ducts are too far gone to clean, we say so and quote replacement instead.