Whole-system duct and dryer vent check with before-and-after photos - you see exactly what came out of your vents
That "$99 whole-house special" is a bait ad - the real number appears once they are in your hallway, or the "clean" is a shop-vac at the register. We photograph the inside of your ducts before and after instead.
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AfterFast, Reliable Air Duct Cleaning Across Scottdale
Air duct cleaning in Scottdale, GA typically runs $350 – $650 for a full residential system, with most jobs completed in a single visit. We dispatch crews from our Atlanta office to serve Scottdale directly, and we know the local housing stock well enough to price it accurately before we arrive. If you’re seeing dust clouds blow from your vents, smelling musty air when the AC kicks on, or dealing with allergy flare-ups that spike every spring, your ductwork is likely circulating decades of buildup instead of clean air.
We’ve been working in the Scottdale area long enough to recognize what sets it apart. The 1950s – 1970s ranch homes and modest brick bungalows that make up most of the neighborhood still run original galvanized steel ductwork that has never been retrofitted. That metalwork traps dust differently than modern flex duct, and it fails differently too. Our Air Duct Cleaning team carries the tools for both: Rotobrush rotary brush systems for mechanical agitation inside rigid metal runs, and Nikro negative-air machines for controlled debris extraction. We don’t guess at what your system needs. We inspect it first, write the price down, and then do the work. Call (361) 326-5060 to schedule a free estimate.
Why Hollis Air Duct Cleaning Is Scottdale’s Preferred Air Duct Cleaning Company
Scottdale homeowners aren’t looking for the lowest coupon price. They’re looking for the price that stays the same once the van is in the driveway. At Hollis Air Duct Cleaning, part of the Garrison Partners family since 2004, we write every price down before any work starts. That number doesn’t move at the door. It’s part of The Garrison Standard, and it’s how we’ve built our reputation across DeKalb County.
Our technicians are background-checked and uniformed, and they arrive inside the quoted window. If something fails within a year of our visit, the 365-Day Done Right Promise covers a free return visit to make it right. No negotiation, no runaround. In Scottdale specifically, we regularly hear from homeowners who’ve dealt with crews that wiped the registers and left, or quoted one price over the phone and doubled it once inside. We don’t work that way. The price is the price. The work is documented with before-and-after photos of your own ducts. And our phones are answered by a live person 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, not a voicemail loop.
Local knowledge matters here. We know that Air Duct Cleaning in Scottdale means dealing with original 1960s duct layouts, crawlspace access points that vary by subdivision, and the specific particulate load that comes from living under Hartsfield-Jackson’s flight path. That expertise shows up in how we scope the job and what we find when we open the system.
HVAC Duct Cleaning in Scottdale
HVAC Duct Cleaning in Scottdale means source removal from the full system: supply trunks, return drops, branch lines, and the air handler itself. In Scottdale’s older ranches, we typically find galvanized steel mains with taped joints that have dried and failed, allowing attic or crawlspace air to pull directly into the return side. A typical residential HVAC duct cleaning in Scottdale runs $350 – $550 for a single-system home, with larger split systems or homes with multiple zones running toward the higher end.
We start with a video inspection. On a 1962 brick ranch off Bouldercrest Road, our tech pulled a register and found the return drop choked with gray-black soot film layered over yellow-green pine pollen – the telltale airport-cluster signature, not household dust. A camera inspection showed two disconnected runs in the crawlspace and a crushed branch feeding the rear bedroom, so we ran source removal under negative pressure with HEPA filtration, reconnected and sealed the joints, and scrubbed the blower motor wheel clean. The homeowner said the “dust clouds” they’d been seeing blow out of the supply vents stopped the same week.
Supply Duct Cleaning
Supply ducts push conditioned air into your rooms. In Scottdale’s original galvanized systems, we often find the first few feet from the air handler caked with compacted dust that rotary brushes alone won’t dislodge. We use mechanical agitation followed by negative-air extraction to pull it loose and out of the house entirely, not just redistribute it.
Return Duct Cleaning
Return ducts pull air back to the air handler, and they’re where we find the heaviest buildup in Scottdale homes. The gray-black ultrafine soot from airport traffic settles here first, bonded to pollen and humidity. Cleaning returns without HEPA containment just blows that debris into your living space. We seal the system and extract under controlled pressure.
Vent Cleaning in Scottdale
Vent Cleaning in Scottdale addresses the registers, grilles, and immediate boot connections where homeowners see and smell problems first. A standalone vent cleaning for surface-level buildup runs $150 – $250, though we typically recommend it only as part of a full system clean. Wiping registers without cleaning the connected ductwork is like dusting your doorframe while ignoring a dirty hallway – the source remains.
Scottdale’s vent cleaning needs split along housing age. Original 1960s homes have metal boots screwed to floor or wall studs, often with gaps that leak attic air. Newer tear-down rebuilds use flex-duct boots that crush if a technician steps wrong in the attic. We inspect before we touch. Our vent cleaning includes register removal, boot vacuuming, and reinstallation with new gaskets where the old ones have hardened. If we find disconnected or damaged ductwork behind the vent, we document it with photos and quote the repair separately before any additional work.
Register and Grille Detailing
Metal registers in older Scottdale homes often have years of baked-on grime and nicotine residue if the home had previous smokers. We remove, soak, and hand-clean each piece rather than spraying chemical foam that leaves its own residue.
Boot and Connection Inspection
The boot is the short duct section behind your vent cover. In Scottdale ranches, we find boots separated from the main trunk by an inch or more, pulling unconditioned crawlspace air into the system. We note every disconnect during cleaning and offer reconnection with Duct Sealing in Scottdale using proper mastic sealing.
Trusted Brands We Service in Scottdale
We clean ductwork connected to every major HVAC brand, and we carry the filtration products that actually fit Scottdale’s systems without a two-week order delay. Our equipment roster includes Rotobrush rotary brush systems for mechanical agitation inside rigid metal duct, Nikro negative-air machines for controlled debris extraction, and filtration upgrades from Honeywell, Aprilaire, and Guardsman. For homeowners near the airport dealing with that ultrafine soot load, we often recommend Aprilaire media filters with higher MERV ratings, installed after cleaning so the system doesn’t immediately recontaminate. We stock common sizes for Scottdale’s typical 3-ton and 4-ton residential systems, so most filter upgrades happen same visit.
Common Air Duct Cleaning Problems We See in Scottdale Homes
- Gray-black ultrafine soot film from Hartsfield-Jackson traffic. Homes within a mile of the airport, particularly along Bouldercrest Road and the northern edge of Scottdale, show a distinct soot layer on duct interior walls that standard household dusting won’t address. This requires HEPA-contained negative pressure cleaning, not a shop vacuum and a brush.
- Disconnected galvanized branches in crawlspaces. Original 1950s – 1970s duct systems used snap-lock or drive-cleat connections that vibrate loose over decades. We find separated runs in roughly one-third of Scottdale’s older homes, wasting conditioned air and pulling in crawlspace mold and radon.
- Crushed flex duct in tear-down rebuilds. Newer Scottdale construction uses flexible duct that installers sometimes kink in tight attic spaces, or that homeowners crush by using the attic for storage. The restriction kills airflow and creates noise. We identify these with camera inspection before cleaning.
- Failed tape and mastic at trunk connections. Original duct sealing in Scottdale’s ranch homes was often cloth-backed tape that dries and falls off within 15 – 20 years. Every joint becomes a leak point. We remove the old material and reseal with modern duct mastic that flexes with temperature cycles.
Pricing for Air Duct Cleaning in Scottdale, GA
Honest pricing means giving you numbers before you call, not a teaser rate that doubles once we’re inside. In Scottdale’s market, here’s what we typically see:
| Service | Typical Range |
|---|---|
| Full residential HVAC duct cleaning (single system) | $350 – $550 |
| Full residential HVAC duct cleaning (multi-zone or larger home) | $500 – $650 |
| Vent cleaning only (registers and boots, no trunk work) | $150 – $250 |
| Video duct inspection with written report | $125 – $175 |
| Duct sealing (mastic, reconnecting separated runs) | $200 – $400 additional |
What moves you within these ranges? System size, number of registers, accessibility of the air handler and duct trunks, and whether we find damage that needs repair before cleaning is effective. We do not charge per vent. One flat price per system, agreed in writing before work starts. Every estimate is free, and we bring a camera so you see what we see. Call (361) 326-5060 for your Scottdale estimate.
We Also Serve Cities Near Scottdale
Our crews work throughout DeKalb County, including Scottdale and neighboring Clarkston, Decatur, Stone Mountain, and Tucker. Each community has its own housing stock and ductwork quirks – Decatur’s historic bungalows, Stone Mountain’s split-levels from the 1980s, Tucker’s mix of original and rebuilt inventory. We price and scope accordingly, never applying a one-size template.
Serving Scottdale, GA - Our Local Coverage Area
We’re based in the Scottdale area and know this community well. Use the map below to see our service coverage - if you’re nearby, we can almost certainly help.
FAQs About Air Duct Cleaning in Scottdale
It’s ultrafine soot from jet exhaust and industrial particulates, not ordinary household dust. Scottdale sits directly under Hartsfield-Jackson’s flight path in the metro’s airport cluster, and that fallout settles in ductwork differently than the pollen and skin-cell mix you’d see in Decatur or Clarkston. The gray-black film bonds to metal surfaces and requires mechanical agitation with HEPA-contained extraction to remove. Call (361) 326-5060 and we’ll show you on camera exactly what’s in your system.
Original galvanized steel can almost always be cleaned if it’s structurally intact. The real question is whether it’s still connected properly. We find separated joints and crushed branches in about one-third of Scottdale’s unretrofitted ranches. Camera inspection reveals the difference between “dirty but sound” and “dirty and failing.” Cleaning runs $350 – $550; reconnection and sealing of damaged sections adds $200 – $400. Full replacement is rarely necessary unless the metal itself is rusted through. We’ll show you what we find and give you a written price for each option.
Every 3 – 5 years for most Scottdale homes, but every 2 – 3 years if you’re within a mile of the airport or have allergy-sensitive occupants. The combination of Hartsfield-Jackson soot, heavy spring pollen from March through May, and near-constant HVAC runtime from March through October loads Scottdale ducts faster than systems in milder climates. If you see visible dust blow from vents when the system kicks on, or if your filter clogs in under 60 days, you’re due regardless of the calendar. Call (361) 326-5060 for a free inspection and we’ll tell you where your system stands.
Negative pressure means we hook a powerful vacuum to your duct system and pull air out of it faster than the normal HVAC fan can push air in. This creates suction that prevents debris from escaping into your rooms during cleaning. HEPA filtration means the exhaust from that vacuum passes through a filter rated to capture 99.97% of particles down to 0.3 microns – critical in Scottdale, where the ultrafine soot particles from airport traffic are smaller than typical dust and pass through standard filters. Together, they mean the debris leaves your house, not your living room. We use Nikro negative-air machines with HEPA final filters on every Scottdale job.
Yes. Flex duct has a wire spiral inside a plastic liner with fiberglass insulation wrapped around it. Aggressive rotary brushing can tear the liner or compress the insulation. We use lighter-contact methods – soft-bristle rotary systems or compressed-air whipping tools – with lower suction pressure to avoid collapsing the flexible walls. We also inspect for kinks and compressions that builders or attic storage often create in Scottdale’s newer townhomes. The cleaning runs the same $350 – $550 range, but the method and the risks are different, and we scope it accordingly. Call (361) 326-5060 to discuss your specific system.
Written by Roy Castellanos, Owner at Hollis Air Duct Cleaning, serving Scottdale since 2004.