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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AfterHow Much Does Air Duct Cleaning Cost in Boston?
Air duct cleaning in Boston typically runs $350 to $750 for a standard single-family home, with most Greater Boston homeowners landing between $425 and $600 for a full system. That price covers the supply and return runs, the main trunk lines, the plenum, and the registers in a home with one heating and cooling system. Larger homes, finished basements with a second system, and heavy debris loads push the number higher.
We’re Hollis Air Duct Cleaning, part of the Garrison Partners family. We’ve been doing this work since 2004, and each of our locations is independently owned and operated under The Garrison Standard, which means one thing for this page: the price gets written down before any work starts, and it doesn’t move once the technician is inside your home. No teaser rate that balloons at the door. If you want an exact number for your house, call (361) 326-5060 and we’ll walk through it with you.
What follows is a real Boston market breakdown for 2026, the factors that move the price up or down, and how to tell whether a quote is honest before you hand over a credit card.
Key Takeaways
- A standard Boston single-family home runs $350 to $750 for full air duct cleaning, most commonly $425 to $600.
- Condo and apartment cleanings under 1,200 square feet usually land between $250 and $400.
- Homes with a finished basement and two systems typically run $700 to $1,200.
- Dryer vent cleaning as an add-on usually adds $100 to $175.
- Duct sealing is a separate service and is priced by the linear foot of duct, not by the vent count.
- The 365-Day Done Right Promise means if the work fails inside a year, we come back at no charge, including a free second visit.
Air Duct Cleaning Cost Breakdown (2026)
Here’s what the line items look like when you break a Boston job down. These ranges reflect what we see across jobs from Dorchester to Waltham, and they’re the numbers we write on the estimate before anyone picks up a tool.
| Service | Typical Boston Price Range | What’s Included |
|---|---|---|
| Air duct cleaning, standard home (1 system, up to 10 vents) | $350 – $550 | Supply and return runs, trunk lines, plenum, registers, negative-air setup |
| Air duct cleaning, larger home (up to 15 vents) | $500 – $750 | Same scope, extended duct runs, upper-floor trunk lines |
| Condo or apartment (under 1,200 sq ft) | $250 – $400 | Compact layout, fewer runs, shared-riser coordination where needed |
| Two-system home (finished basement or addition) | $700 – $1,200 | Both systems fully cleaned, all registers, both plenums |
| Dryer vent cleaning (add-on) | $100 – $175 | Full lint removal, vent run clear, exterior termination checked |
| Duct sealing (mastic) | Priced per linear foot of duct | Sealing joints, boots, and connections to stop air loss |
| Sanitizing or deodorizing treatment | $75 – $200 | Applied after cleaning, not instead of it |
What pushes a job toward the top of the range? Access. A Boston triple-decker with a narrow basement stairwell and ductwork snaked behind finished plaster takes longer to set up than a ranch in Newton with exposed runs. What pulls it down? Open, accessible ductwork, a single system, and fewer vents. Those two things account for most of the spread you’ll see between quotes.
One number you should watch: if a company quotes you $99 by phone without asking a single question about your home, that number is not real. It’s a door-opener. The real price gets invented in your hallway. We don’t do that. Our truck rolls with the written price already attached to the job.
What Affects Air Duct Cleaning Pricing in Boston
Boston homes are not like homes in Phoenix or Dallas. A lot of the housing stock here predates air conditioning entirely, which means ductwork got retrofitted into houses that were never designed for it. That changes the work. Here’s what actually moves the price.
- Age and layout of the home. A 1920s two-family in Somerville often has ductwork routed through interior chases and behind knee walls, so getting equipment to the right spots takes longer than it does in newer construction. A 1990s colonial with a straight trunk line in the basement is a much faster job.
- Number of systems and vents. One furnace with one AC coil and eight to ten registers is the baseline. Add a second system for a finished attic or basement, and you’ve roughly doubled the work. Each registered vent is also a stop on the route.
- Level of contamination. If the previous owner ran the system for years without a filter, or if there’s been water intrusion in a basement, debris loads can be several times normal. Filter condition matters more than most people realize.
- Access to trunk lines and plenum. Ducts buried in finished ceilings or walled off behind plaster require cutting and patching access panels. That’s not duct cleaning work, but it affects how long the job takes and what it costs.
- Duct material and condition. Sheet metal is the easiest. Flex duct can be cleaned but degrades faster, and badly crushed flex runs sometimes need to be replaced rather than cleaned. Duct board, which a lot of 1970s and 1980s Massachusetts homes have, is more delicate to work around.
- Whether it’s a home or a small commercial space. A 3,000-square-foot retail space or a small office is priced on system size and run length, not on the residential per-vent model. Those get quoted on site.
New England’s heating season runs five to six months, and Boston homes run the heat hard from October into April. That means more dust gets pulled through the system and pushed back into the living space over the course of a year. If you’ve noticed a musty smell when the heat first kicks on in October, that’s usually a sign the system is due. We see it in Cambridge, Brookline, and Jamaica Plain constantly once the first cold snap hits, just as we do in markets like Cleveland, OH when their heating season kicks in.
Stack the equipment list next to the price too. A crew running a Rotobrush rotary brush system and a Nikro negative-air machine through your ducts is working differently than a guy with a shop vac and a leaf blower. The rotary brush loosens debris off the duct walls; the negative-air machine pulls that loosened debris out of the system and into a HEPA-filtered collection unit so it doesn’t get blown into your bedrooms. Those two tools together are why a real duct cleaning takes two to four hours and not twenty minutes.
How to Save on Air Duct Cleaning
You don’t need the cheapest quote. You need the quote that holds. Here’s how to keep more of your money while still getting work that’s done by the book.
- Bundle the dryer vent. If we’re already on site with the equipment running, adding dryer vent cleaning usually costs less than booking it as a separate visit. That’s $100 to $175 instead of a standalone service call.
- Schedule in shoulder season. Late September and early May are our slowest stretches. You’re not fighting the first-cold-snap rush, and scheduling is easier.
- Get everything quoted in writing. A written price is what stops a technician from finding “something extra” once he’s in the basement. If a company won’t put it in writing before the visit, that’s your answer.
- Take care of the filter first. Change your filter before the cleaning, not after. A dirty filter reintroduces debris the moment the system comes back on. A $15 filter can protect a $500 cleaning.
- Ask what equipment is coming. If the answer is “we use a special machine,” ask which one. Rotobrush, Nikro, and Abatement Technologies are the names to listen for. Filtration brands like Honeywell, Aprilaire, and Guardsman are the media filters we install and service.
- Skip the sanitizing upsell if you don’t need it. Sanitizing runs $75 to $200. It’s not a substitute for cleaning. If the ducts are clean, sanitizing does very little. We’ll tell you when we don’t think you need it.
We offer free estimates, and we don’t gate them behind a phone tree. Call (361) 326-5060 and a live person picks up, any hour, any day. That’s not a gimmick; it’s how we’ve run since 2004. Homeowners who’ve been burned by no-shows and callback queues notice the difference on the first call.
FAQs – Air Duct Cleaning Cost
How much does air duct cleaning cost in Boston?
Air duct cleaning in Boston runs $350 to $750 for a standard single-family home with one system, and most jobs land between $425 and $600. Condos under 1,200 square feet usually come in at $250 to $400. Homes with two systems typically run $700 to $1,200. Call (361) 326-5060 for an exact quote, and we’ll price it in writing before we touch anything.
Is air duct cleaning worth the money?
Yes, if your ducts actually need it, and we’ll tell you honestly if they don’t. A $400 to $600 cleaning is worth it when there’s visible debris in the registers, when someone in the house has allergy symptoms that flare when the heat runs, after a renovation, or when you’ve just moved into a home with unknown history. If your system was serviced recently and the filters have been maintained, you may be able to wait. A free estimate call with a live person is the fastest way to find out which side of that line you’re on.
Is it cheaper to clean ducts or replace them?
Cleaning is almost always cheaper. Cleaning runs $350 to $750; replacing ductwork in a Boston home regularly runs into the thousands once you factor in access, patching, and labor. Replacement only makes sense when ducts are crushed, water-damaged, or made of duct board that’s started to break down. In most cases we clean, and if we find a run that’s beyond saving, we tell you before doing anything.
Do you charge extra for a second visit?
No. Every job is covered by the 365-Day Done Right Promise, which means if the work fails within a year, we come back and make it right at no charge, including a free second visit. That’s in writing, not negotiated. It’s the same standard whether we’re in a Boston triple-decker or a single-family home in Quincy.
Can you come out the same day?
Often yes, depending on the time of year and where you are in Greater Boston. Same-day scheduling is easiest in the shoulder seasons and fastest for dryer vent calls, which run $100 to $175 as an add-on. The phone line is answered by a live person 24/7, so you won’t get a voicemail loop if you call at 8 p.m. on a Sunday. Call (361) 326-5060 and we’ll tell you exactly what’s available.
What’s included in the price?
A standard $350 to $750 Boston cleaning includes the supply runs, return runs, trunk lines, the plenum, and all registers, cleaned with a rotary brush system and a negative-air machine that captures loosened debris into a HEPA-filtered unit. It also includes the written price before work starts, a uniformed, background-checked technician, and the site being left clean. Duct sealing and sanitizing are separate line items, and we’ll quote them up front if you want them.
Why Homeowners Choose Hollis
We lead with the price because that’s what homeowners want to see. But price only means something when the work behind it holds up. Three things separate us from the average crew in the Boston market.
First, the number on the estimate is the number on the invoice. We write the price before any work starts, and it does not move at the door. Second, every job is covered by the 365-Day Done Right Promise. If the work fails inside a year, we come back and make it right at no charge, including the second visit. Third, the technicians who show up are background-checked and uniformed, and we follow The Garrison Code on every job: arrive inside the quoted window, price in writing, complete the work by the book, leave the site clean.
Our equipment roster is the same one commercial crews run. Rotobrush rotary brush systems. Nikro negative-air machines. Filtration products from Honeywell, Aprilaire, Abatement Technologies, and Guardsman. We explain what each tool does before we start, because you shouldn’t have to take our word for it.
If you’ve been on the wrong end of a no-show, a price that changed at the door, or a crew that left a mess and vanished, that’s the exact pattern we built our standard to avoid. Background-checked technicians, live phone answering 24/7, written price, written guarantee. The work of cleaning the ducts is straightforward. Standing behind it is the part most companies skip.
Get Your Boston Air Duct Cleaning Quote
Call (361) 326-5060 for a free estimate. A live person answers, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. We’ll ask a few questions about your home, your system, and your vents, and we’ll give you a real Boston price range before anyone shows up. When we do come out, the price is written down before the first tool comes off the truck, and every job carries the 365-Day Done Right Promise. Learn more on our home page, then call us with your address and we’ll take it from there.
Pricing reflects the Boston market as of 2026. Hollis Air Duct Cleaning offers free estimates – call (361) 326-5060.
Written by Roy Castellanos, Owner at Hollis Air Duct Cleaning, serving Boston since 2004.
What Our Customers Say
"No sales pitch. Told me which parts of the system were fine and only cleaned what needed it."
- Ted L."They checked each section with a camera and showed me the dust before and after. Thorough and honest."
- Nicole H."Duct sealing along with the cleaning cut our summer bill. Straight talk and fair price."
- Gwen O.