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 Lafayette
Air duct cleaning in Lafayette, CA typically runs $350 – $650 for a whole-home system, and most jobs are scheduled within a few days of your call. We’re Hollis Air Duct Cleaning, and our crews work Lafayette’s hillside neighborhoods and older core regularly – from the storybook cottages near downtown to the ranch houses climbing toward Happy Valley and the Moraga border. Our dispatch team coordinates from our San Francisco Bay Area office, and we route technicians to Lafayette with the tools and time blocked to handle the retrofit-era ductwork that’s common here. Call (361) 326-5060 for a free estimate, or read on for what we actually find in Lafayette homes and what it costs to fix.
Why Hollis Air Duct Cleaning Is Lafayette’s Preferred Air Duct Cleaning Company
We’ve been in business since 2004 as part of the Garrison Partners family, and our Lafayette customers come back because we show up inside the quoted window, price the job in writing before we touch anything, and leave the site clean. That’s The Garrison Standard, and it’s how every Hollis location operates – independently owned, held to the same operational discipline.
Our technicians are background-checked and uniformed. You know who’s walking into your home before they arrive. And our phones are answered by a live person 24 hours a day, 7 days a week – no voicemail loops, no callback queues, no waiting until Monday for a scheduling question.
The 365-Day Done Right Promise covers every job in writing: if the work fails within a year, we return and make it right at no charge, including a free second visit. No negotiation, no “let us check the notes.” It’s printed on every invoice.
Lafayette’s mix of 1920s storybook cottages, mid-century ranches, and hillside tract homes means we’ve seen nearly every retrofit configuration Contra Costa Valley has to offer. We know where the flex duct sags, where the 1990s installers hid junction boxes, and which exterior intake screens clog first when the oak canopy drops its fall load. That local pattern recognition saves time and catches problems that surface-level cleaning misses.
HVAC Duct Cleaning in Lafayette
HVAC Duct Cleaning in Lafayette addresses the full supply and return network in homes where central air was added decades after the original construction. The job involves sealing the system, applying negative pressure with a HEPA-filtered vacuum, and using mechanical agitation to dislodge debris from the duct walls – not just vacuuming what you can see at the register. In Lafayette, this matters more than in flatland East Bay cities because so many systems rely on long, kinked flex-duct runs through unconditioned attics and crawlspaces that were never designed for forced air. A typical whole-home HVAC duct cleaning in Lafayette runs $350 – $650, with larger hillside homes or systems with extensive rodent damage running toward the higher end.
Negative-Air Method with HEPA Filtration
We seal your supply and return plenums and pull the system under continuous negative pressure using a Nikro portable HEPA vacuum. This prevents debris from escaping into living spaces during cleaning. In Lafayette’s older homes with retrofitted ductwork, the negative-air method is essential because torn flex junctions and poorly sealed attic connections would otherwise dump dislodged debris directly into wall cavities or down through ceiling penetrations.
Camera Inspection Before and After
We run a video inspection through the main trunk lines and key branch ducts to document condition before we start and verify clearance after we finish. On Lafayette hillside properties, we typically find sagging flex, rodent nesting material, and compacted oak pollen in the camera pass – and we show you the footage so you know what was actually in there.
Vent Cleaning in Lafayette
Vent Cleaning in Lafayette focuses on the supply and return registers, grilles, and the short duct runs immediately behind them – the visible endpoints where homeowners notice dust, black grit, and seasonal debris. In Lafayette’s oak-canopy neighborhoods, vent cleaning often reveals acorn shells, leaf fragments, and rodent droppings that have traveled through compromised flex duct from attic or crawlspace entry points. A standard vent cleaning for a Lafayette home runs $150 – $300 as a standalone service, though most homeowners bundle it with full system cleaning for better value. If you’re seeing fresh debris on registers every fall, the vents aren’t dirty – they’re the symptom of a breach upstream in the duct network.
Register Removal and Deep Cleaning
We remove each supply and return register, clean the grille and the short boot behind it, and inspect for gaps between the duct and the finished wall or ceiling. In Lafayette’s storybook cottages and ranch houses, these gaps are common where drywall was cut to accommodate retrofitted duct, and they let attic air bypass the filter entirely.
Exterior Intake Screen Clearing
Many Lafayette homes have exterior intake vents under the oak canopy that load with leaves, acorns, and rodent debris in late fall. We clear and inspect these screens as part of vent cleaning because a blocked intake strains the blower and a torn screen invites repeat contamination. This step is especially important on hillside lots where mature oaks overhang the roofline.
Trusted Brands We Service in Lafayette
Our equipment roster includes Rotobrush rotary brush systems for mechanical agitation inside ductwork, Nikro negative-air machines for HEPA-filtered debris extraction, and filtration products from Aprilaire, Abatement Technologies, and Guardsman for homeowners who want upgraded protection after cleaning. We stock common filtration sizes and can source Aprilaire and Honeywell media locally for Lafayette customers who need replacement filters on the same visit. For homes with Guardsman UV or advanced filtration already installed, we inspect those components during the cleaning and note any maintenance needs on the written invoice. The tools are professional-grade, not hardware-store gear, and we explain what each one does while we’re in your home so you know what you’re paying for.
Common Air Duct Cleaning Problems We See in Lafayette Homes
- Hidden attic flex-duct junctions leaking into living spaces. In Lafayette’s 1920s – 50s core, central air was often retrofitted by cutting into attics and running flex duct through spaces never intended for HVAC. We regularly find junctions that have torn or separated, dumping conditioned air into wall cavities and pulling attic dust and rodent debris into the supply stream.
- Sagging flex runs collecting oak pollen and rodent nests. The long, kinked flex-duct runs required by Lafayette’s steep hillside lots create low points where debris settles and moisture condenses. Oak pollen compacts in these sags, and rodents use the sheltered channel for nesting material, especially in fall when they’re seeking cover.
- Exterior intake screens clogged with acorns and leaf litter. Under Lafayette’s mature oak canopy, intake screens load fast every autumn. A blocked screen starves the system for return air and strains the blower; a torn screen lets debris straight into the duct network to re-contaminate a recently cleaned system within weeks.
- Surface-only cleaning that misses the actual problem. Some outfits vacuum the registers and call it done. In Lafayette’s retrofit-era homes, the real contamination is in the hidden attic and crawlspace runs where flex duct has deteriorated. Without agitation tools, camera verification, and negative-air containment, that debris stays put and continues circulating.
Pricing for Air Duct Cleaning in Lafayette, CA
A typical residential air duct cleaning in Lafayette runs $350 – $650 for a complete supply-and-return system, depending on home size, duct accessibility, and whether we find rodent damage or disconnected junctions that need repair. Vent cleaning alone runs $150 – $300. Commercial systems in Lafayette’s small office and retail spaces start around $800 and scale with square footage and HVAC zone count.
What moves the price: homes with extensive hillside duct runs take longer to access and clean; rodent-damaged flex duct requires repair or replacement beyond standard cleaning; and older homes with multiple retrofit layers often need additional time to trace and seal compromised junctions. We give you one flat price per system, agreed in writing before any work starts. No per-vent pricing, no add-ons at the door, no bait-and-switch. Every estimate is free, and we bring before-and-after photos of your own ducts so you know the work was actually done. Call (361) 326-5060 to schedule.
We Also Serve Cities Near Lafayette
Our crews cover the full Contra Costa Valley corridor, including Lafayette and neighboring Walnut Creek, Orinda, Moraga, and Pleasant Hill. Each community has its own ductwork patterns – Orinda’s hillside estates, Walnut Creek’s larger postwar ranches, Moraga’s valley-floor homes – and we adjust our approach to match. Whether you’re in Lafayette’s older core or on a spread in the surrounding hills, our Air Duct Cleaning team routes from the same Bay Area dispatch point and brings the same written pricing and 365-Day Done Right Promise.
Serving Lafayette, CA - Our Local Coverage Area
We’re based in the Lafayette 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 Lafayette
Every 3 – 5 years for most Lafayette hillside homes, sooner if you heat with wood, live on an unpaved road, or see seasonal debris on your registers. The oak canopy, longer flex-duct runs, and intermittent winter HVAC use let debris settle and compact between heating and cooling seasons. Call (361) 326-5060 and we’ll assess your specific setup.
They were retrofitted with central air decades after construction, often by installers who ran flex duct through attics and crawlspaces never designed for it. The hidden junctions, kinked runs, and unsealed penetrations create leak points that newer, purpose-built duct systems don’t have. Camera inspection usually reveals the damage.
We seal the system, apply negative pressure with a HEPA-filtered vacuum, use mechanical agitation including Rotobrush whips to dislodge compacted debris, run before-and-after camera documentation, clear exterior intake screens, and inspect for flex-duct damage or rodent entry. The price is written before we start. Call (361) 326-5060 for a free estimate.
Yes. Clean registers don’t generate debris; they’re showing you a breach in the duct network, usually a torn flex-duct junction or compromised exterior intake screen that’s pulling attic or outdoor material into the airstream. We find and seal the entry point, clean the system, and clear the screen so the cycle stops.
It does when the cleaning addresses the hidden retrofit ductwork, not just the registers. Removing compacted oak pollen, rodent debris, and accumulated dust from long flex runs reduces particulate load and blower strain. The camera footage shows the difference, and the 365-Day Done Right Promise covers our work for a full year.
Written by Roy Castellanos, Owner at Hollis Air Duct Cleaning, serving Lafayette and the Contra Costa Valley since 2004.