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While, like other Mansfield, TX, households, you may do all you can to keep your home clean, there are always some little spots in your home that may not quite be as easy to clean out. If at all dirt starts building up in them, it’s not always easy to tell. The chief culprits here are your air ducts.
That’s one of the places where you will find dirt, dust and other allergens that can potentially pose a risk to your health. That’s largely because the ductwork itself is hidden, and the way central air conditioning systems take in air from outside the house makes it easy for the particles to find their way within the home.
The following tips will make it easier for you to tell if your air ducts could use some cleaning. Remember, though, that the cleaning itself is best left to professionals. It’s a hazardous process that is inadvisable for the untrained to try on their own. Calling an air duct cleaning service is always best.
1. Mold in Your Furnace
Your HVAC system requires cleaning from time to time. Most manufacturers recommend two visits every year. The reason there is that air conditioners and furnaces are at risk of developing condensation, creating conducive conditions for mold to grow. That’s more so the case during those times of year when Mansfield, TX, is humid.
Whenever you are getting regular maintenance carried out on your HVAC system, be sure to ask whether there’s mold growing up there. If you get a positive reply, that’s a sure sign that you need to contact an air duct cleaning service. You may also want to check that the mold hasn’t spread to other parts of your home, where it can cause significant health issues, especially with pre-existing health conditions such as asthma.
Beyond just having your air ducts cleaned, you may also want to look into whether your ductwork has been affected. The mold doesn’t automatically point to that, but it does increase the odds.
2. A Recently Renovated Home
This point also counts if your house has just been recently built. Since construction is often a messy process, even when contractors do their best to clean up and close off work areas to avoid dirtying up the rest of the house, fine dust and debris particles find their way to different parts of the home.
If the HVAC system is kept on and left uncovered while the renovation or construction takes place, the dirt and dust will have a much easier time settling into your ductwork.
Unlike regular dust, particulate dust often has particles in it that can prove highly hazardous to your health. To highlight again, that’s more so the case when you suffer from certain medical or respiratory issues.
To simply be on the safe side, your best bet after getting some renovation done on your home is to call in an air duct cleaning service. If you want greater assurance before doing, you can always have them perform a check first — though there are overwhelming odds that they’ll come to a similar conclusion.
You can save yourself the trouble and simply get in touch with an air duct cleaning service immediately after renovations are carried out on your Mansfield, TX, home.
3. A Dusty Home (Even After Tons of Cleaning)
Given how dusting is rarely the most fun activity to be carrying out on any given day, it can be especially infuriating to dust your home for hours on end, only to find out that the dust keeps reaccumulating.
The problem in this instance is almost always dirty ducts. And it follows that the solution is an air duct cleaning service.
You can confirm this by inspecting both your supply and return vents, all around the house. If there’s visible dirt and dust, the most advisable move at this point is to simply call an air duct cleaning service.
If you’re more of a risk-taker, though, you can go one step further and remove a vent cover so you can take a look at the ductwork itself. If you find the metal covered in dust, that’s as much confirmation as you’re going to get that you have dirty ducts.
An air duct cleaning service will save you a lot of cleaning here, and ensure you have a much less dusty home.
4. Your Heating/Cooling Costs are Through the Roof
When it comes to your heating and cooling costs, everything should fall within a relatively predictable range. If you get a bill that’s startlingly high, or realize that your bills at about the same time last year were much lower, there could be a dirty ductwork problem you need to take care of.
When the problem has been going on for too long, the ductwork can fill with so much dust that air has trouble moving through your home’s HVAC system. This forces your air conditioner and furnace to do significantly more work just to match the temperature you’ve set on your thermostat, leading to that surge you might notice on your bills.
The best way to solve this and get your bills back to where they need to be is to simply call in an air duct cleaning service.
5. Inconsistent Room-to-Room Airflow
When your bedroom, family room or bathroom is receiving a different level of airflow to the other rooms in the house, that’s a sign that your duct may be dirty. Air vents that are fully open automatically deliver the same level of airflow all around the house, or at least similar levels where there are other minor issues.
While this particular issue is more to do with the comfort you experience within your home, remember its health complications too, since the rooms most affected also tend to be the ones with the least healthy air.
The solution, as you’ve already caught on by now, is to call us and schedule an air duct cleaning service.
Dirty air ducts can cause problems not only for your comfort as you live within your home, but also for your health. If any of the five signs above sound familiar, call Minuteman Heating and Air in Mansfield, TX to take care of the issue for you.