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 Palo Alto
Air duct cleaning in Palo Alto typically costs $425 to $780 for a full system on a 1,600-square-foot ranch, and the work is usually completed in a single visit of four to six hours. The real question for Palo Alto homeowners is not whether the ducts are dirty. It is what the debris is and whether the duct runs themselves are still connected properly. Our crews work throughout Midtown, Barron Park, Professorville, and South Palo Alto every week, and we are familiar with exactly what hides inside the 1950s and 1960s crawl-space systems that dominate this city. If you are ready to learn what is actually inside your ducts, call (806) 606-6902. A written price comes before any work begins, with no exceptions.
Why CleanRun Air Duct Cleaning Is Palo Alto’s Preferred Air Duct Cleaning Company
Palo Alto homeowners tend to research before they call. They want names, brands, and a written figure before a truck ever arrives. That works in our favor. Since 2013, we have served over 52,000 homes, and every single one received a written price before work started and a documented photo record when the crew left. Dispatch and scheduling run through our San Francisco Bay Area office, and crews serve Palo Alto locally, with technicians who are background-checked, uniformed, and identified by name before they step onto your property.
What separates us in this market is the H.A.V.E.N. Standard. It is not a slogan. It is a set of written clauses, including Haven Standard Clause 1: a written price delivered before any work starts, every time. Clause 3 covers verified crews. Clause 5 is the 365-Day Done Right Promise. If the work is not right, we make it right. In writing. That matters in a city where homeowners read every line of a contract before signing.
Our owner, Tomas Reyes, built the company on evidence: a camera inside every duct run, before and after, delivered as part of the standard job record. That is not a premium add-on. It is the only honest way to know a cleaning actually removed material rather than just moving air around.
Our Air Duct Cleaning Services in Palo Alto
Residential Duct Cleaning
Most Palo Alto homes we clean are 1950s to 1970s ranch-style houses in Midtown, Barron Park, and South Palo Alto. These systems were originally sheet metal or early flex duct, and many have never been fully accessed. Our residential service covers supply and return runs, the plenum (the main distribution box attached to the furnace), register boots, and the blower compartment. Every run is photographed before and after. You see what we found.
Commercial Duct Cleaning
Palo Alto offices, medical suites, and restaurants along El Camino Real and California Avenue have their own set of problems: higher occupant density, longer run times, and kitchen exhaust or laboratory air mixing into the HVAC system where it should not. Our commercial crews use negative-pressure extraction with HEPA filtration, the same standard used on residential jobs, scaled to larger duct networks. Written scope, written price, photo record. The same deliverables.
Supply Duct Cleaning
Supply ducts carry conditioned air from the furnace or air handler out to each register. In Palo Alto’s older crawl-space ranchers, supply runs are often flex duct that has sagged, crushed, or disconnected entirely. We find supply runs blowing heated or cooled air straight into the subfloor cavity in roughly one out of every four older homes we open. Cleaning is only half the job; we tell you when a run needs sealing or replacement and put that in writing.
Return Duct Cleaning
Return ducts pull air back to the system, and in Palo Alto they are frequently routed through wall cavities or under slab in pre-1970 construction. That makes them harder to access, which is exactly why they get skipped by lower-priced outfits. We do not skip them. Our video inspection shows you the interior of the return before and after, and our written report includes any blockages, debris load, or structural issues we encounter.
What happens when you call
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A real person answersNo phone trees - you reach a local pro.
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You get an upfront price rangeHonest numbers before anyone is dispatched.
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A background-checked tech heads outLicensed & insured, dispatched right away.
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You approve before work beginsNothing starts until you say go.
BeforeAfterTrusted Brands We Service in Palo Alto
Our crews work on systems built around equipment from Honeywell, Aprilaire, and a wide range of furnace manufacturers, and the tools we bring are trade-recognized: Rotobrush agitation systems, Nikro HEPA extraction units, and Abatement Technologies negative-air machines. Naming these brands matters because you should be able to verify exactly what is being used before you agree to a price. We do not ask you to trust a green sticker on a van. We hand you a written spec.
Common Air Duct Cleaning Problems We See in Palo Alto Homes
- Disconnected or crushed flex-duct joints in vented crawl spaces. Midtown and Barron Park ranchers built in the 1950s and 1960s typically route trunk lines through vented crawl spaces, not sealed attics. Those runs develop rodent nesting, moisture damage, and joints that have separated. A cleaning that never accesses the crawl space will miss all of it.
- Decades of wildfire ash and oak pollen packed into original duct runs. Palo Alto sits directly downwind of the Santa Cruz Mountains. The August 2020 CZU Lightning Complex burned immediately above the Peninsula, and fine particulate smoke funnels into residential HVAC systems citywide. That ash settles and compacted. Positive-pressure blowing alone just stirs it around.
- Pre-WWII retrofits in Professorville and Old Palo Alto that were never meant for central HVAC. Craftsman and colonial revival homes from the 1920s and 1930s had ductwork forced into spaces never designed for it. The runs are convoluted, the access is terrible, and they are almost never serviced because a standard cleaning company does not want to deal with them. We do.
- Wiping register grilles while leaving the trunk line untouched. That is the classic low-price job. It looks good for a week. It does nothing for the debris sitting in the main trunk. In Palo Alto, where summer brings wildfire smoke and oak pollen season, that debris re-enters the living space within days.
Pricing for Air Duct Cleaning in Palo Alto, CA
A full-system air duct cleaning in Palo Alto runs $425 to $780 for most single-family homes up to about 2,200 square feet. That includes supply and return runs, the plenum, register boots, and a full video inspection with before-and-after photo documentation. Houses with crawl-space access problems, multiple HVAC systems, or substantial flex-duct damage run higher. Commercial jobs are quoted by the scope of ductwork and run from $600 on the low end to several thousand for multi-zone buildings.
Here is the honest breakdown:
- Full system cleaning (one furnace): $425 to $780
- Video inspection only: $195, credited toward the cleaning if you proceed
- Return duct cleaning add-on: included in full system, never a separate line item
- Flex-duct sealing or replacement after cleaning: priced per joint and quoted in writing before any work is done
We do not quote per-vent pricing. Per-vent is how this industry baits you with a low number and surprises you at the door. Instead, you receive one flat written price per system, agreed before a single panel comes off. That is Haven Standard Clause 1. Call (806) 606-6902 for an exact quote. Estimates are free.
We Also Serve Cities Near Palo Alto
Our crews regularly cross into Palo Alto from Menlo Park, Los Altos, Redwood City, and Mountain View, so if you are just across a city line, the same written pricing and photo documentation apply. For a broader look at how we approach this service everywhere we work, see our Air Duct Cleaning hub page.
Serving Palo Alto, CA - Our Local Coverage Area
We’re based in the Palo Alto 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 - Air Duct Cleaning in Palo Alto
Yes, and it matters because original 1950s sheet-metal ducts and early flex runs have had sixty-plus years to collect debris, separate at joints, and attract rodents in the crawl space. A 1962 Midtown rancher we recently cleaned had original supply and return ducts routed through a vented crawl space. We ran a NADCA-compliant source removal cleaning with a Rotobrush agitation system under negative pressure and HEPA filtration, and found a crushed flex-duct joint disconnected at the trunk line. It had been blowing conditioned air and rodent nesting material into the subfloor cavity for years. After video inspection confirmed full debris removal, we sealed the joint and restored airflow. Original ductwork can often be cleaned and repaired. But any cleaning that never puts a camera in the crawl space cannot tell you either way. Call (806) 606-6902 for a written assessment.
Palo Alto sits directly downwind of the Santa Cruz Mountains, so when the CZU Lightning Complex burned in August 2020, fine particulate smoke funneled into residential HVAC systems across the entire city. That smoke carried more than ash: it carried vaporized household materials, PVC, and treated lumber from structures in the burn zone. Particulates that fine settle inside duct runs and stay there. Since 2020, we have seen a repeat demand pattern after every regional fire event, because Palo Alto’s homeowners track AQI closely and understand that their HVAC system is only as clean as the air it pulls. If you have lived here through a smoke event and have not had your ducts assessed since, the inside of those runs is worth a camera. Call (806) 606-6902 to schedule a video inspection.
The Peninsula construction norm of the 1950s and 1960s routed main trunk lines through vented crawl spaces rather than sealed attics. Vented crawl spaces are humid in winter and accessible to rodents year-round. Flex duct also sags over time, its plastic outer sleeve degrades, and the mechanical joints where flex meets sheet-metal trunk lines fail. A cleaning that accesses the crawl space and inspects every joint will find these failures. A cleaning that runs a brush from the register inward will not. That is why our full system cleaning includes a camera pass through every accessible run, and why we seal or replace damaged joints as a separate written line item only after you have seen the video.
NADCA source removal extracts debris under negative pressure with HEPA filtration, which removes material rather than redistributing it. Positive-pressure blowing, the low-cost alternative, pushes air into the system from the register side, which loosens debris and sends much of it into the living space. For Palo Alto homes carrying wildfire ash and oak pollen in the ductwork, positive pressure can make indoor air quality worse. Source removal is the standard we use on every job, and our Rotobrush agitation systems paired with Nikro extraction units are designed around that standard. If a quote is half what we charge, ask whether the equipment is rated for source removal or just for moving air. Call (806) 606-6902 and we will explain the difference in writing.
Yes, with the right access strategy. Professorville and Old Palo Alto homes from the 1920s and 1930s were built without central HVAC, so ductwork was retrofitted through spaces never intended for it: narrow wall cavities, low-clearance attics, even under stairs. Those runs accumulate debris just like any others, but cleaning them requires smaller access openings, flexible camera routing, and patience. We have worked on these homes throughout Professorville. A full system cleaning on a retrofitted pre-WWII home in Palo Alto typically runs $550 to $980, depending on access and the number of runs. The photo record tells you the job was done whether the ducts are modern or antique. Call (806) 606-6902 for a written price before any work starts.
What to Do Next
You have probably lived in your Palo Alto home for years without a camera ever looking inside the ductwork. That is normal. Most homeowners never see inside these runs until something fails or the air smells wrong. It does not have to be that way. We will deliver a written price, inspect every accessible run, photograph the interior before and after, and seal or replace anything we find wrong only after you have seen it too. Call (806) 606-6902 for a free estimate. No per-vent pricing. No surprises. Just a written record of what is actually in your ducts.
Written by Tomas Reyes, Owner at CleanRun Air Duct Cleaning, serving Palo Alto since 2013.
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