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 HVAC Cleaning Across Los Altos
HVAC cleaning in Los Altos most often costs between $425 and $680 for a full-system cleaning of a typical 1,800 to 2,200 square-foot ranch home, and we provide a written price before any work begins. The older homes here carry decades of layered renovation debris in their ductwork, and that changes what cleaning actually involves. If you live in Los Altos and you’re noticing dust returning within days of housekeeping, a musty smell when the furnace starts each fall, or weak airflow in far bedrooms, call our HVAC Cleaning team at (806) 606-6902. We’ll walk the system with you before anything comes apart.
Why CleanRun Air Duct Cleaning Is Los Altos’s Preferred HVAC Cleaning Company
Our crews work Los Altos every week, and most of what we find inside these ducts is predictable once you know the housing stock. The residential core here is dominated by post-WWII ranch homes built between 1950 and 1975, many with original galvanized trunk lines still in place. What’s changed is everything around them: a 1,400-square-foot footprint expanded to 2,800 or 3,000 square feet through successive permitted additions, with new duct branches spliced in during each remodel. CleanRun has been documenting what’s inside these systems since 2013, and we’ve served more than 52,000 homes in that time, always with a written price before work starts and a photo record of every duct run when the crew leaves.
Tomas Reyes, who leads our technical operations, insists on one rule that shapes every Los Altos job: the customer sees the inside of their ductwork before anyone asks for a decision. That means a camera goes in first. We photograph the plenum, the trunk line, and the branch runs, then we show you what’s there. Only after you’ve seen the debris, the disconnections, or the crushed sections do we hand you a written scope and a number. No visit is complete without a documented photo record of every run, before and after. That’s the CleanRun standard, and it’s written into every job record.
Our HVAC Cleaning Services in Los Altos
Every job starts with a camera inspection and a written price. Here’s what we clean most often in Los Altos homes, and why it matters in this city’s specific housing stock.
Air Handler Cleaning
In a Los Altos ranch with a crawl space, the air handler is frequently mounted in a closet or a hallway utility chase pulling return air from a single central grille. After 60 years and three remodels, the blower wheel and cabinet interior carry layered dust, pet hair, and drywall fines from every project since the Eisenhower administration. We remove the blower assembly, clean the cabinet interior, and photograph the before and after. A dusty blower wheel can cut airflow by 20 percent or more before you notice anything but a higher utility bill.
Evaporator Coil Cleaning
The evaporator coil sits in the airstream and gets wet every cooling cycle, which makes it a magnet for every particle that slips past the filter. In Los Altos, where wildfire smoke from 2018 and 2020 pushed AQI above 200 for days at a time, we regularly pull coils coated in fine gray particulate that re-circulates through the house every time the system runs. A fouled coil forces the compressor to work harder and can freeze over in the middle of a heat wave. We clean coils with professional-grade equipment from Guardsman and Nikro, then photograph the result.
Heat Exchanger Cleaning
This one matters most in fall, when the furnace fires for the first time after months of dormancy. Whatever settled in the heat exchanger during the summer, including construction dust from a summer remodel or smoke residue from a bad fire season, burns off as that first-week odor you might recognize. More than a smell, a heavily fouled heat exchanger runs hotter than designed and trips limit switches, causing the system to shut down just when you need it. We clean and inspect the exchanger, and we flag anything that looks like a crack or a safety concern, because that’s not something to guess about.
Condenser Cleaning
The outdoor condenser gets it from a different angle: pollen, cottonwood, grass clippings, and dust from Los Altos’s dry summers pack the fins until the unit can’t reject heat. A condenser running against a clogged coil pulls more amperage and shortens its own life. We clean the fins, check the refrigerant line set, and verify the system’s operating pressures after the cleaning is done, so you know the work changed something measurable.
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 Los Altos
We clean and service equipment from every major manufacturer you’ll find in Los Altos, including Carrier, Trane, Lennox, Rheem, Goodman, and Mitsubishi. We keep a rotating stock of common filters, belts, and access fittings on our trucks so most Los Altos jobs don’t wait on a parts run, and we know which units are common in this city’s ranch stock: mid-efficiency Carrier and Rheem splits from the 1990s, newer high-efficiency Trane and Lennox systems from recent retrofits, and a growing number of Mitsubishi ducted mini-splits in homes that added square footage without extending trunk lines. Our equipment includes Rotobrush and Abatement Technologies systems for source removal and HEPA filtration.
Common HVAC Cleaning Problems We See in Los Altos Homes
These are the recurring issues in Los Altos specifically, and they come straight from what our crews find inside the ductwork:
- Crushed or disconnected runs under slabs and in crawl spaces. Original 1960s duct runs were sized for 1,400-square-foot homes. After multiple additions, those same runs often carry twice the air volume, and we find collapsed sections under finished floors or disconnected takeoffs at transitions where old sheet metal meets newer flex duct.
- Remodel debris packed into 1990s flex branches. Every permitted kitchen expansion or family-room addition pushes drywall dust, sawdust, and construction debris into the duct system. That debris settles in the low spots and elbow joints of flex duct from the 1990s and never moves again until someone removes it with negative-pressure extraction.
- Wildfire smoke residue that re-circulates every fall. The 2018 Camp Fire and the 2020 fire season left fine particulate coating duct interiors throughout the South Bay basin. Los Altos’s dry, low-humidity summers keep that residue suspended, so it re-enters living spaces each time the blower runs. We can remove it, but a standard shop-vac won’t touch it.
- Patchwork duct systems with junction traps. A 1962 galvanized trunk line feeding 1990s flex branches, then newer rigid runs from a 2015 addition, means each transition is a debris collection point. The system now serves 3,000 square feet through infrastructure originally sized for less than half that, and every junction is a place where airflow slows and dust drops out.
Pricing for HVAC Cleaning in Los Altos, CA
A full HVAC cleaning in Los Altos runs $425 to $680 for a typical ranch home under 2,200 square feet, including air handler cleaning, evaporator coil cleaning, blower cleaning, and ductwork source removal with HEPA filtration. Larger homes in the 2,800 to 3,400-square-foot range with multiple additions typically fall between $650 and $950, because the system has more runs, more transitions, and more accumulated debris. If we find disconnected or crushed duct runs during the camera inspection, we’ll price the repair separately in the same written scope, before anything gets cleaned. You’ll always have a written number before work begins, and that number stays the same unless you approve a change in writing. Estimate visits are free. Call (806) 606-6902 and we’ll schedule a camera inspection and written quote for your Los Altos home.
We Also Serve Cities Near Los Altos
Our crews working HVAC Cleaning in Los Altos also cover the neighboring communities regularly: Mountain View, Palo Alto, Menlo Park, and Sunnyvale. Scheduling is coordinated from our San Francisco Bay Area office, and crews are dispatched locally to Los Altos and the surrounding area. If you’re in one of those cities, the same written pricing and photo documentation policy applies.
Serving Los Altos, CA - Our Local Coverage Area
We’re based in the Los Altos 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 - HVAC Cleaning in Los Altos
Remodels in Los Altos push drywall dust and construction debris directly into ductwork, and because this city’s housing stock is built around sequential additions rather than tear-downs, that debris accumulates in layers. The original 1960s trunk lines were never designed to be sealed during construction, so every sanding pass and drywall cut sends fine particles into the return side, where they settle in low spots and elbows. We remove that residue with HEPA-filtered negative-pressure extraction, not a brush. Call (806) 606-6902 for a camera inspection and written quote.
We work from the registers and access points without cutting into your slab. Original 1960s runs in slab foundations often have corroded seams and joints that can’t be seen from above, so we first map the system with a camera, then use negative-pressure extraction and HEPA filtration from each accessible register. If we identify a crushed or disconnected section under the slab, we’ll show you the footage and price the repair in writing before any cleaning begins.
Yes, professional source removal with HEPA filtration removes fine particulate that settled inside ductwork during the 2018 and 2020 fire events, but a standard vacuum or brush won’t. The residue from wildfire smoke is extremely fine and adheres to duct surfaces. We use Abatement Technologies HEPA-filtered equipment to capture it, and we photograph the difference before and after. If your system smells musty every fall when the furnace restarts, that’s usually the cause, and it can be removed.
Expect to find layered debris from multiple construction eras, often at the transitions between original sheet metal and newer flex or rigid runs. We regularly find drywall dust, sawdust, pet hair, and insulation fragments packed into 1990s flex branches that were never cleaned after installation. We’ll show you the camera footage before we touch anything, so you know exactly what’s there and what it costs to remove. Call (806) 606-6902 for a free camera inspection and written quote.
Remodel dust and debris can unbalance the blower wheel, causing vibration and noise, and disconnected takeoffs or crushed runs create turbulence that sounds like rushing air. Cleaning the blower and ductwork often reduces noise, but if the camera shows a mechanical problem like a separated joint or a collapsed run, that’s a repair, not a cleaning issue. We’ll identify the exact cause and give you a written scope for whatever is actually needed.
Call CleanRun Air Duct Cleaning for HVAC Cleaning in Los Altos
We show you the inside of your ducts before we ask for a decision. Every Los Altos job includes a written price before work starts, a documented photo record of every duct run before and after, and the 365-Day Done Right Promise in writing: if the work isn’t right, we make it right. Have another company’s written estimate? We’ll put our number next to it in writing, free. Call (806) 606-6902 to schedule your camera inspection and written quote for HVAC cleaning in Los Altos.
Written by Tomas Reyes, Owner at CleanRun Air Duct Cleaning, serving Los Altos since 2013.
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