Duct cleaning questions, answered straight

Duct cleaning in Mississauga typically runs $249 to $499 for a house, and around $179 for a condo. Our own flat rates are $249 for up to 10 vents, $349 for up to 20 vents, and $499 for an unlimited deep clean with sanitizing.

The number that actually moves your price is the vent count, not the square footage. Count the registers in every room including the basement, and you can price the job yourself before you call anyone.

Because $99 is a door-opener, not a price. That figure almost always covers a fixed number of vents — often six — with everything past that billed per vent on the day, plus separate charges for the furnace, the returns and a mandatory sanitizing treatment.

A homeowner who booked $99 commonly signs for $400 to $600. This is the single most frequent complaint in Ontario duct cleaning reviews. Ask any company for the all-in number for your specific vent count before booking, and get it in writing.

No. The flat rates are the same in Meadowvale, Malton, Port Credit, Lorne Park and everywhere between. There is no travel surcharge for the west end and no premium for the lakeshore.

Cold-air returns are the large intake grilles — usually one per floor, often in a hallway or at the bottom of the stairs — that pull air back to the furnace. They are not the small registers that blow air out.

They matter because they collect the most debris in the whole system and are physically bigger to clean. Your first return is included in every package; additional returns are $35 each.

Every three to five years suits most Mississauga homes. Move that to every two to three years if you have pets that shed, someone in the house with asthma or allergies, or a finished basement that generates a lot of dust.

Two situations override the schedule entirely: after any renovation involving drywall or sanding, and immediately after moving into a home whose duct history you do not know.

After, always. Drywall dust is fine enough to travel the entire duct system and it keeps recirculating for months. Cleaning before the work simply means paying to clean ducts you are about to fill.

If the renovation is still ongoing, seal the registers in the work area with plastic and tape, and book the cleaning once the sanding is finished.

Ask this of every company you call, and ask for the certificate rather than accepting the claim. The relevant credentials in this trade are NADCA (National Air Duct Cleaners Association) membership and liability insurance covering work inside your home.

Any company that will not produce proof of insurance in writing before the appointment should be ruled out — you are letting them open your furnace.

Two to three hours for a typical Mississauga detached home, around 90 minutes for a townhouse, and 45 to 60 minutes for a condo suite.

Be sceptical of anyone in and out in under an hour on a full house. Putting the system under negative pressure and agitating each run back to the trunk takes time; a quick pass at the register openings is not a duct cleaning.

A high-volume vacuum is connected to the trunk line near the furnace, putting the whole duct system under negative pressure so everything loosened travels toward the vacuum rather than into your rooms.

Each supply and return run is then agitated with compressed air whips or rotating brushes, driving debris back to the trunk. The furnace blower compartment and cabinet are cleaned by hand. A camera pass before and after shows you what came out.

Not when done properly. Flexible duct and older fibreglass-lined duct do need a lighter touch — aggressive rotary brushing can tear the liner, which makes the problem permanently worse.

Tell whoever you hire if you have flex duct or interior insulation so they use soft-whip agitation instead. If a technician cannot tell you which method they are using on your system, that is a reason to keep looking.

Yes, for the start and the end. Someone needs to let the technician in, show them the furnace and the panel, and confirm the vent count that sets the price.

Staying for the final camera pass is worth it — that is your one chance to see the inside of your own ducts and confirm the work was actually done.

Yes — $99 on its own, or $79 added to any duct cleaning package.

This is the one that is genuinely a safety issue rather than a comfort one. Lint is highly combustible and clothes dryers are a recurring cause of household fires in Ontario. If your dryer now needs two cycles to dry a load, or the outside vent flap barely moves while it runs, the duct is restricted.

The clearest sign is drying time: if a normal load suddenly needs a second cycle, airflow is restricted. Others are a laundry room that gets unusually hot while the dryer runs, a burning or musty smell, and lint visible around the outside vent hood.

Long runs are the worst offenders. Mississauga townhouses and semis where the laundry sits in a basement interior wall often have 6 to 8 metres of duct with two or three elbows, and those need cleaning far more often than a short exterior-wall run.

Yes, but only the in-suite portion. In most Mississauga high-rises we clean your fan coil unit, its coil and drain pan, and the short runs feeding your rooms.

The vertical risers that connect all the suites belong to the condo corporation, not to you, and are cleaned on the building's own schedule. Any company quoting you to clean "the whole system" in a condo suite is either misunderstanding the building or overselling.

It reliably removes accumulated dust, pet dander, drywall debris and construction fines from the duct system, which is the material that gets pushed into your rooms each time the blower starts.

Be careful of anyone promising it will cure allergies or asthma. Health Canada does not recommend routine duct cleaning as a health measure for an otherwise clean system. The honest case is straightforward: less visible dust, less debris circulating, and a blower and coil that are not fighting a layer of buildup.

Sometimes. It is a reasonable add-on where there is confirmed microbial growth, a persistent musty smell, or after water damage. It is $69 with us and is included in the Deep Clean package.

It is not necessary on a clean, dry system, and any company that treats it as mandatory on every job is padding the invoice. Sanitizing a duct that has not been mechanically cleaned first accomplishes very little.