Whenever we consider house repairs in Dallas the first thing that comes to our mind is the apparent chores. We are concerned with maintaining the lawn green in a hot August heatwave, as with the roof resisting a spring hailstorm, or with the foundation settling. Nevertheless, the things that you cannot see are some of the most essential elements of the health of your home. Behind your walls and ceilings is a huge array of ducts which as a network form the breathing system of your house. To homeowners who are interested in improving the quality of air in their homes and saving on energy expenses, Click Here for More Information on how professional duct maintenance can change the face of your home.
The Unseen Housecleaner on Your Roof.
suppose you had not dusted your living room in five years? You can imagine how thick the gray fuzz would cover all surfaces. This is what is happening in the air ducts of most houses. The system on your Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC) is closed. It draws air into your rooms, purifies and conditions it and drives it out.
Although your air filter does a fine job in capturing a healthy amount of the debris, it can not catch them all. Small particles of dust, pet dander and skin flakes and pollen do not pass through the filter and are deposited within the duct work. Gradually, this debris accumulates into a great deposition of dirt. It is simple to overlook since you cannot actually see it but it has an effect on your daily life.
It is this dusty layer that an air conditioner fights in every time that you turn it on to counteract the heat of Texas. This is capable of picking up the particles and blowing them directly back in the very rooms you are eating, sleeping and playing. Basically, having a dirty duct system is the same as having a home that is self-cleaning and washes itself with its dust.
The reason Dallas Homes are experiencing a special challenge.
Residing in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex offers a special kind of challenge to your ventilation system. First, there is the pollen. Everyone, who has spent some time in North Texas during a cedar fever season or a ragweed bloom, can tell how high the allergens can be. When these outside allergens find their way into your home they do not simply disappear but become trapped in your ventilation system to be re-introduced back into your home day after day.
Second, there is the heat. In colder climates, the population may open their windows to get fresh air for a good portion of their year. We close our houses against the humidity and heat in Dallas much of the calendar. This implies that we are spending months inhaling recycled air. When such air is going through dirty ducts, the level of the indoor pollutants can even be significantly greater than that of the air outside.
The Economic Effect on Your Utility Bills.
In addition to the health considerations, there is an actual monetary price of not taking care of your air ducts. Everyone is aware of the agony of receiving an electricity bill in July or August. Your air conditioner uses an enormous amount of energy and dirty ducts only increase the amount of work.
The dust and debris within the system block the airflow when it becomes more concentrated. It is like breathing in a narrow straw. Your blower motor must be forced to force the air past the obstruction. This resistance causes the system to take longer cycles in order to heat to the temperature that you have set on your thermostat.
When you are cooling a room, and your system is taking twenty minutes to cool, you are paying twice as much to cool one room as it would have taken ten minutes. The blockage is then cleared by removing it and the air flows freely restoring efficiency to the unit. This does not only reduce your monthly bills, but also increases the life span of your costly HVAC equipment by decreasing mechanical stress.
Fire Safety and Dryer Vents
Although you cannot live without air ducts in your home as they help in saving your health and money, there is just one more venting system in your home, the one that is vital to your safety: the dryer vent. The laundry room is another area of residence that is usually not considered as a dangerous/risky area, but clogged dryer vents are the number one cause of residential fires in the country.
When your dryer is spinning, you get a considerable lint. Most of it is caught by the lint trap in the machine, but minute fibers get out into the vent. Months of laundry will lead to the formation of a very flammable blockage out of this lint.
The laundry room is positioned in the middle of the house in most of the Dallas homes and this necessitates a long vent pipe that passes across the attic to the roof. These long keeps are likely to become clogged. When the hot air is not able to escape, the heat accumulates and the lint may get fire. Having professional cleaners will ensure that this fire hazard is eliminated so that when you put your laundry in the machine you are not panicking.
The Phenomenon of a Sick Building.
Have you ever found that you feel stuffy, or tired, or stuffy, when at home, but that you feel better after having been out a little? This is one of the typical indicators of the poor indoor air quality also known as the Sick Building Syndrome.
When your ductwork is colonized with biological contaminants such as mold spores, bacteria or dust mites, it produces irritants into the air. This can be a nightmare to the asthmatic or the allergic individuals. Although not chronic, the onset of headaches, fatigue, and eye irritation would be also noticed in case of breathing polluted air.
These biological contaminants are eradicated by means of sanitizing the ductwork. It eliminates the breeding place of mold and bacteria and your house will smell and feel clean. A number of homeowners are amazed by the quality of their sleep and the amount of energy they have after the air in their homes is actually clean.
Emerging Building and Renovation wastes.
Dallas is a city which is ever growing. New subdivisions are sprouting up and old houses are being refurbished. You may think that your ducts are clean when you have just moved into a new house that has been built. However, unfortunately, the reverse.
The HVAC system is usually laid down early during the period of construction. It can be left open during the sanding of drywall, sawing of wood, and laying of floors. Dust and rubbish of construction is likely to fall down the open vents. The common practice of professional cleaners is used to discover soda cans, sawdust, and pieces of drywall in the ducts of recently built houses.
Your return vents must have drawn in a huge volume of small dust in case you have just finished a renovation project. It is always a good idea to schedule an inspection and cleaning once a big construction project is over to save your HVAC system and your lungs.
The reason why Professional Equipment is necessary.
With the era of DIY, there is a temptation of attempting to do all the tasks involved in home maintenance. Nevertheless, a shop vac is not the solution to duct cleaning. The return duct system of an average home has hundreds of square feet of surface area and it turns and twists across the walls and crevices.
In fact, industrial grade equipment is utilized by professional technicians in this job. This normally entails an unfavorable pressure framework that vacuums the whole duct system. Then they apply rotary brushes and high pressure air whips to remove the dust of the walls or ducts of the inside. The suction which is the negative pressure keeps the dust blown directly into the containment unit avoiding blowing back into the house.
Trying to clean ducts without such specialized equipment may actually prevent the situation by shaking the dust but not eliminating it, leading to an abrupt increase in indoor particulates.
Conclusion
The dwelling must be your refuge. It is whereby you escape the world to have a rest and renew your energy. However, it is difficult to relax when sneezing, worrying about fire risks or worrying about huge energy bills.It is necessary to take care of the invisible systems in your home as well as visible systems. In order to make a decision that puts the safety, health and efficiency of your household first, you are investing in professional air duct and dryer vent cleaning. Dallas has a very tough climate, and it is good to make sure that your home can breathe out in such a climate as one of the investments that you could make.