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 Columbus
Air duct cleaning in Columbus usually costs between $450 and $900 for a full residential system, and the job takes about 3 to 5 hours. The price you pay should be one flat number you agree to before the work starts, not a per-vent tally that balloons once the technician counts your registers. At Cardinal Air Duct Cleaning, we give you a written price for the entire system before a single duct is touched, and you’ll see before-and-after photos of your own ductwork. If you’re in Columbus and want an honest quote, call (737) 727-2314.
Why Cardinal Air Duct Cleaning Is Columbus’s Preferred Air Duct Cleaning Company
We know Columbus homes, and we know what accumulates inside their ductwork. The city’s older housing stock, especially in neighborhoods like Clintonville, German Village, and the Near East Side, has a particular character: original duct runs, basement returns, and decades of reconfiguration layered on top of century-old framing. Many duct cleaners in central Ohio price per vent and skip the return side entirely. We don’t do either. Our Air Duct Cleaning crews run professional-grade equipment, including Rotobrush agitation systems and Nikro HEPA vacuums, and we treat both supply and return ducts as part of one system with one price.
Cardinal Air Duct Cleaning operates as part of the Relay Home Co. family, founded 2005, and led locally by Omar Haddad. Every booking comes with what we call The Relay Standard: a live trackable arrival window, before-and-after photo documentation of your own ducts, and a digital invoice you can pay from your phone. Calls are answered by a live person around the clock. No phone tag. No four-hour arrival windows where nobody shows.
Vent Cleaning in Columbus
Vent cleaning in Columbus is the visible half of the job, and it’s where most homeowners start noticing the problem: gray dust rings around supply registers, a dull film on walls near vents, or the stale smell that kicks on when the furnace starts. What vent cleaning actually means is cleaning the register covers, the boots behind them, and the first few feet of duct run where dust settles thickest. In a Columbus home with pets or a forced-air furnace running five months a year, registers can accumulate a visible coating within one season. Cleaning just the registers without addressing the trunk line, though, leaves the source in place.
Register and Boot Cleaning
We remove each register cover, wash and degrease it, and clean the boot behind it with HEPA-filtered suction. In older Columbus homes, boots are often insulated or sheet-metal lined, and both types collect dust the same way. If a boot is rusted or separated from the floor, that’s a repair item we’ll flag and fix at the same appointment.
Supply Run Vent Cleaning
Supply runs in Columbus basements and crawlspaces are often flexible duct or unsealed metal, and both catch dust, pet hair, and drywall debris from renovation work. We run agitation tools down every accessible supply run and extract with negative pressure. For a typical three-bedroom Columbus home, expect this portion of the job to take the better part of two hours.
Air Duct Repair in Columbus
Air duct repair in Columbus is something many homeowners don’t know they need until they see the inside of their trunk line on a camera screen. Ducts separate at joints, get crushed by stored boxes in basements, or corrode from decades of humid Ohio summers. A disconnected return in a Clintonville basement will pull unconditioned air from the foundation walls instead of the living space, and nobody sees it because the duct is hidden above the joists. Air duct repair starts with a video inspection of the main trunk, branches, and returns, then moves to sealing joints, replacing damaged sections, and rebalancing airflow.
Return Duct Repair
Returns are the first place duct damage shows up in Columbus homes because they carry the most air and sit in the dampest part of the house. Rusted panning, separated elbows, and unsealed joints are common. We repair or replace damaged return sections and seal all accessible seams with mastic, not duct tape.
Supply Plenum and Boot Repair
The supply plenum is where the furnace meets the duct system, and in older Columbus homes it’s often several separate pieces loosely connected. We inspect plenum seams, reseal boots that have pulled away from floors, and replace any crushed or disconnected supply runs. Every repair includes a written guarantee, and if a repair fails within 365 days, we return and correct it at no charge.
Trusted Brands We Service in Columbus
Our Columbus crews work with equipment from Nikro, Honeywell, and Aprilaire, plus Abatement Technologies containment units when a job calls for it. The tools matter because the method matters: agitation plus HEPA extraction, not a shop vac and a prayer. We service furnaces and air handlers of all makes, and the filtration products we install, including Aprilaire media filters, are matched to your existing blower and cabinet. If you’re in Columbus and want to know what’s actually compatible with your system, call us and we’ll tell you plainly.
Common Air Duct Cleaning Problems We See in Columbus Homes
- Unsealed returns in pre-1950 housing: In Clintonville, German Village, and Old North Columbus, original gravity-furnace returns often sit in unsealed wall cavities. That means the air your furnace pulls in has already passed through wall dust, basement air, and whatever’s between the studs. This is the single biggest source of recirculated dust in older Columbus homes.
- Unfinished basement returns buried in dust: In homes across Dublin, Hilliard, and Westerville where the basement doubles as storage and laundry, return grilles sit low on the wall and pull in lint, dust, and pet hair. We often find return ducts packed with a gray matting that’s been accumulating for years.
- Supply runs behind drywall in mid-century splits: The 1950s and 60s splits common in Upper Arlington and Bexley have supply ducts buried behind finished walls. When they develop a leak, the dust goes into the wall cavity. Video inspection is the only way to know for sure.
- Flex-duct sun and humidity damage: In newer Columbus-area construction, flexible duct in attics breaks down from summer attic heat and Ohio humidity cycles. Failed flex duct leaks conditioned air into the attic. Our crews in the Columbus market carry replacement flex and sealant on the truck.
Pricing for Air Duct Cleaning in Columbus, OH
A full air duct cleaning for a typical Columbus home runs $450 to $900. A single-family home under 2,000 square feet with one furnace and accessible ducts usually lands around $500 to $650. Larger homes in Upper Arlington or New Albany with two systems or extensive duct layouts can push toward $900. Condo and townhouse systems in the Short North or Grandview typically cost between $350 and $500. The price includes both supply and return ducts, all accessible registers and boots, and a camera inspection of the trunk line. You’ll get a written price before any work begins, and that number doesn’t change at the door. Call (737) 727-2314 for an exact quote.
We Also Serve Cities Near Columbus
Our Columbus crews cover the metro from Westerville to Powell, Dublin, and Hilliard. If you’re within a 30-minute drive of downtown Columbus, we can likely get to you with no travel charge. Scheduling is coordinated from our Cleveland office, but the technicians who arrive at your door are local to central Ohio and know the housing stock.
Serving Columbus, OH - Our Local Coverage Area
We’re based in the Columbus 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 About Air Duct Cleaning in Columbus
Every 3 to 5 years for most Columbus homes, and longer than that if you have no pets, don’t smoke indoors, and change your furnace filter every 60 to 90 days. The older the home, the more frequently ducts tend to need attention, because pre-1950 Columbus houses often have unsealed returns pulling in wall and basement dust. If you haven’t seen the inside of your ducts, we’ll show you before recommending anything. Call (737) 727-2314 and we’ll inspect yours.
Flat rate, always. We give one written price for the entire system, including every supply and return register, before any work starts. Per-vent pricing punishes you for having a larger home and creates exactly the kind of surprise invoice Columbus homeowners tell us they’ve been burned by before.
Source removal means the debris inside your ducts is loosened, extracted, and removed from your home entirely, rather than blown around or just vacuumed from the visible openings. We use agitation tools to break the caked-on layer free, then a HEPA-filtered vacuum running in negative pressure pulls the loosened material out of the duct and into a sealed unit. The alternative, vacuum-only cleaning, leaves compacted dust in the supply runs where you can’t see it. If we clean your ducts and it’s not done right within 365 days, we return and correct it at no charge.
Yes. Every Columbus job includes before-and-after camera documentation of your duct interior, and we send the photos to your phone as part of your digital invoice. You’ll see the trunk line before we start, the state of the returns, and the metal surface after extraction. You’re not taking anyone’s word for it.
We don’t offer same-day service. A proper air duct cleaning in Columbus takes 3 to 5 hours and requires scheduling, equipment setup, and a technician who isn’t rushing. We’ll book you as soon as our schedule allows, give you a live arrival window you can track, and show up when we say we will. If you need an honest quote and a real appointment, call (737) 727-2314.
Written by Omar Haddad, owner of Cardinal Air Duct Cleaning, serving Columbus and the surrounding metro area. Part of the Relay Home Co. family, founded 2005.