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 Tacoma
Air duct cleaning in Tacoma typically costs $450 – $900 for a full residential system and takes about 3 – 5 hours, depending on home size and how much debris has settled in the ductwork. That’s the honest range we quote before we ever touch a register. If you’re in North Tacoma, the South End, Proctor, or anywhere along the I-5 corridor, our crews know exactly how Tacoma’s older sheet-metal ductwork behaves and what it takes to get it genuinely clean. Call (737) 727-2314 and you’ll talk to a live person who can schedule a camera inspection and give you a written price before any work starts.
Why Cardinal Air Duct Cleaning Is Tacoma’s Preferred Air Duct Cleaning Company
Tacoma homeowners have a specific problem: housing stock built between 1920 and 1970 often still runs original trunk-and-branch ducts sized for gravity furnaces. Those ducts move air slowly, which means dust, pet dander, and construction debris settle in the bottom instead of blowing through to the filter. We’ve walked through enough Tacoma crawlspaces to know exactly what that looks like, and our Air Duct Cleaning process uses agitation tools plus HEPA-filtered negative pressure to pull that packed layer out, not vacuum around it.
Every Tacoma job runs through The Relay Standard: a live trackable arrival window, before-and-after photos of your actual ducts, and a digital invoice you pay from your phone. No four-hour windows. No technician you’ve never heard of. We text you the tech’s name before they arrive. Omar Haddad runs the Tacoma operation and holds every crew to the same standard: written price first, zero pressure, and a 365-Day Done Right Promise on every job.
Residential Air Duct Cleaning in Tacoma
Residential Air Duct Cleaning in Tacoma means cleaning the full path air travels through your home: supply ducts, return ducts, the air handler, the blower wheel, and the plenums on both sides. Most Tacoma homes need this every 3 to 5 years, not every year. A 1,200 sq ft rambler in the South End usually runs $450 – $600. A 2,400 sq ft two-story in North Tacoma’s Proctor or Stadium districts typically lands in the $650 – $900 range because there’s more linear duct footage and harder access.
Supply Duct Cleaning
Supply ducts carry conditioned air from your furnace out to each room. In Tacoma’s older homes, these are often uninsulated sheet metal with decades of dust caked to the interior walls. We run rotary brush agitation through every supply run, then extract with a Nikro HEPA vacuum pulling negative pressure at the trunk, so loosened debris goes into the vacuum, not back into your living room.
Return Duct Cleaning
Return ducts pull air back to the furnace and accumulate the worst of it: lint, pet hair, and dust that settles because return air moves slower. In Tacoma’s damp winter months, that debris can hold moisture and form a compacted mat inside the return plenum. Camera inspection before we start shows you exactly what’s there, and after photos show it gone.
Commercial Air Duct Cleaning in Tacoma
Commercial Air Duct Cleaning in Tacoma covers office buildings, retail spaces, medical suites, and light industrial HVAC systems. Pricing runs $0.25 – $0.50 per square foot of conditioned space for a complete system clean: duct runs, air handlers, return plenums, and supply registers. A 5,000 sq ft office near the Tacoma Dome typically lands around $1,500 – $2,500. A 20,000 sq ft building will run $5,000 – $9,000 depending on duct layout and how much access we have.
Full System Cleaning
Full system cleaning is the standard for Tacoma commercial properties. It includes all supply and return ducts, both plenums, the evaporator coil, the blower assembly, and all accessible register boxes. We schedule this after business hours or on weekends to avoid disruption, and every commercial job includes video documentation of the work for your records.
Video Inspection
Before we write a commercial proposal, we camera the trunk lines and key branch runs. Tacoma buildings built before 1980 often have surprises: abandoned flex runs, disconnected takeoffs, or main trunks shared between two HVAC zones. A video inspection lets us price the job accurately and you see exactly what you’re paying for before the work order is signed.
Trusted Brands We Service in Tacoma
We work on duct systems tied to every major HVAC brand found in Tacoma homes: Carrier, Trane, Lennox, Rheem, Goodman, and older systems from the 1960s and 70s that don’t even carry a legible nameplate anymore. When filtration replacement is needed, we stock Aprilaire and Guardsman products on the truck, so we’re not making a second trip across the Narrows. Our cleaning rig is built around Rotobrush rotary agitation and Nikro HEPA negative-air extraction – professional-grade equipment, not a shop-vac with a hose taped to a register.
Common Air Duct Cleaning Problems We See in Tacoma Homes
- Compacted dust and lint in slow-moving return ducts. Gravity-furnace-era ductwork moves air at lower velocity, so debris settles and compacts into felted layers. A surface vacuum pass won’t lift it; agitation tools have to break the layer loose first.
- Disconnected flex-duct runs in crawlspaces. Tacoma’s older homes often had flex duct added for room additions in the 1980s and 90s. When those connections come loose, the system sucks crawlspace air and rodent debris directly into the return side.
- Dust-caked blower wheels from wet-dry cycling. Tacoma’s damp winters mean the blower picks up moisture, then dries during furnace cycles. That cycle bakes dust onto the wheel, throwing it out of balance and killing motor life. Cleaning the blower is part of our standard job because skipping it isn’t honest.
- Asbestos-wrapped trunks in pre-1978 homes. We find these mostly in Tacoma’s North End and Central neighborhoods. If camera inspection shows asbestos wrap, we do not disturb it. We adjust scope, document it for you, and proceed with containment so fibers stay sealed.
Pricing for Air Duct Cleaning in Tacoma, WA
A full residential air duct cleaning in Tacoma runs $450 – $900 for a single-furnace home. That is one flat price per system, agreed in writing before we set up equipment. We do not charge per vent. We do not run a $39 “introspection” special and then bill you $1,200 at the door. What changes the price: square footage, number of furnaces, crawlspace versus basement access, and whether there’s an abandoned flex run or asbestos wrap that needs containment. Every Tacoma estimate starts with a camera inspection so the number you sign is the number on your invoice. Free estimates. Call (737) 727-2314.
We Also Serve Cities Near Tacoma
Cardinal Air Duct Cleaning’s Tacoma crews cover the whole Puget Sound corridor. We run calls to Milton, University Place, Puyallup, and Federal Way most days, same team and same Relay Standard: trackable arrival, before-and-after photos, written price first. If you’re just outside Tacoma proper, call and we’ll confirm coverage for your address.
Serving Tacoma, WA - Our Local Coverage Area
We’re based in the Tacoma 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 Tacoma
Every 3 to 5 years is the honest answer for most Tacoma homes. If you have shedding pets, recent remodeling, or you’re in an older home with original sheet-metal ducts, you might shorten that to every 2 years. If you had a full cleaning a year ago and haven’t moved, added animals, or renovated, you probably don’t need it again yet. Camera inspection costs nothing and tells you for certain. Call (737) 727-2314 and we’ll tell you straight whether it’s time or not.
One flat price for the entire system, written before any work starts. We price by the house, not by the register. The low per-vent pricing you see advertised is how bait-and-switch operators work in Tacoma: they quote you $19 a vent, then “discover” you have 34 vents and six extra runs that weren’t in the initial number. Our quote covers every duct, the air handler, the blower, and both plenums. The price you sign is the price you pay. Free estimates: (737) 727-2314.
Yes, on every single job, no exceptions. Your tech runs a camera through the trunk lines and branch runs before we touch anything, and you’ll see those photos on your phone. After the clean, you get the same camera views showing the metal walls are actually visible again. That’s The Relay Standard applied to air duct cleaning in Tacoma: proof of work, your own property, no stock photos. Call (737) 727-2314 to book a camera inspection.
Negative pressure means we set up a HEPA-filtered vacuum unit that pulls air out of your duct system while we agitate the debris inside. The loosened dust and lint flow toward the vacuum and into sealed containment, not back through your registers into your living room. In Tacoma’s older homes where dust has settled into a packed layer, negative pressure combined with rotary agitation is the only method that removes it. Just pushing a vacuum hose in a register without containing the system blows dust around instead of removing it. Call (737) 727-2314 for a free estimate using proper negative-pressure equipment.
Yes. We run dryer vent cleaning on Tacoma calls as an add-on and many homeowners bundle it with air duct cleaning since both live in the same laundry-to-exterior path. A clogged dryer vent is the bigger fire risk, and Tacoma’s damp air plus older vent runs with multiple elbows makes them plug faster. If you book air duct cleaning and want the dryer vent done, tell us when you schedule and we’ll add it to the work order at a bundled rate. Call (737) 727-2314 to set it up.
Written by Omar Haddad, Owner at Cardinal Air Duct Cleaning, part of the Relay Home Co. family. Serving Tacoma with the 365-Day Done Right Promise, one flat price per system, and before-and-after photos of your own ducts on every job.