It’s easy for homeowners to get scammed by contractors using bait and switch tactics in order to get in your home and clean your air ducts. If you need to have your duct system cleaned, looking for a deal is never a bad thing but this is one area of home maintenance that will cost you money. Some companies out there want you to believe a duct cleaning service will take under an hour and cost no more than $100. These low price air duct cleaning services are no better than taking a vacuum cleaner yourself and trying to clean out your dust system with it.

Avoiding Air Duct Cleaning Scams

The thing to know about air duct cleaning is that it’s an exhausting project for professionals. It’s not easy to do, it takes specialized equipment in many cases, and isn’t as cheap as these contractors lead you to believe. If an air duct system has never been cleaned before, it can take a whole day to get the job done right. Do you really think a job like that should only cost $100?

The Division of Occupational Safety and Health, part of the US Department of Labor, recommends that only certified members of the National Air Duct Cleaners Association (NADCA) be hired for air duct cleaning services. This helps protect consumers from scammers knocking on your door. The Better Business Bureau points out that hiring a contractor that doesn’t do the job right can be detrimental to your duct system in the long run and cost you more money to clean and fix, in the future.

Here are some additional tips to avoid duct cleaning scams:

  • Always check to see if the contractor is certified by the NADCA
  • Check to see if they are registered with the BBB
  • Trust your gut, if the deal is too good to be true, it probably is
  • Get a second opinion if you’re not sure a duct cleaning estimate is accurate

Duct cleaning scams, like other contracting scams out there, happen because consumers fall for tricks that sound too good to be true. Senior citizen discounts and coupons might sound like a great deal, but when it comes to a thorough duct cleaning, a quality service is going to cost a pretty penny. The results of a proper duct cleaning service are well worth the price tag and this is one area of your home’s upkeep you shouldn’t ever go the cheap route with.