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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Before
AfterResidential Duct Cleaning in Leander, TX
Air duct cleaning in Leander, TX typically runs between $299 and $599 for a standard single-family home, completed in a single visit with a written price delivered before any panel comes off. CleanRun photographs the inside of every duct run before and after the job, so you can see what was removed rather than take our word for it.
If you’ve landed here from our Air Duct Cleaning in Leander page, this is the residential side of that service – specifically what happens inside a lived-in home versus a commercial build-out. The two jobs look different. A residential system usually has six to twenty-two supply and return runs, sheet-metal trunk lines or flex duct depending on the construction decade, and a single air handler. The debris profile is different too: pet dander, construction dust from remodel work, and the fine clay particulate that settles in from Leander’s proximity to the Brushy Creek corridor are what the camera finds most often when we pull the first register cover.
CleanRun Duct Repair & Cleaning has been doing this work since 2013, across more than 52,000 homes. Tomas Reyes leads the operation, and every job his crews run carries the same written scope, the same photo record, and the same 365-Day Done Right Promise – in writing, not just in marketing copy. You can reach us at (737) 252-1285; a live person answers every call.
When You Need Residential Duct Cleaning
There is no universal rule that says every home needs its ducts cleaned every three years. What there is: specific situations where the inside of the ductwork has genuinely changed, and where a camera will show you why airflow, air quality, or both have degraded. In Leander, these situations come up more often than the industry average suggests, partly because of the construction boom in Travisso, Crystal Falls, and Bryson – new builds generate drywall dust that doesn’t fully flush out during the builder’s HVAC commissioning pass.
- Recent renovation or new construction: Drywall compound, insulation fibers, and concrete dust settle into every open register during a remodel or new build. In Leander neighborhoods built after 2016, the camera regularly shows a half-inch or more of fine-particulate build-up at the first elbow off the air handler – before the homeowner has ever run a vacuum. The dust doesn’t move; it packs.
- Visible dust discharge at registers: If you see a grey film on the ceiling around a supply register within a day or two of cleaning it, the duct run is carrying debris past the filter and redistributing it. That’s not a housekeeping issue – it’s a ductwork load issue.
- Unexplained increases in allergy or respiratory symptoms: Mold spores, rodent dander, and decomposed insect debris are the three most common biological contaminants our cameras find inside Leander-area duct systems. None of them are visible from the register face.
- Musty or stale odor when the system runs: Odor that appears only when the air handler kicks on and disappears when it cycles off almost always originates inside the plenum or a section of flex duct – not at the register. A camera inspection locates it; cleaning removes it.
- System hasn’t been serviced in five or more years: The EPA and NADCA both note that cleaning intervals depend on conditions, not a fixed calendar. But after five years in a typical Leander home with pets, the debris accumulation the camera shows is consistent and significant.
- Recent pest activity or evidence of rodents inside the system: This happens more than homeowners expect in homes near the Leander greenbelt corridors. Rodents enter through return-air chases and can travel significant distances inside ductwork. A cleaning scope in this scenario includes debris removal and a full photo record of every run – both because of the health implications and because you’ll want documentation before you call an exterminator.
Our Residential Duct Cleaning Process
What follows is the actual sequence of work – not a marketing summary. If a technician from any company can’t describe their process in this level of detail before the job starts, ask them to try again.
- Written scope and price before work starts. Under Haven Standard Clause 1, the written price is delivered before any panel, register cover, or access point is touched. You’ll see the number of supply runs, the number of return runs, the equipment being used, and any add-on items (sanitizing, dryer vent, etc.) listed separately. Nothing is added after the fact.
- Pre-cleaning camera inspection and photo documentation. A borescope camera goes into every accessible duct run before the extraction equipment is set up. The footage is captured and retained as part of your job record. This is the “before” half of the photo record – it shows what’s actually inside, not what we describe verbally. In Leander homes with concrete slab foundations, we pay particular attention to return-air chases built into interior walls, which tend to accumulate debris at low-clearance bends where flex duct transitions to hard pipe.
- Negative-pressure zone establishment. Negative-pressure extraction means the system is put under suction – typically using a Nikro or Rotobrush extraction unit connected to the main trunk – before any agitation begins. This matters because agitating debris without containment pushes particulate back into the living space. The air handler is set to fan-only during extraction; the return side is blocked at the plenum so that loosened debris travels toward the collection unit rather than through the system.
- Mechanical agitation of every run. A rotary brush system – Rotobrush is the equipment we run on most residential jobs in Leander – works through each supply and return run from the register end. The brush breaks debris loose from duct walls while the negative-pressure unit at the trunk pulls it toward the collection point. For hard-pipe sheet-metal runs, we also use compressed air whips on longer straight sections where the rotary brush reaches a mechanical limit.
- Plenum, air handler cabinet, and coil inspection. The supply and return plenums are the sheet-metal boxes that connect the air handler to the duct branches. They collect debris that bypasses the filter and are often skipped by crews focused on register-to-register time. We clean both plenums and document the interior of the air handler cabinet. If the evaporator coil shows biological growth, that’s noted in writing and priced separately before any coil cleaning begins.
- Post-cleaning camera pass and photo delivery. After extraction, the camera goes back into every run that was photographed in step two. The after images are matched to the before images by run location and delivered to you as part of the standard job record – not available on request, included automatically. The 365-Day Done Right Promise starts from delivery of that photo record: if something isn’t right, we come back and make it right, in writing.
BeforeAfterResidential Duct Cleaning Pricing in Leander
Residential duct cleaning in Leander runs between $299 and $599 for most single-family homes. The range is real – it reflects actual variation in job scope, not a bait-and-switch from a coupon number. Here is what drives cost:
| Job Variable | Typical Price Impact |
|---|---|
| Home size (number of duct runs): 6-10 runs | $299 – $379 |
| Home size: 11-18 runs | $379 – $499 |
| Home size: 19-22+ runs (larger Leander homes in Crystal Falls, Travisso) | $499 – $599 |
| Dryer vent cleaning (add-on) | $89 – $129 |
| Antimicrobial sanitizing of duct interior (EPA-registered product) | $75 – $150 |
| Duct repair or sealing (if camera identifies a breach) | Quoted separately, in writing, before work starts |
A note on the $79 coupon model that circulates in Leander: that number covers a single-system “inspection” with a shop-vac on one or two runs. It is not a duct cleaning. It is a door-opening price that converts to upsells at the job site. CleanRun does not offer it. Our written price covers the full scope or we don’t take the job.
If you have a written estimate from another company, bring it. Under the Haven Standard, CleanRun offers a Free Second Opinion on any written estimate at no cost – we’ll put our number next to theirs, in writing, before you decide anything.
Every price is delivered before work begins. That’s Haven Standard Clause 1, and it applies to every job, every time. Call (737) 252-1285 for your written estimate – the number you hear on the phone is the number on the paperwork.
FAQs – Residential Duct Cleaning
How long does residential duct cleaning take in Leander?
Most single-family homes in Leander take between two and four hours, start to finish. The range depends on the number of duct runs, the type of ductwork (flex duct with tight bends takes longer than straight hard-pipe runs), and access conditions in the attic or crawl space. Homes in the 2,000-3,200 square foot range – which covers most of the Crystal Falls and Bryson build stock – typically clock in at two and a half to three hours. That includes the pre-cleaning video inspection, extraction, and the post-cleaning photo documentation. We don’t schedule jobs back-to-back so that the camera work doesn’t get rushed. Call (737) 252-1285 and we’ll give you a time estimate specific to your home’s floor plan.
Is residential duct cleaning worth it if my home is less than five years old?
It depends on what the camera shows, not the age of the home. New construction in Leander – particularly the large master-planned communities built after 2018 – consistently shows significant construction debris inside duct runs because builders leave systems running during drywall and finishing phases. The filter catches large particles; fine drywall dust bypasses it and packs at low-clearance bends. If your home was built after 2016 and has never had a camera inspection, the inspection alone is worth scheduling. You’ll have documented evidence of the interior condition, which is useful regardless of what the camera finds. A written price for cleaning follows automatically if it’s warranted.
What’s the difference between a duct cleaning and a duct inspection?
An inspection is a camera pass through accessible runs to document interior conditions – debris levels, biological growth, physical breaches, and connection integrity. A cleaning is the full scope: negative-pressure extraction, mechanical agitation of every run, plenum cleaning, and a post-cleaning return duct cleaning pass. At CleanRun, the pre-cleaning camera inspection is included in every cleaning job as part of step one – it’s not a separate charge designed to justify the upsell. If you only want an inspection to understand your current duct condition, that’s a separate, priced service. Either way, the written price comes before any work begins.
How do I know the duct cleaning was actually done and not just performed near the registers?
The photo record is the answer. The camera goes into every accessible duct run before cleaning and again after – not just the first foot behind the register face. The before and after images are matched by run location and delivered to you as a standard deliverable at the end of the job. You can compare them yourself, or have someone else compare them. This is the practice CleanRun has held since 2013, and it’s the reason the 365-Day Done Right Promise carries any weight – if the after photos don’t show clean duct walls, the job isn’t documented as complete. If something doesn’t look right to you after reviewing the record, call (737) 252-1285 and Tomas Reyes’s team will come back and address it. That’s the written guarantee, not a policy subject to conditions.
What Leander Homeowners Should Know Before Booking
Leander’s growth over the last decade has made it one of the fastest-expanding residential markets in Central Texas. That’s good for property values. It also means a large share of homes are still in their first five to eight years – built during a period of intense construction activity when dust management on job sites was inconsistent at best. The duct systems in Travisso, Bryson, and the newer sections of Crystal Falls were installed by HVAC subcontractors working on compressed timelines; they are functional, but they were not cleaned after the builder’s commissioning pass.
On the older end of the Leander housing stock – homes built in the late 1990s and early 2000s near the downtown core and along Highway 183A – the issue is different. Flex duct from that era is prone to interior liner degradation, and the adhesive used on duct connections has a finite lifespan in Texas heat. A camera pass in these homes frequently shows partial breaches at flex-to-hard-pipe transitions, which means conditioned air has been leaking into the attic rather than reaching the register. Supply duct cleaning without addressing those breaches first just moves the problem; that’s why the camera inspection precedes extraction on every job we run in Leander.
For a broader view of what air duct cleaning covers – including HVAC cleaning, dryer vent service, and air quality options – the home page lays out the full scope of what CleanRun does and how the H.A.V.E.N. Standard applies across every service category.
Key Takeaways
- Residential duct cleaning in Leander runs $299-$599 for most homes; the written price is delivered before work starts, every time.
- Every job includes a pre- and post-cleaning camera pass of every accessible duct run – the photo record is a standard deliverable, not an add-on.
- Leander’s new-construction neighborhoods consistently show construction debris inside duct systems; age of the home is not a reliable proxy for interior condition.
- The 365-Day Done Right Promise is a written guarantee: if the work isn’t right, CleanRun comes back and makes it right.
- A Free Second Opinion on any written competitor estimate is available at no cost – call (737) 252-1285 and ask for it by name.
- Equipment used on residential jobs includes Rotobrush and Nikro extraction systems – professional-grade tools you can look up independently before agreeing to a price.
Ready to schedule or want a written estimate for your Leander home? Call (737) 252-1285. A live person answers every call, the written price arrives before any work begins, and the photo record documents every run when the crew leaves.
Written by Tomas Reyes, Owner at CleanRun Air Duct Cleaning Leander, serving Leander.