Whole-home duct cleaning
Dryer vent cleaning
Camera inspection
Sanitizing & deodorizingWhole-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.
Air Duct Cleaning Company in Palo Alto, CA
Air duct repair in Palo Alto often means opening a shallow attic above a low-pitch roof and finding decades-old galvanized ductwork separated at the joints, crushed where it wraps around eaves, or never sealed properly in the first place. That’s the reality of working in a city where most homes predate 1970 and many still have their original sheet-metal runs. Heritage Duct Cleaning has served Palo Alto since 2015 with commercial-grade Rotobrush and Nikro equipment, and we handle the repair work most cleaning-only companies won’t touch. Call (855) 550-3778 for a free estimate.
Why Palo Alto Homes Are Different
Palo Alto’s housing stock runs older and tighter than most Bay Area cities. The 1920s-1950s single-story ranches, Spanish-eclectics, and Craftsman homes that define Old Palo Alto, Professorville, and Midtown were built with galvanized sheet-metal ductwork that has now spent seven to ten decades expanding, contracting, and quietly separating at the seams. Many of these homes have air handlers and duct runs shoehorned into shallow attic space, which means access panels come out battered and flex duct shows up kinked around roof framing. We regularly find disconnected or crushed sections that homeowners never knew existed because the system still pushed enough air to feel adequate.
The 1960s-70s Eichler-influenced and tract subdivisions add another layer: early flex duct that degrades in the dry-summer Mediterranean climate and separates at the collars. And Palo Alto’s mature street trees, especially the oaks and magnolias in the tree-heavy blocks, drop fine leaf debris that gets pulled into exterior return grilles and accumulates against the first bend in the return run. The result is a market where work skews toward documenting duct condition for buyers and landlords in a high-turnover real estate market rather than pure routine maintenance. Home inspectors flag ducts, sellers call us, and we give them a straight answer about what needs fixing versus what can wait.
Styles & brands we work with
- Whole-home duct cleaning
- Dryer vent cleaning
- Camera inspection
- Sanitizing & deodorizing
Our Main Palo Alto Services
Most Palo Alto homeowners reach out to us for one of two reasons: they want a full-system cleaning with before-and-after documentation, or they’ve been told their dryer vent is a fire risk and they want it cleared properly. Both are core services here.
Air Duct Cleaning in Palo Alto
Palo Alto’s older homes accumulate debris differently than newer construction. The return-air intakes on 1940s ranches in Midtown and Crescent Park pull leaf litter and fine dust from mature landscaping, while supply runs in 1960s tract homes collect the dry, crusted dust that comes from intermittent forced-air use. Our Air Duct Cleaning in Palo Alto page explains exactly what our Rotobrush and Nikro equipment does inside these systems, what a typical job costs in Palo Alto, and how we document the before-and-after so you can verify the work yourself.
Dryer Vent Cleaning in Palo Alto
Dryer vents in Palo Alto’s 1920s-50s homes are frequently long, multi-bend runs that exit through roofs or crawl spaces, which makes them slower to load with lint but harder to clear once they do. Properties with second-floor laundry rooms and ducts that snake through interior walls are common in the newer rebuilds. See our Dryer Vent Cleaning in Palo Alto page for pricing, warning signs, and why a professional-grade HEPA-filtered vacuum matters more than a hardware-store brush kit.
Air Duct Repair in Palo Alto
Air duct repair in Palo Alto is rarely a single leaking joint. It is more often a system-wide condition problem: galvanized ducts in a 1930s Professorville home that have separated at three or four seams, a crushed flex run where a 1950s Midtown attic floor was framed too close to the eaves, or a return-air plenum in a 1960s tract house that has pulled loose from the wall and is drawing attic air instead of conditioned air from the living space. We do not just clean and walk away. When our technicians find a disconnected, crushed, or unsealed section, we scope the repair, agree on one flat price per system, and fix it the same visit in most cases. That is the difference between a cleaning company that flags problems and a full-service Air Duct Repair contractor that closes the loop from diagnosis to fix.
Ductwork Repair
Signs you need it
Rooms that never reach the set temperature, faint whistling from interior walls, visible duct tape peeling at register boots, or a home inspection report citing “separated duct joints” or “disconnected return.”
What it costs in Palo Alto
Spot ductwork repair in Palo Alto typically runs $3,500 – $5,500 depending on the number of failed joints and whether sections need new collars, hangers, and sealing; full runs from a plenum can reach $10,000+ when multiple branches need rebuilding.
How we do it
We locate every separation, crushed section, and failed seal with an inspection camera, price the repair as one flat figure per system, then cut out and replace the failed sections, re-support the runs, and seal every joint with mastic before testing static pressure.
Duct Replacement
Signs you need it
Duct runs that are crushed beyond repair, rusted through in coastal-exposure crawl spaces, or so old and degraded that patching joints no longer makes economic sense.
What it costs in Palo Alto
Whole-home duct replacement in Palo Alto runs $18,000 and up depending on square footage, number of runs, and whether we are working through a shallow attic or a tight crawl space.
How we do it
We map the existing system and room-by-room airflow requirements, remove the failed runs, size and install new R-6 or better flex or rigid duct to ACCA Manual D standards, seal everything with mastic, and re-test airflow at each register.
What Air Duct Repair Costs in Palo Alto
| Item | Typical range in Palo Alto |
|---|---|
| Spot ductwork repair (2 – 4 joints, sealing) | $3,500 – $5,500 |
| Full-system duct replacement | $18,000+ |
| Inspection + diagnosis (credited to repair) | Included with estimate |
Pricing moves in Palo Alto based on access: attic work above low-pitch roofs and crawl space work under 1920s pier-and-beam foundations both take longer than a newer home with a clear basement or standing attic. We give one flat price per system before any work starts, and the inspection that produces that price is free.
Can you repair a single disconnected duct, or do I need to replace everything?
In most Palo Alto homes we can repair a single run or a handful of failed joints without replacing the whole system. We cut out only what has failed, seal the rest, and bill for the work actually done.
Do Palo Alto building permits apply to duct repairs?
Straight repairs like re-sealing joints or replacing a short flex run typically do not require a permit, but a full-system replacement may. We will tell you exactly what your job triggers before work begins, and call (855) 550-3778 for a free assessment.
Brands We Service in Palo Alto
Many Palo Alto homes run Honeywell and Aprilaire air quality equipment alongside their forced-air systems, and our technicians work with these platforms on a regular basis rather than treating the ducts as a separate system. Abatement Technologies gear in our toolkit also supports remediation-level jobs, and we carry Guardsman-grade products for sealing and surface treatment. See our brands for the full list of equipment families we service.
See the difference
Before
After
Before
After
Before
AfterPricing for Air Duct Cleaning Company in Palo Alto, CA
| Service | Typical range in Palo Alto |
|---|---|
| Air duct cleaning (whole-home, residential) | $450 – $850 |
| Air duct cleaning (larger or multi-zone homes) | $850 – $1,800 |
| Dryer vent cleaning | $125 – $250 |
| Spot ductwork repair (2 – 4 joints, sealing) | $3,500 – $5,500 |
| Duct replacement (full system) | $18,000+ |
| Commercial/light-commercial duct cleaning (price per sq ft) | $0.35 – $0.70 |
Two things push Palo Alto pricing higher than nearby cities: the age and fragility of the original galvanized ducts, which require slower, more careful work, and the access constraints of shallow attics and tight crawl spaces. But whatever the final range, you get one flat price per system agreed before work starts, and we never switch to per-vent pricing once the van is on the driveway.
Neighborhoods We Serve in Palo Alto
We work throughout Palo Alto, from the tree-heavy blocks of Old Palo Alto and Professorville to the mid-century tracts of Midtown and the newer rebuilds near Stanford and along the foothills.
- Old Palo Alto (94301)
- Professorville (94301)
- Midtown (94303)
- Crescent Park (94301)
- Cal Ave district (94302)
Most Palo Alto ZIP codes are within a 20 – 30 minute drive of our Santa Clara base, and our scheduling team will confirm a specific arrival window when you book.
Service Area – Cities Near Palo Alto
Heritage Duct Cleaning serves Palo Alto and the surrounding Silicon Valley cities from our Santa Clara location. We regularly work up the Peninsula in Mountain View, CA and Sunnyvale, CA, down through Cupertino, CA, and across to Santa Clara, CA. If your home sits anywhere in this corridor, you are inside our normal service area and can call for a free estimate.
Serving Palo Alto, CA – Our Local Coverage Area
We’re based in the Palo Alto 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 Company in Palo Alto
Most Palo Alto appointments are scheduled within 5 – 10 business days, with faster turnaround available for real estate transactions that have a closing deadline. We do not promise same-day service, but we will give you a specific arrival window and honor it.
Most duct cleaning and repair is interior work, so HOA and historic-district rules rarely apply unless you are installing a new roof cap or exterior vent. For any exterior penetration, we will flag what needs review so there are no surprises with the city.
Yes. A large share of our Palo Alto work is documenting duct condition for landlords, property managers, and sellers who need a straight assessment before a sale closes or a tenant moves in. We provide before-and-after photos and a written summary of any repairs made.
If you live in Palo Alto and have questions about your ducts, call (855) 550-3778. One flat price per system, commercial-grade equipment, and a straight answer about what your home actually needs.
What happens when you call
- 1A real person answersNo phone trees. Talk to a local air duct cleaning pro.
- 2You get an upfront price rangeHonest numbers before anyone is dispatched. No surprises.
- 3We come out and measureLicensed & insured, at a time that suits you. The visit and the quote are both free.
- 4You get the price in writingLine-itemed, yours to keep, and nothing starts until you say go.
What Palo Alto Customers Say
"Did the dryer vent while they were here for a small add on price. The dryer now finishes a load in one cycle instead of two."
- Carlos Vargas"Found a disconnected run in the crawlspace while they were in there and told me about it rather than cleaning around it."
- Ernesto Guzman"Job was done well and the house smells better. There was some dust knocked loose around a couple of the registers that I had to wipe down afterward."
- Dustin Gallagher